One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (50th Anniversary)

Running time: 133 mins

Synopsis

Back in cinemas for its 50th anniversary, Milos Forman's film won Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Adapted from Ken Kesey’s novel, the film centres on Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a convict who simulates mental illness in the hope that a transfer to psychiatric hospital might ensure his early release. But he hasn’t bargained for the rigid regimen of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), who dislikes his disruptive?— though he’d say liberating?— effect on the ward.

Inspired casting (Danny DeVito, Brad Dourif and Christopher Lloyd are among the patients) and Forman’s naturalistic direction lend authenticity to the proceedings, so that the film succeeds both as anti-authoritarian parable and as an affecting reminder of the psychiatric practices of the past.

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