One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Shot In A Working
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Kirk Douglas held the rights for a decade and could not get it made, so his son produced it instead.
Runtime
133 minutes
Director
Miloš Forman
Budget
$3 million
Box office
$109 million worldwide
Cinematography
Haskell Wexler
"But I tried, didn't I? Goddamn it, at least I did that.
"Randle McMurphy · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest · 1975
Real Wards And Real Patients
Forman shot in Oregon State Hospital with the institution's actual superintendent playing the doctor and real patients working as extras and crew, and had the cast live on the ward during production. The result is a film whose textures are documentary and whose story is a fable: a man fakes mental illness to serve a short sentence somewhere easier than a prison farm, discovers a ward of men who could leave if they believed they could, and sets about breaking a regime run entirely through paperwork and politeness. Nurse Ratched never raises her voice. Louise Fletcher plays her as an administrator doing her job correctly, which is far more frightening than cruelty, and the film's argument is that the system does not need a villain to destroy somebody.
Watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Curiosity
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Entry
It is one of only three films to win all five major Academy Awards, taking Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay, and the first to do it in forty one years.
Ken Kesey never watched it. His novel is narrated by Chief Bromden, and the decision to shift the point of view to McMurphy was the reason he broke with the production.