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1975 Oscar-winning movie starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Milos Forman
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson and features a supporting cast of Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Will Sampson and Brad Dourif. The film also featured Christopher Lloyd in his film debut.

Cast and Crew

Jack NicholsonRandle Patrick McMurphy
Miloš Formandirector

Video Products

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 16 Dec 1997
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Two Disc Special Edition, 24 Sep 2002
Includes commentary by director Milos Forman and other material

Memorable Scenes

Nurse Ratched shaming Billy after he is discovered in bed with Candy
The nurse also tries to manipulate him by bringing up his mother, causing him to stammer in contrast to his initial assertiveness
Nurse Ratched: Aren't you ashamed?
Billy: No, I'm not.
[Applause from friends]
Nurse Ratched: You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.
Billy: Um, um, well, y-y-y-you d-d-d-don't have to t-t-t-tell her, Miss Ratched.
Nurse Ratched: I don't have to tell her? Your mother and I are old friends. You know that.
Billy: P-p-p-please d-d-don't tell my m-m-m-mother.
Ward meeting after McMurphy discovers several inmates are there voluntarily
McMurphy: Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothin' but complain about how you can't stand it in this place here and then you haven't got the guts just to walk out! What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it.

Articles

Freedom's Flicks: The 20 Best Libertarian Movies of all Time, Nov 1999
The Orange County Register picks movies for "freedom lovers"
10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Who are the sane ones in a psychiatric ward? Jack Nicholson, playing McMurphy, resists arbitrary authority. Best libertarian moment: After the electroshock treatment that's supposed to subdue him and make him less anti-social, McMurphy remains as feisty as ever.
The Shame of Medicine: The Case of Alan Turing, by Thomas Szasz, The Freeman, 24 Apr 2009
Recounts the life story of Alan Turing as an example of the dangers of psychiatry
The psychiatrist stigmatized persons as 'mad,' deprived them of liberty, and assaulted them with chemical and physical interventions. A little more than 100 years ago individuals began to seek psychiatric help for their own problems. As a result, many people who entrusted themselves to the care of psychiatrists became entrapped in the machinery of punitive mad-doctoring, dramatically portrayed in Ken Kesey's best-selling novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the film based on it.
Related Topic: Medicine

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)" as of 27 Jul 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.