One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was one of the most popular and acclaimed motion pictures of the 1970’s. The film won the 1975 Academy Award as best picture of the year. Director Milos Forman and co-stars Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher also won Oscars. The movie takes place in a mental hospital and is adapted from the 1962 novel by American author Ken Kesey. Kesey had based his book on his own experiences as a volunteer at a Veterans Administration hospital. The book was also adapted into a popular play by Dale Wasserman. The play was first staged in 1963. Kesey took the title of his novel from a line in a traditional nursery rhyme.
Nicholson plays Randle Patrick McMurphy, a small-time criminal who fakes insanity to avoid a jail sentence for rape. McMurphy expects he will enjoy an easier time while under observation in a state mental hospital. At the hospital, however, he encounters a dictatorial head nurse, played by Fletcher, who ruthlessly tries to eliminate any element of independence among her patients. The nurse and the free-spirited McMurphy become archrivals. McMurphy eventually becomes a kind of hero to the other patients as he starts to restore their self-esteem and encourage rebellion against the sadistic head nurse. For many viewers, the exuberant McMurphy represented the power of love and freedom standing up to the oppressive power of authority.
See also Kesey, Ken ; Nicholson, Jack .
