One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Directed by Miloš Forman
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.
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6 films that influenced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
What critics say influenced One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, was said to have been inspired by Samuel Fuller’s work, and this film seems to back that up.
We are at least spared the insipid attempts of pictures like One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest to preciously romanticize the mentally addled; Fuller's asylum does not become the staging area for any transcendent spirit of rebellion, or any faux-realizations that in a crazy world, it's the crazies who are sane.
Johnny convinces the psychiatrist that he has deep underlying sexual conflicts about his "sister," especially after his "acute schizophrenic" episode that occurs when discussing Cathy (imagine Jack Nicolson's "crazy" act in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as far more controlled).
The film is a diabolically anti-authoritarian satire that sits comfortably alongside Phillippe de Broca's 1966 WWII asylum themed "King of Hearts."
Like Paul Newman's "Cool Hand Luke," McMurphy is an emblem of determined individualism in a world of conformity, a symbol of people's capacity to overcome odds and accomplish whatever goals they set for themselves no matter what the circumstances.
It is quite similar in plot and theme, to Cool Hand Luke, which predates this movie by eight years but was based on a novel that was most likely influenced by Kesey's.
There, like Randall McMurphy of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Luke will inevitably fulfill and face up to his nature as an existential hero with a countercultural bent.
It actually has a lot in common with the much-rewarded One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which came a decade later.
Like "It Happened One Night," in 1934, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" won all five major Oscars: Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress.
Only One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs equaled that feat.
Itwould be 41 years before the next film would do so (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and then sixteen before The Silence of the Lambs won the same.
Frank Capra’s 1934 film was the first to win all five of the major Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Lead Actor, Lead Actress, and Screenplay (a feat that’s only been matched twice, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Silence of the Lambs.)
All in all, it's a memorable and potent film, as evidenced by its rare achievement of sweeping the top categories at the Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay), a feat managed previously only by It Happened One Night and subsequently only by The Silence of the Lambs.
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When Jack Nicholson was chosen to play roustabout mental patient R.P. McMurphy, the actor was already firmly etched in the public mind as a real-life icon of free-thinking, anti-establishment, rebellion thanks to his unforgettable performances in such topical films as "Easy Rider" (1969), "Five Easy Pieces" (1970), "Carnal Knowledge" (1971), "The Last Detail" (1973), and "Chinatown" (1974).
After Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, and Chinatown, he'd become the ideal leading man for the Vietnam/Watergate era.
Keep in mind that at the time Nicholson wasn't well known to mainstream audiences, since he had played quirky characters in more independent films like Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces, but we all are fortunate that the original owner of the rights didn't stick to his plan to star himselfKirk Douglas.
The filmmakers also discussed the possibility of Gene Hackman as McMurphy, Hackman having recently made an impression in "The French Connection."