One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest
The adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 shows Jack Nicholson at his dramatic and comic best and is an absolute must see for all serious film fans.
R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a misbehaved con who shirks authority, finds himself in an asylum after faking insanity to get out of work detail in prison.
The vivacious troublemaker soon finds himself in a worse kind of prison, one presided over by the repressed, terrifyingly quiet Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), whose set of rules and regulations are meant to suppress patients' psychotic outbursts, and their spirits.
It's not long before McMurphy is reaching out to his new inmates, trying desperately to bring life to an otherwise dead atmosphere.
To Ratched, however, Nicholson's free spirit is as dangerous as a schizophrenic impulse.
Since it's release One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has become a cinema classic and the character of McMurphy propelled to the status of anti-hero as he fought against repressive authoritarianism.
However this film doesn't belong to Nicholson alone as actress Louise Fletcher creates one of the best film villains of all time as the oppressive Nurse Rached as the pair battled well together.
Hollywood had always been weary of tackling mental health issues on film for fear of alienating it's audience however the film's success surprised it's producers Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas.
It still remains one of the best movies in it's genre.
But it's not all doom and gloom as it does tackle certain issues delivering profound messages but it does so incorporating humour and excitement, provided by the presence of Nicholson.
The bravery of tackling such issues were duly reward as Once Few Over the Cuckoo's Nest went on to win the top five Oscars, Best Picture, Best Director for Milos Forman, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.
It was the first movie to win all five major accolades since It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991, by The Silence of the Lambs.
Over thirty years after it's release One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest remains a triumph in filmmaking and the best film that best film that tackles mental illness as well as being Jack Nicholson's finest on screen performance.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Jack Nicholson