Everyone deserves a little laughter in their lives. The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is a comedy-drama based on a novel by the same name written by Ken Kesey. Milos Forman directed this 1975 American drama. Filming took three months in Salem, Oregon, with the setting being Oregon State Hospital, an actual mental hospital. IMDb rates it at 8.7/10, while Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 94%. 

Starring Jack Nicholson, the drama was the first film since It Happened One Night(1934) to receive the Academic Awards for best director, picture, lead actress, lead actor, and screenplay. Additionally, it won six Golden Globe Awards, including that for the best drama, and six BAFTA Awards, including that for best film. The National Film Registry chose it for preservation in 1993.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST PLOT :

The film’s setting is during the early 1960s in the security ward of a state mental hospital. It begins with the unit’s morning routine. Louise Fletcher, playing Nurse Ratched, arrives for work, and the patients queue to receive their medications. Nicholson, playing R.P. McMurphy, comes as a new inmate and a transfer from a prison work farm. Soon after his arrival, McMurphy starts interfering with the routines put in place by Nurse Ratched. 

He goes ahead to suggest that changes should happen to the pattern. This alteration is to allow the inmates to watch the World Series on television. Nurse Ratched advises against routine change and proposes voting on the same. Almost all patients vote against the proposed change.Soon after, two inmates: William Redfield playing Harding, and Christopher Lloyd playing Taber, get into a fight over Monopoly. 

During the next group therapy session, Nurse Ratched ends up shaming Brad Dourif, who plays as Billy Bibbit, asking him why he did not disclose that he fell in love once. Meanwhile, McMurphy and Cheswick as for a vote on watching the next game in the World Series. Interestingly, all the patients in the group vote in favor, but Nurse Ratched denies the proposed change claiming that the people present were only half of the group.

Later on, McMurphy climbs onto the shoulders of a supposedly mute and deaf American Indian Chief Bromdem over the security fence. He hides in a bus that is waiting to take inmates on a scheduled field trip. He drives the bus to a chartering boat service to pick up his friend and take the whole fishing group. They later return to find several police officers and Dr. Spivey waiting for them. Chief Bromden McMurphy that he is neither deaf nor mute. The two make plans to escape.

McMurphy’s friends arrive with liquor on the night of the escape, and a drunken revel ensues among the inmates. The following day shift, including Nurse Ratched, come to find the inmates passed out and the place trashed. Bibbit commits suicide after Nurse Ratched shames him for being in bed with Candy. Enraged, McMurphy tries to strangle Nurse Ratched, but an orderly knocks him out.

 On one night, Chief Bromdem watches the return of McMurphy by two orderlies. He goes to inform him that the time was ideal for escape only to realize they had done a lobotomy on him. In the act of mercy, he smothers McMurphy with a pillow, then exits through a window by pulling up a water fountain and throwing it through a window.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST CAST :

The film stars Jack Nicholson as P.P. McMurphy, Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched, Will Sampson as Chief Bromdem, and Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbit.

In the 1970s, the book was banned from public schools as it” glorified criminal activity, and contains bizarre violence.” However, all this is acceptable in this era…Suffice to say, Cuckoo’s Nest film is a remarkable comedy-drama that is a must-watch. Find the trailer of this outstanding film here: