One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Widescreen/Full Screen: Amazon.ca: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, Dean R. Brooks, Alonzo Brown, Scatman Crothers, Mwako Cumbuka, Danny DeVito, William Duell, Josip Elic, Lan Fendors, Milos Forman, Martin Fink, Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz, Bo Goldman, Dale Wasserman, Ken Kesey, Lawrence Hauben: DVD

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One of the key movies of the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasised the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. Jack Nicholson was born to play the part of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the rebellious inmate of a psychiatric hospital who fights back against the authorities' cold attitudes of institutional superiority, as personified by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system--and it works on every level. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. Unlike a lot of films pitched at the "youth culture" of the 1970s, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest really hasn't dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures--playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness--are universal and timeless. The film swept the Academy Awards for 1976, winning in all the major categories (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) for the first time since Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1931. --Jim Emerson

Additional Features

The two-disc special-edition DVD offers a great-looking anamorphic 1.85:1 print and 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack. Disc 2 has the trailer, about 13 minutes of deleted scenes (mostly from the first third of the film, and all pretty good), and a making-of retrospective documentary with interesting material from producers Michael Douglas (who inherited the rights from Kirk) and Saul Zaentz, director Milos Forman, screenwriter Bo Goldman, and many cast members (though not Jack Nicholson). There's also a commentary track by Forman, Douglas, and Zaentz that repeats a few things from the documentary but also goes into more scene-specific detail about the development and shooting. --Kim Newman

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209 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (209 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars CAUTION, Feb 11 2012

By

JENNY - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Special Edition (Widescreen) [2 Discs] (DVD)

After reading the book numerous times, and seeing the film at least three times, it is a moving and enjoyable piece of modern culture a la Hollywood style. I can't help but clue into the author's own disappointment over the screenplay however. I refer to an interview with Kesey on NPR. The book's POV is that of the Chief's, and we do not get ANY of that in the film. Completely lost. And it is profoundly important to me that Kesey never in his life watched the film. On a personal note, though I love Jack Nicholson, he was part miscast in that his physical stature never equaled the novel's character. The part of the Chief was brilliant.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of its rating, Nov 13 2007

By

Jenny J.J.I. "A New Yorker" (That Lives in Carolinas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Widescreen/Full Screen) (DVD)

This has been buzzing around my ears among my friends and without a doubt; it is one of the best films of all time. Mixing mental health with humor is a tough brand to sell; come to fine out it took several years for this movie to be made. Kirk Douglas had bought the rights hoping to star in it himself, but struggled to find a studio who would produce it; his son Michael eventually did it, but had the foresight to stay off the screen. When you watch it, it's not hard to work out why no-one would touch it - it's subject matter was just too quirky and controversial for Hollywood in the 60s. The film was ideal for representing a burgeoning discontent with society during the post-Vietnam malaise; its audience, like its characters, was feeling enormous dissatisfaction with rules, authority, government and the stupefying way it was treating its people. No wonder that it struck such a chord with cinema-goers.

Many liberties that we take for granted are explored within the narrative of the film: communication (in therapy sessions, where the nurse leads the discussion) freedom (during the 'escape') alcohol (during the party) sex (Billy's turn with the hooker McMurphy imports). The reactions of Nurse Ratched and the orderlies symbolize the reactions of authority when we digress from its designated path; the response of the inmates is to return to the routines and drudgery they entail. The analogy with the restrictive nature of society is glaring.

Enter Randle McMurphy, no respecter of rules or routines, a man who is riotous but also unselfish. Brilliantly played by Jack Nicholson (a masterly piece of casting) McMurphy challenges the established norms and routines of the hospital in pursuit of fun, which irks and then aggravates Nurse Ratched. The positive impact on the other patients is clear and noticeable; it suggests that there is value in breaking away from social expectations, in being spontaneous, in occasionally pursuing personal pleasure or individual goals beyond those authority grants to you. The conclusion suggests that those in authority will do anything to silence those who challenge the social order, but that freedom *is* ultimately accessible, whether by death (McMurphy) or escape (Chief Bromden).

Social analysis aside, the movie is great fun: there are a lot of laughs, a lot of thought-provoking moments, and a few tears. It's certainly one of the finest moments in cinematic history - it came at a time when it was drastically needed by the viewing public, but its content and themes are no less relevant and interesting to us today.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie, Jun 22 2004

By

JR Pinto (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Special Edition (Widescreen) [2 Discs] (DVD)

THE MOVIE ITSELF:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the one authentically great movie Milos Foreman has ever made (and he has been imitating it ever since). Anyone familiar with the book will recognize that Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher do not look anything like the descriptions of their characters, and yet they capture the spirit of those characters perfectly. The action has been moved forward in time fifteen years to 1975. This is one of Nicholson's best performances. The movie has an objective, documentary feel to it. We miss out on some characterization because of this (especially the Chief's) but instead we get a sense of what it would be like in a real institution. Despite the subject-matter, it is very funny and has moments of true joy. It is a marvelous piece of 70's filmmaking and ranks as #12 on the IMDB Greatest Movies list. Definitely worth owning.

THE DVD'S:
The DVD's were made from a new transfer so they look and sound terrific. Unfortunately, it is a 2-DVD set, but all of the information could have easily fit on one disc. The only things on the second disc are some deleted scenes and a making-of documentary. The documentary is good, but not great. It tells of how Kirk Douglas first discovered the book and tried to make a movie out of it, but not of the friction when his son Michael (the film's producer) told him he was too old to be in it. There is also no mention of the film's success and its sweep of all the top Oscars. They don't even talk about novelist Ken Kesey (who supposedly was so against the film he still hasn't seen it).

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars one flew over the cuckoo's nest
C'est un film dramatique toujours au go�t du jour. Les acteurs démontrent bien la vie en institution psychiatrique triste et monotone.

Published 14 months ago by Carolle Dub�

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply one of the best films ever made
There is really not much you can say about this film that hasn't been said already. Brilliant! Brilliant! and more Brilliant! Read more

Published on Jun 23 2009 by Neil Olsen