Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Release Date: November 19, 1975

Director: Milos Forman

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield

Personal History: Watched Before

Rating: 9 Oscars out of 10

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is considered one of the greatest movies ever made despite having “reserved” praise when it was initially released. Based on a novel by Ken Kesey, someone who was not a fan of the film, the movie was loved by critics, especially the acting, but in most reviews it was noted that it was far from perfect. Despite its supposed imperfections, the film became the second (after ‘It Happened One Night‘) to win the top five categories (out of seven nominations) at that year’s Academy Awards.

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is one of my favorite films and appeared on my 365 Day Movie Challenge in 2020. One thing I wrote back then still rings true today:

“There is no question that this is an excellent movie and has held up quite nicely since its release in 1975. I will be honest and say that I am not the biggest Jack Nicholson fan. To me he just plays the same character over and over again without much difference. With that said, this is the first of four movies that he is a part of on this list and I do really enjoy his performance here.”

I know, blasphemous, right? How dare I say that one of the greatest actors of our time, especially if you follow Oscar history, is not that great. I still stand by this opinion today. Mr. Nicholson is not that great however he is great as R.P. McMurphy. You can read everything else I had to say about the film back in 2020 here.

Not much more to say about ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ that I haven’t written about or said before. It is still thought-provoking, entertaining and both an enjoyable and emotional watch. It is always a fun movie to fall back on especially if you had not watched it in awhile. For me, it was almost three years to the day that I last watched it and I was equally entertained today, back in 2020 and in the 1990’s when I was first introduced to it.