RateItAll: The Opinion Network

I've known quite a few Nurse Ratcheds in real life.

Filmed on the grounds of the State Mental Hospital in Oregon's state capitol, this is a powerful adaption of Ken Kesey's best book. Jack Nicholson's best work and a role that defined his acting personna forever. Will Sampson played "The Chief". The rest of the cast was perfect as well. The scene where they take the charter fishing boat out to sea was filmed at Depoe Bay on the Oregon Coast. (Looks like it to me) Just a little trivia as others have reviewed this film better than I could.

One of Jack's best movies.

The indian, (chief) didn't you just like him? A great movie.

Never submit to the institution!

Most definitely, one the best films I have ever had the privilege of viewing. Jack Nicholson is superb as McMurphy, as is Louise Fletcher - making her film debut as the insensitive and cruel, Nurse Ratched. Danny De Vito, who was also making his film debut played Martini, one of the patients in the mental institution. Most of the patients are there by choice, but Nurse Ratched's obligatory dose of medicines,which she administers daily to her patients, help to make them more malleable and compliant,and as it happens, even more institutionalised. This, along with her dictitorial and sinister methods, helps her to wield even more control and power over them.

McMurphy, a criminal, who has feigned madness in order to escape the rigours and hardships of prison life, quickly realises what Ratched is up to, and duly rebels against her and her system. He attempts to galvanise the others (who look upon him as the main man) with the aid of various schemes, to do likewise.

This a disturbing, and yet compelling and often funny film that seeks to attack the way some American mental institutions were run in at the time. A truly outstanding, must see film.

Very entertaining film, combines comedy and drama into one. I must be real with myself though, the language was horrendous. I know it does not matter to most people, but in excess it bothers me.

The perfect vehicle for Jack Nicholson and his most memorable performance, bar none. He simply is Randell P. McMurphy, the only one who dares to question the authority of the powers that be (mainly Louise Fletcher who plays the villainess, Nurse Ratched) in the state mental hospital where the convicted child molester McMurphy is hiding out from the manual labor jobs visited upon him in the "real" prison. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll live and die with the disturbed con-artest played by Nicholson, who, in reality, appears to be much better adjusted than the staff and volunteer patients that share his wing in the psychiatric center.

Doctor- Is there anything we can do for you? McMurphy- (holds up the naked-lady playing card) Do you have her number?

Probably one of the best films Nicholson has ever made

Good movie Jack Nicholson was great as Macmurphy was commited into a mental institution for being a troublemaker he continues to cause trouble by disrupting Nurse Ratchets section of the mental ward. Louise is good as the cold controlling nurse. There are a lot of funny scenes. and some sad ones as well. I like the part with MAc Murphy makes friends with the Chief. there were some good actors in this well done movie.

Jack's charisma shone through

Best ever of Jacks movies.....5+ all the way.

Believe it or not my mom MADE me watch this. I was like oh god but... it is probably the best film that the great Jack has ever made. If I am not mistaken this was made in the late '60s. OMG I can't believe a movie can be so funny yet serious. GREAT!!!

I found this movie to be brilliant. I was actually surprised at how good it was, because I randomly picked it up while searching for films to rent, not expecting much from it. It's definitely my favorite film of all-time.

Yes - the best ever

One of the most perfect dramas of all time.

A brillient film which is acted well and is faithful to the novel. It is more difficult however to see the true meaning that Ken Kesey conveys in the book. A good film in itself but far better if you have read the book prior to your viewing as you understanmd it in more deepth. Well worth a look!

I read the book, then watched the film. Jack Nicholson plays Patrick McMurphy, a man in the mental hospital because he was judged insane by the court system. In there, He meets evil Nurse Ratched who takes joy in tormenting the patients. The book was better because it got into more depth of McMurphy the character. The movie, however, does still follow the book faithfully for the most part. But it kinds of cleans it up. They left out scenes involving Old Rawler's gruesome suicide, The kid with hydrocephalus putting his head in the disinfectant, and how Nurse Ratched sent her aides to anally probe the patients. The movie does still show how abusive the mental asylums were back then, but the book depicts them even more.

a great rendition of a great book. Nicholson is amazing as Randall Patrick MacMurphy. It's great to see him in this role before he became the hug celebrity he is today. excellent cast and just a fun movie overall.

An all time classic emotional roller coaster!

I do agree, this movie is highly overrated. Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher did wonderful jobs, but the storyline itself lacked alot, and many of the supporting actors were really awful. The book is alot better, but that is usually the case.

Boring, overrated, and strange. This has to be one of the most overrated movies of all time. I rented this movie because I was told it was a classic and very good, but I was very disappointed. And the ending was so weird, after I watched it I though, what the hell was that? A classic? I mean, it wasn't that bad, but I definitely expected it to be better. I like Jack Nicholson, he was great in As Good as it Gets, but this movie was not very good. If you want to watch a movie about a mental institution, Girl, Interruped is better.

One of the most overrated movies of all time. Jack Nicholson is good. However, the movie drags in several places, and tends to appeal to critics. Its worth a look. The hype is just too much for it.

One of the few movies were the movie was just as good as the book

One of my all-time favorite movies. Perfect acting by a perfect cast. Wow.

The only film Ive watched more than 10 times

The story is a serious subject and there are disturbing scenes in this movie, however it also has some very funny moments! Jack Nicholson was simply genius in this role!!

Excellent story and acting by Jack and Louise.

i love this movie. jack nicholson is brilliant

GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!!

Holy Loved God! And imagine, the book is even better. i liked the book better than the catcher in the rye

Milos Forman has had an interesting directorial career. Not terribly prolific, he has tended over the years to choose the route of quality over quantity, accepting only those projects he feels personally about. Of late, he has favored biopics dealing with particularly offbeat subjects like "Hustler" magazine publisher Larry Flynt ("The People Versus Larry Flynt") and comedian Andy Kaufman ("Man On The Moon"). That he does them well enough to make something of a cultural hero out of someone like Flynt who is basically scum, or Kaufman who, to put it kindly, did not always seem as inventive or even, well...funny as "Man On The Moon" would have it speaks well of his prowess at manipulating the medium, even if it is a bit unsettling at times. In earlier days, Forman's main interest seemed to lie in bringing difficult projects to the screen. In 1979, he managed a fairly successful film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Hair", a property which had been kicked around Hollywood for ten years or so, without anyone being able to figure out how to do it. Four years prior to this, he directed the film version of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", with amazingly good results. The film was a critical and boxoffice success, and resulted in Academy Awards all around--Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture. The film began life as a novel by Ken Kesey, became a play adapted by Dale Wasserman in the early 1960's, and eventually the film rights passed from actor Kirk Douglas, who had played the lead on Broadway to his son Michael, who ultimately produced the film. The book is a dense piece of writing. Very often outright surrealistic, it is narrated by the character of Chief Bromden, a Columbian Gorge Indian who, as a result of increasing feelings of isolation and disassociation brought about by being looked down upon and dismissed all his life because he is a Native American from a particularly economically disadvantaged background, has become a catatonic schizophrenic. It is through Bromden, his perception skewed by his disorder, that we get the story of Randle MacMurphy, who comes to the mental hospital where Bromden has been for many years, under the care of Nurse Ratched. MacMurphy has been faking mental illness to get transferred from the prison work farm where he's serving a sentence for assault to what he believes will be the comfort of the hospital. He didn't count on Nurse Ratched, a bitter woman who, along with her brutal and often physically violent aides, breaks the spirit of all the men who are sent to her ward. MacMurphy watches as she plays upon their weaknesses, and after a while begins, at first as a game, then with increasing seriousness, to help them fight back. The story, unfolding through the eyes of a man whose very perception is questionable, is constructed of imagery so bizarre it throws the reader totally off balance--Bromden sees the nurse as a Valkyrie, growing larger and larger as she sweeps up the hallway, her fingernails striking sparks from the wall. The stage adaptation eliminated most of this, but it was still told from Bromden's point of view, and still presented difficulties. In fact Kesey, in an early draft of the screenplay, reinstated the more outlandish images, going back (as it seems natural, if impractical, that he would) to his own original concept. Forman, intrigued by the project, took it on, but decided early on that to work successfully, the story had to be literalized--that is, taken out of Bromden's head and made to play naturalistically. The end result is a film that retains the basic plotline of the book and it's characters, but makes them more realistic and less open to interpretation. Thus, Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) is no longer so much a symbol of an uncaring and dehumanizing system as she is simply a meanspirited, middle-aged bitch with an axe to grind where men are concerned. MacMurphy (Jack Nicholson in the role that set the tone for most of his future performances, which is not necessarily a good thing.)is not so much a savior, allowing his own lifeforce to be drained in order to give life back to his fellow patients as he is a man with a temper who stumbles into a bad situation and is angered to the point of unreasonableness by what he finds. Chief Bromden's (Will Sampson) ultimate "rebirth", a glorious triumph following MacMurphy's ultimate sacrifice in the novel, is a little more uncertain here. We are none too sure how strong MacMurphy really was, or for that matter how weak Bromden was. We have had no real indication that Bromden was really mentally ill at all. As played by Sampson, he seems inscrutable, but somehow placid and unaffected...almost as if he's been biding his time, waiting for the right moment to take off, MacMurphy or no MacMurphy. This is not to say that the film is not effective. It is. It's this very mundane and somehow flat quality that lends to it a texture of reality--as if we are watching a documentary rather than a work of fiction. It is not strictly in line with Kesey's vision, but in many ways what emerges on the screen is more fascinating in it's realism than a literal adaptation would have been, because though it would have been interesting, it would also have kept it's audience at a distance instead of drawing them in. The supporting cast, with veterans like William Redfield (Harding), and some surprising young faces like Danny Devito (Martini) and Christopher Lloyd (Taber) are excellent, with newcomer Brad Douriff (the voice of Chucky in the "Child's Play" films) a touching standout as the vulnerable stutterer Billy Bibbit. "One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest."

great acting, story line, very emotinal. I loved it

This is tied for my #1 movie with The Shawshank Redemption (1994).

incredible movie. outstanding job by jack nicholson. a definite must see. i reccomend this to the older crowd.

My 3rd favorite movie of all time. A timeless classic. -Scarface

Fantastic film. I read the book years before I had seen the film (I recently purchased it). Of course it doesn't totally follow the book, but they usually have to be slightly adapted for the large screen. Jack Nicholson has such an enormous screen prescence and always seems to be a down and out rebel. Danny Devito was really good as Martini (I didn't realise it was him because he was smiling). Christopher Lloyd was brilliant as well. The Nurse wasn't quite as I expected (after all, she was supposed to be top heavy). But other wise it was fantastic. The man who played Billy was really moving and did the stutter really well (If you want to see him in something else, watch the X-Files espisode called 'Beyond The Sea', he's the prisoner who has visions. Definately deserving of 5 stars.

in my top ten of all time

Excellent portrayal of a mental asylum and the struggles people face if they are different. Good reading, but quite depressing.

I guess this movie is supposed to stimulate thought or something, but I thought it was retarded. It was one of those movies where you try to forget as soon as you watch it. There was some good acting, but unrealistic characters (like the nurse).

This is such a great movie. Jack Nicholson is my favorite actor. He does so well with this role. If there was anything higher than a 5 I would give it a 10. It is such a touching movie- I know I could never get sick of watching it.

Jack Nicholson shows what he can do in this movie by playing someone in a mental institution. He adds a spark to the movie and the movie in itself is good because it shows how hectic and emotional it can be in the institution. The psychological aspect is portrayed and documented very well.

This movie shows us there exists only a fine line, at times, between sane and insane. In addition, what is considered insane is a matter of opinion and decided by a few people (psychologists), which can be dangerous. For the time, the movie brought people into the institutions for the mentally ill, and showed the terrible conditions and primitive techniques for rehabilitation. The main character also has his own delusions when he believes he knows best what's for the mental patients and trys to force them iont society, and finds they breakdown. He realizes some people really do need to be institutionalized.

I watch this movie in class and it touched me deeply. It has a good storyline but the ending is a little too sad.

I gave this movie a 5 because it put me in deep thought. It was very educational and entertaining.

Classic tale from Ken Kesey's classic novel. Jack Nicholson gives a stunning performance. The characters seem real and the script is flawless.

A superb movie from an excellent book. Not only is the best movie from the 1970's, it's one of the best from any era.

I really question why Jack Nicholson is revered in Hollywood as a major talent -- playing basically the same routine over and over. But it sure works in this film. I love almost every line of this thing, and the reaction of Christopher Lloyd's Taber character when the Chief does his heroic deed at the end is one of the greatest things in film history in my opinion.

One of the best movies ever made (along with The Graduate and Citizen Kane). But do yourself a favor and read the book first. Kesey's one masterpiece is a wild ride, and familiarity with the complexity of the book will only add to your enjoyment of the movie.

One of Jack Nicholson's best roleportraits.

This movie was the worst made movie...doesn't even follow the book well... it should if it's gonna be made a movie.