Adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, this film directed by Milos Forman (Amadeus) won all five major Academy Awards in 1975, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The story revolves around the adventures of convict Randal P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) in a state mental institution after being transferred there from a state prison. McMurphy believes that life will be easier in an institution rather than in prison, but is mistaken. The film is filled with moments of hilarity, shock, and irony.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is deserving of it’s reputation as one of the landmark films of the 70’s as well as all of the awards that it has garned throughout the years. The film is a timeless classic which has manages to please newer generations in the same way that it pleased older generations. Nicholson’s performance is classic and the universal ideas of good and evil as well as the human spirit that the film explores has kept the film from fading away. This is one film that will surely live on for a long, long time.

Nate recommends these films if you enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:

Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980)

Johnathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974)

Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978)

John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969)