One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, Sydney Lassick
Director: Milos Forman
The film: Made in 1975, Cuckoo's Nest represents the high-water mark of Hollywood's flirtation with European directors, for on the horizon loomed the 'nerd wave' headed by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that would swamp the business once and for all.
The dedication to realism of Czech director Milos Forman (The People Vs Larry Flynt [1996], Man In The Moon [1999]) creates an unsettling mood and draws career-defining performances from a cast of at-the-time unknowns (Jack Nicholson notwithstanding). Reworked for the screen from the best-selling novel by Ken Kesey, it follows petty crim Randall P McMurphy's (Nicholson, below) transfer from prison farm to state mental hospital. McMurphy thinks he's duped the system and will stroll through the remainder of his sentence. But there is no room for free spirits in this routine-driven world, setting McMurphy on a collision course with the passive-aggressive Nurse Ratched, played with cool sadism by Louise Fletcher.
Forman had just one choice for the lead. And what a choice. It is that 'Nicholsonian' wildness, the crazed cackle in all of us, the character that flips the finger to the world, that is central to the piece. We become McMurphy. He represents the world we know; the Everyman entering an alien environment. The decision to cast no-name actors in supporting roles must have heightened the sense of alienation in the year of its release. But that's not to say the message or the film's power have faded with time.