Movie #7

7: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

McMurphy has been dating a fifteen year old (fifteen going on thirty-five) and is sentenced for a short term for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Rather than spend his time in jail, he convinces the guards that he's crazy enough to need psychiatric care and is sent to a hospital. He fits in frighteningly well, and his different point of view actually begins to cause some of the patients to progress. Nurse Ratched becomes his personal cross to bear as his resistence to the hospital routine gets on her nerves.

What a slit-your-wrists-feelgood kind of movie! This is ranked as high as it is just because I'm a big Jack Nicholson fan, and this was by far his best performance. I thought the characters were very well developed, and Louise Fletcher pulled off the role as super-hag Nurse Ratched flawlessly. Jack Nicholson actually watched ECT therapy being performed during production so he could get the scene right, and there's even a rumour that he actually underwent shock therapy in the scene where his character does. Apparently, it's nothing like the book...in fact, Ken Kesey refused to watch the finished movie and sued the producers for "butchering" his story!

...And I had no idea that Billy played Grima Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings and that he was the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play movies. Maybe I didn't pick it up because Chucky didn't stutter like Billy...Also, this was Doc Brown's very first movie.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was nominated for nine Oscars and is only the second movie to ever win the "Big Five" (Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, Actress.) 10 points to whoever knows which other movie won the Big Five...