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Rating:  - splendid
reead the bok about 20 years ago, never saw the movie. my coworker ar fighting me for the dvd. i'm using it for my class-project about people with psycological illnesses. and it is good. thx.
Rating: - Some of the BEST Acting..EVER!!
I've seen OFOTCN a number of times over the years and it never fails to entertain, enlighten and work on a thinking mans conscious like few other films can. Many scenes are sad,tragic and disturbing and the battles waged by Nicholson's McMurphy role are often Quixotic and frustrating. In the end, I came out of this film with feelings of strength and power, as well as an understanding of authority and free will that I challenge and examine to this day.
McMurphy(Nicholson) is hardly a character anyone would like personally, forgiving maybe a quick conversation at a bar or a jobsite. McMurphy is jovial and quick with good natured BS, but is a petty crook, drinker, gambler and habitual loser. Sent from a prison work camp to a sanitarium for a brief evaluation, McMurphy locks heads witht the best player of the film, Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched. Methodical, calibrated and passive-aggressive, Nurse Ratched has made her the patients in her small therapy group obedient and broken their wills with a authoritarianism that is subtle and difficult to recognize. As the patients take their daily medication and ponder the hopelessness of their situations, Nurse Ratched coldly humilates her patients with her carefully regulated verbal tone and personality-free interactions.
The therapy group are some of the saddest men you'll see on film- their existense pointless and their therapy for the most part unproductive. McMurphy's arrival in the psych ward to these men is like a breath of Spring air. McMurphy challenges first the protocol of the unofficial leaders of the patients, the "just-a-job-man" orderlies that are quick to use unecessary force, and eventually the whole thought process and the psychological lack of liberty and thought pushed by Ratcheds policies.
Many saw this film in the 70's as a typical "us against the Man" screed, there's much more here. There are undertones that can appeal to many real life scenarios- the rituals of life we never question, our willingness to be lead instead of lead ourselves in times of question. Put your thinking cap on and see this one!
Rating: - Moving!
Jack Nicholson (Randle McMurphy) is the lead in this movie, though hardly the only great performer. Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) and Will Sampson (Chief Bromden) also provide outstanding performances.
McMurphy is sent to the mental institution for supposedly deranged behavior, initially is repelled by his fellow inmates, but then rallies to their defense as an anti-establishment reaction to Nurse Ratched's intimidation of them. Even electroshock therapy doesn't stop McMurphy's antics.
However, after another patient kills himself worrying about Nurse Ratched telling his mother about his behavior, McMurphy tries to kill Ratched, and undergoes a lobotomy in retaliation.
The movie ends as Chief suffocates McMurphy so he can "escape" with him and throw off Nurse Ratched's control.
Rating: - Great story, amazing cast and acting
I will first say that this is my favorite film of all time. Jack Nicholson was the perfect Randle McMurphy, and in general all of the acting in this film is just spectacular. It's no surprise that "Cuckoo's Nest" won five Oscars; I believe it should have swept. The music, the editing, the supporting acting: everything about this movie was perfect. I would recommend it to anyone. It might just change your life.
Rating: - Great movie
I recommend this video. It was as I remembered it when I saw it all those ago.
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