One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Simply A Masterpiece

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This film had some truly extravagant set pieces, convincing acting and was perfectly shot. At first one moves towards Jack Nicholson as the star, but the realism and brilliance truly comes from the patients (Christopher Lloyd, Danny Devito etc.) and of course Nurse Ratchet. Through genuine shock and powerful directing and acting this film is ideal for any budding moviegoer.

The seventies produced some of the most interesting and worthy Hollywood movies. Before the era of blockbusters, and ever increasing dumbing down of the cinema art by the Hollywood power-brokers and greedy moneymakers, there was this short but truly amazing window of time that produced many of the timeless gems. A great portrayal of oppression, this gem should not be overlooked by anyone. Truly recommended.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest received a 6/10 stars due to the combination of the plot and the acting in this classic movie. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest was directed by Milos Forman, and the story was written by Ken Kesey. The plot was very iffy from the beginning due to key events in the story missing such as: Chief didn't have any role compared to his role in the book, Cheswick did not drown himself, and the Doctor not going fishing with the patients. Lastly it felt like the only thing going well for the movie would be the perfect acting of the characters, they literally made this movie good. Other than that the director missed many opportunities to make this movie astounding with his acting crew, but choked with the plot of the story.

6.5/10One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest relies on the power of the setting and natural talent of the actors to compel the viewer to an emotional connection with the characters, but the tactic simply falls flat, making for a drab and uninteresting film. The first issue I have with the movie was the weak connections between characters. Despite stellar individual performances from Jack Nicholson (R.P. McMurphy), William Redfield (Harding), Danny DeVito (Martini), and Brad Dourif (Billy Bibbit) the film fails to build anything more than surface level connections between the characters. Throughout the story the audience is left with a sense of dissatisfaction from meaningless interactions between characters that fail to have any real consequences, something I will touch on more later. The second main issue I have is the atmosphere of the movie. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had the potential to create substantial fear and anxiety for the viewer by making Nurse Ratched and the ward some dangerous and hostile towards our group of patient protagonists, but instead the atmosphere of the ward comes off as bright and welcoming and Ms. Ratched's threats never seem to carry any weight. This goes back to character actions not having any consequences, the primary problem in the film. Throughout the film we see characters make decisions that break the rules of the ward, but we never see any consequences that these actions have until the very end of the movie. For example, when the patients break out of the ward and go fishing they receive no punishment for breaking the rules. The same is true when McMurphy punches through the window: no consequences. The only time we see a major consequence for a character action is when McMurphy undergoes the shock treatment and lobotomy, but by this point it is too late to make it meaningful. More on-screen consequences would have made the ward more dangerous and Nurse Ratched a figure to fear. Instead we get an carefree romp of a movie when we could have had a meaningful story about a group of strangers bonding together to become better people.