ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (FILM)

'''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest''' is a 1975 film directed by Miloš Forman. The film is an adaptation of the novel ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' by Ken Kesey. The movie was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, Screenplay) since ''It Happened One Night'' in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991, by ''The Silence of the Lambs''.
There had been an earlier stage version of the book, in 1963, but the film does not use the script of the stage version.
The movie was filmed at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon.

Contents

Plot

Casting

Title interpretation

Reception

References

External links

Plot

Randle Patrick McMurphy (Nicholson), a recidivist criminal serving a short prison term for statutory rape, is transferred to a mental institution due to his nonconformist behavior. This appears to be a deliberate gambit by McMurphy, on the belief that he'll be able to serve the rest of his term in relative comfort and luxury.
His ward in the mental institution is run by a calm but unyielding tyrant, Nurse Ratched (Fletcher), who has cowed the patients — most of whom are there by choice, categorized as "voluntary" patients — into dejected submission. While he initially has little respect for his fellow patients, McMurphy's antiauthoritarian nature is aroused. His needling of Nurse Ratched is initially just for kicks, but his sense of injustice at their treatment leads him into a battle for the hearts and minds of the patients. She receives no love from anybody around her so she takes it out on other people. Rather than simply bide her time with McMurphy and have him transferred, Ratched becomes increasingly embarrassed at her own loss of control and becomes obsessed with controlling him.
McMurphy gradually forms deep friendships in the ward, with a group of men including Billy Bibbit (Dourif), a suicidal, stuttering teenager whom Ratched has humiliated and dominated into a quivering mess, and "Chief" Bromden (Sampson), a 6’ 5” muscular Native American. Believed by the patients to be deaf and unable to speak, Chief is mostly ignored but also respected for his enormous size. In Billy, McMurphy sees a younger brother figure whom he wants to teach to have fun, while the Chief ultimately becomes his only real confidant, as they both see their struggles against authority in similar terms.
McMurphy initially insults Chief when he enters the ward, but attempts to use his size as an advantage (for example, in playing basketball). Later, they and patient Charlie Cheswick (Lassick) are detained for being involved in a fight with the male attendants. Cheswick undergoes electroshock therapy, while McMurphy and Chief wait their turn on a bench. During this time, McMurphy offers Chief a piece of Juicy Fruit gum, and Chief verbally thanks him. A surprised McMurphy discovers that Chief actually hates the hospital establishment just as he does, but handles it in a different way (by remaining silent instead of Randle's strategy of open defiance). McMurphy hatches a plan that will allow himself and Chief to escape. Following his "therapy," McMurphy jokingly feigns catatonia before assuring his cohorts and Nurse Ratched that the attempt to subdue him didn't work.
One night, December 10, 1963, McMurphy sneaks into the nurse's station and calls his girlfriend, Candy, and tells her to bring booze and assist in his escape. She brings another woman, and both enter the ward after McMurphy bribes the night watchman, Mr. Turkel (Crothers). The patients drink while Billy flirts with McMurphy's girlfriend. McMurphy sees that Billy likes Candy and tells her to sleep with Bibbit. While Billy and McMurphy's girlfriend are in a separate room, the rest of the patients, including McMurphy and the Chief who had been planning to escape, pass out from drinking and fatigue.
When Nurse Ratched arrives the next morning she commands the attendants to clean up the patients and conduct a head count. Billy is found in the room with McMurphy's girlfriend. Billy is initially happy and the rest of the patients are happy for him until Nurse Ratched threatens to tell Billy's mother about what he did. He begs her not to, becoming hysterical. While momentarily left alone, he commits suicide. Nurse Ratched then tries to reassure the patients to stay calm. After McMurphy sees what the ward has done to his friend, he explodes into a violent rage, viciously strangling Nurse Ratched. McMurphy is taken away yet again for punishment - this time, a lobotomy.
Chief, unwilling to leave McMurphy behind, suffocates his vegetative friend with a pillow. He follows Randle's plan for escape by lifting a heavy marble hydrotherapy fountain and hurling it through a barred window. The Chief runs off, presumably to Canada.

Casting

Kirk Douglas originated the role of McMurphy in a stage production, and then bought the film rights, hoping to play McMurphy on the screen. He passed the production rights to his son, Michael Douglas, who decided his father was too old for the role. Kirk was reportedly angry at his son for a time afterwards because of this. Actor James Caan was originally offered the McMurphy role, and Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were considered as well.
The role of domineering Nurse Ratched was turned down by six actresses, Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Angela Lansbury, until Louise Fletcher accepted casting only a week before filming began.
{| class="wikitable" width="50%"}
|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC"
! Actor !! Role
|-
| Jack Nicholson || Randle Patrick McMurphy
|-
| Louise Fletcher || Nurse Mildred Ratched
|-
| William Redfield || Dale Harding
|-
| Dean R. Brooks || Dr. John Spivey
|-
| Scatman Crothers || Orderly Turkle
|-
| Danny DeVito || Martini
|-
| William Duell || Jim Sefelt
|-
| Brad Dourif || Billy Bibbit
|-
| Christopher Lloyd || Max Taber
|-
| Will Sampson || Chief Bromden
|-
| Vincent Schiavelli || Frederickson
|-
| Nathan George || Attendant Washington
|-
| Mwako Cumbuka || Attendant Warren
|-
| Josip Elic || Pete Bancini
|-
| Lan Fendors || Nurse Itsu
|-
| Ken Kenny || Beans Garfield
|-
| Alonzo Brown || Miller
|-
| Michael Berryman || Ellis
|-
| Peter Brocco || Colonel Matterson
|-
| Sydney Lassick || Charlie Cheswick
|-
| Mimi Sarkisian || Nurse Pilbow
|-
|-| Night Jones
|}
The film marked the film debuts of Sampson, Dourif and Lloyd. It was one of the first films for DeVito. DeVito and Lloyd co-starred several years later on the television series ''