Review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) by Filipeneto — 17 Feb 2018

This film tells the story of R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), whose criminal record earned him a season in a labor camp. To escape this verdict, this smart guy decided to pretend to be crazy in order to serve the sentence in a mental hospital. In this new environment, McMurphy show resistance to rigid and austere rules of behavior imposed on patients and zealously fulfilled by the head-nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), causing a number of situations where he seeks, in his own way, returning to colleagues the joy of living.

Directed by Milos Forman, a veteran of the seventh art that this film helped to immortalize, this movie has great actors, among which are a remarkable Louise Fletcher and Jack Nicholson, who took here one of the most memorable performances of his career. Sydney Lassick, Brad Dourif and Danny DeVito, in the role of some patients in mental hospital, are also noteworthy. It's a film about freedom and resistance to oppression, a film that teaches us to seek out the good side of things, even in the worst circumstances, and that the worst prison is what we do about ourselves when we give up. The film is full of scenes that range from humorous to the touching but conquers by it's bewildering end, seemingly incomprehensible until we reflect about it and understand the kind of freedom that McMurphy was entitled.

Touching, exciting, touching, are adjectives that aren't enough to properly characterize this true work of art, whose beauty was dimly reflected in awards it has received, and which contained the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Actor Drama, Best Actress Drama, Best Actor Debut, Best Director and Best Screenplay and the Oscar's for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture.