Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1052 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-14
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 128 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the key movies of the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasised the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. Jack Nicholson was born to play the part of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the rebellious inmate of a psychiatric hospital who fights back against the authorities' cold attitudes of institutional superiority, as personified by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system--and it works on every level. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. Unlike a lot of films pitched at the "youth culture" of the 1970s, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest really hasn't dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures--playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness--are universal and timeless. The film swept the Academy Awards for 1976, winning in all the major categories (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) for the first time since Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1931. --Jim Emerson

Amazon.co.uk Review
A big Oscar winner in 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest still holds up remarkably well. Ken Kesey's novel, an allegory of repression and rebellion set in a mental hospital in the early 1960s, is cannily adapted by Czech director Milos Forman into a comedy drama with a cool, unassuming, near-documentary look. Jack Nicholson has his most jacknicholsonian role as Randle P McMurphy, a livewire troublemaker who unwisely cons his way out of prison and into a mental institution without realising he has switched from serving a sentence with a release date to being committed until adjudged sane by the same people he is winding up on a daily basis. Louise Fletcher, in a career-defining turn, is Nurse Ratched, the soft-spoken sadist who represents the worst type of matronly authoritarianism and clashes with Randle all down the line.

Taking another look at the picture after all these years, it's a surprise that all the unknown actors who seemed like real mental patients have graduated to becoming prolific character actor stars: Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Brad Dourif, the late Will Sampson, Sidney Lassick, Michael Berryman. Unlike many Best Picture Oscar winners, this deals with profound subject matter without seeming self-important: Forman's approach and all-round great acting make it play as a small character story as well as a Big Statement about the human condition. Full marks also for Jack Nitzsche's musical saw-based score.

On the DVD: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes to DVD in a two-disc special edition with a great-looking anamorphic 1.85:1 print and 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, plus tracks in French and Italian and optional subtitles in half a dozen languages. Disc 2 has the trailer, about 13 minutes of deleted scenes (mostly from the first third of the film, and all pretty good) and a making-of retrospective documentary with interesting material from producers Michael Douglas (who inherited the rights from Kirk) and Saul Zaentz, Forman, screenwriter Bo Goldman and many cast-members (though not Nicholson). There's also a commentary track by Forman, Douglas and others which repeats a few things from the documentary but also goes into more scene-specific detail about the development and shooting. --Kim Newman

Special Features
English
Region 2

Customer Reviews

If he's crazy, what does that make you?
The heading here was the tag line for the film. Jack Nicholson was the perfect actor to play this part. I don't think I can say anything that other reviewers haven't already said.

My advice is just watch it. Can't say much more than that.

Amazing
Having also read Ken Keseys novel this movie doesn't disappoint.Jack Nicholson at his best! A must have for any collection.

One of the greatest movies ever made
This film will always have a an important place in film history but I think what has given it that place is 1. The topic of the film and 2. The sheer acting ability of Jack Nicholson.

Nicholson here is a convicted criminal who fakes insanity to grab a reduced sentence sets about creating his own rules in a mental hospital. Nicholson portrays something in us all, a free spirit confined and reduced to live by morals and codes he does not recognise if only to survive. The film explores the disastrous effects of rebellion to those rules and how the desire for freedom if defeated in one can be ignited in another.

The film explores how others can be so easily lead and also how easily they can be defeated (Such as when Nicholson arranges for a prostitute for one of the younger inmates and the party he sets up), how fear can instill obedience (Nicholson's punishments) The film is remarkable in its limited use of sets and instead relies on Nicholson's remarkable acting ability.

Nicholson is simply superb in this film. His facial expression, his body movement say almost a thousand words more than his actual lines convey. He is larger than life, eccentric and devious all the same. At times you can relate to the character at others be pulling your hair out at his rash behavior. That Nicholson can stir such emotion in a viewer is a testament to his acting ability.

Probably the most powerful scene in the entire film is where Nicholson says to the others while pointing to a huge ceramic wash basin that is sealed into the ground "I am going to rip that out, put it through the window and break out of here" The other 'inmates' mock him and laugh amongst themselves (Probably thinking to themselves 'He is madder than we are') Nicholson begins to attempt to pull the basin out, he strains and strains and slowly the others begin to think "Maybe he is going to do it" When finally he gives up. He walks past the others, some mocking others not knowing where to look. He walks halfway down the corridor then turns to them and says "At least I tried!"