One of the GREATEST movies ever made. It changes you, leaves you with a different worldview, a much deeper level of empathy towards your fellow human beings. Powerful stuff.
Republicans never watched it and if they did, their empathy lightbulb never went on. Lets remember who shut down every single mental hospital in the US because sick people in the US deserve zero empathy.... republicans.
It's a battle between Nurse Ratched (the authority figure) and McMurphy (the rebel) for control of the group. Her knowledge that Billy's past problems would be triggered by mentioning his mother shows her true nature. Notice he was not stuttering when first questioned after they found him with Candy, but when she brought up his mother the stuttering returned.
RIP Louise Fletcher. She was so good at portraying evil, hateful characters. Her role on Deep Space Nine as recurring character Winn Adami shows how well she can play conniving, scheming characters.
@@Hiraghm Indeed. He was also really creepy in The Exorcist III and as Lon Suder in Star Trek Voyager (season 2: "Meld", "Basics part 1" and season 3 "Basics part 2").
In real life, the nurse, Louise Fletcher, is a very nice woman. Look up her Oscar speech. Both her parents were deaf and she signed her thank you to them.
Remember Brainstorm? When she goes into cardiac arrest. In her dying moments she hooks herself up to the machine. ruclips.net/video/uFQrd2Y9R04/видео.html&feature=share9
Fun fact; Louise Fletcher was so disturbed by her portrayal of nurse Ratchet that she had a boudoir photo taken of herself and gave copies to the cast members.
She also played Frank’s mom, Peg in Shameless. And she was awesome! She was only in a couple episodes but her presence felt longer. Yeah she was an incredible actress. R.I.P. 🙏
I worked with mental health residents as a CNA for 31 years. The actors who played the patients all hit the nail right on the head! Each one reminds me of patients I have worked with personally.
Thanks for your service in that field 😊. My father spent some time in a lower-key version of a place like this for 6 months. He was a very functional patient but I remember visiting when I was 15 and being attacked by another man who liked to wear a bike helmet but tried to hit me with it. My first introduction to learning empathy for people with issues I've never encountered.
Filmed in Oregon , Dr Spivey was an actual Psychiatrist and technical consultant on the movie set . Actress Louise Fletcher *Nurse Ratchet" hated the movie and only saw it once at the Premiere. She was one of the nicest people on earth and the exact opposite of her character. The operation on Mac was called a Prefrontal Lobotomy used up until the 1960s when it was deemed inhumane and eliminated from medical practice.
I love Chief so much. This film overlooks the fact that he was a war veteran too. It’s also heartbreaking that because everyone thinks he’s deaf, the orderlies think they can taunt him for being half Native American. No wonder he feels small and weak in the hospital, he’s been through this his entire life. His father had his lands practically snatched from him by the government and had his own issues with alcohol abuse.
'Excellent actor. He played (brilliantly,) Doc in the HBO series, DEADWOOD. He was the voice of CHUCKY in that whole franchise. Not my thing (CHUCKY,) but, it was really popular. He is a good actor.
This is such a great movie. An excellent character study, and a commentary on the human will. The moment when Chief is running away and it fades to black is so bittersweetly rewarding.
Will Sampson, who played the Chief, had never acted before when the producers found him (he was a bronco buster in a rodeo) but you'd never know that from this performance. Great job all around to everyone involved with this movie.
This movie is one of only three to win the five major Academy Awards: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Screenplay; Best Actor; Best Actress. The other two are - It Happened One Night (1934) & The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
The director is Miloš Forman, a Czech filmmaker, who lost both parents who were sent to 2 different Concentration Camps in Germany. He has won numerous awards for his films and died in 2018. Cuckoo’s nest was a novel in 1962, which was made into a play, and was produced on Broadway in 1963 starring Kirk Douglas.
Kirk tried to get a film adaptation of "Nest" off the ground, but to no avail. His son, Michael, a legend in his own right, managed to, and Kirk used to playfully give him grief for not casting him as McMurphy.
@@Madbandit77 yes, it would be interesting to know how that would have affected the overall film. But Kirk was in his late 50’s by then, and producers were concerned he was too old, whereas Jack was in his late 30’s and was one of the most sought after actors at the time. The book’s author, Ken Kesey, thought Gene Hackman, who would have been in his mid 40’s then, should have been cast. That is another interesting scenario to consider. Along with the character of Mc Murphy, the entire cast was so strong that maybe the film would have been equally good regardless.However, Jack does bring a unique and explosive quality, with so much complexity, that it is one of his great performances. I think the haunting score by Jack Nitzsche also contributed heavily to its success.
Writer did work in mental hospital in late 1950s , also when this movie came out frontal lobe lobotomy was banned in US "Lobotomies" are still done to cure some conditions , much cleaner and accurate gamma knife brain surgery . Other good one is Awakenings , Robin Williams and Robert De Niro , sadly when Robin started his own L- Dopa treatment , was he thinking he ends like Robert De Niro character ?
This was Christopher Lloyd's first movie. It's funny that his debut would lead to other quirky and slightly crazy characters such as Doc Brown (Back to the Future) and Reverend Jim Ignatowski on the tv series Taxi along with his Taxi costar Danny DeVito who was Martini in this film
My late, great beloved Nana was a nurse at Essondale ( the British Columbia Funny Farm for Men). She totally loved the loonies and the feeling was mutual. They played a lot of cribbage and gin rummy.
Nurse Ratched is on of the most evil characters in film history, IMO. I've known several nurses in my life (related to two), and unfortunately I've met quite a few more over the last few years because of health problems. The nurses I've dealt with are among the finest people I've ever known. Maybe I've just been lucky to not run into any bad ones, but I love 'em all.
Like all professions that give power over people there will occasionally be individuals attracted to the profession for the sake of that power rather than anything else about it. Just as we have seen doctors and police be murderers, it is entirely possible for nurses to be exactly this kind of person - and all the more possible when they work within a mental hospital with absolute power over their victims. Generally speaking though, the greater effort expended to attain the position, the less likely that they will be the type to abuse it - which is why so few doctors are like this, the effort to become even a low level doctor is just far too high a bar for almost all people who don't genuinely wish to be a doctor for either healing people and/or the money associated with the profession.
It is also very interesting to read the book. It is fully narrated by Chief and many characters have quite backstory or motivation explained. For example Nurse Ratched is single ex-army nurse, which is quite explaining her stubborness and eager to control.
The actor who played Nurse Ratchet was an amazing villain. She played the bad guy in many things, and was amazing every time. I loved her recurring role on Deep Space Nine.
The actor who portrayed Billy is the same actor who portayed Grima Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; Brad Dourif. That'll blow your mind if you didn't realise.
This was the first movie I saw Dourif in. So in my case it's been the other way round. By the way at this age in the mid 1970s he would have been a great choice to impersonate Egon Schiele. At least in my eyes.
A great classic film propelling Jack Nicholson to fame as one of America's most versatile actors. A true gem of a movie.... However, you have to remember the movie is set to take place during the early 1960s so mental wards and Psychiatric hospitals were still pretty barbaric back in that time period. You can't compare it to how Norwegian mental hospitals are today. I'm 66 and this takes place around the time I was 6...many many decades ago.
Nurse Ratched is one of the coldest villains of all time imo. A real c u next Tuesday. Also, I would suggest Cool Hand Luke at some point. Many parallels between that film and this one!
In a college acting class my friend and I pick the scene where Chief takes a stick of gum. I played Chief. The day we were to perform it for the class my friend said he was going to give a real stick of gum, and to just go with it. I thought that would be fun, so I agreed. In the performance he pressed it into the palm of my hand. When I opened my hand it wasn’t gum, but a condom. I completely broke character laughing, and tossed it away. Our teacher saw what it was and fell out of his seat laughing. It took everyone 20 minutes to calm down from the hysterical laughter and we started over, with strict instructions of NO props. Lol We got an A+
"....and they say that Chief is still running to this day" 🤣Wow, this movie made you speak Norwegian! We don't see that everyday! 😄 I'm bummed that you thought there was a "twist" in this movie. I mean, Chief speaking is a twist, but I think they were recommending it to you more because of "Shutter Island" took place at an asylum. Other reactors have gone into this movie thinking it's a comedy! It's just a straight drama, through and through, with amazing acting! Depressing is usually the word that was used to describe it at the time! And yeah, NO ONE likes Nurse Ratched! In fact, I saw on some list that she was named the number two screen villain of all time, right underneath Hannibal Lecter from "Silence Of The Lambs"! You are the PERFECT reactor for this movie, though, just because of your nurse background, I was psyched to see that you hit this one! :D
Am too tired to go into what it was like back in the day in those places, but have to say that when Nurse said they're all there voluntarily, it's only a half-truth! Once you commit yourself, you're just as committed as those involuntarily unless you just do exactly as you're told! People don't realize that until they commit themselves. First time you disagree they start adding time till possible release. Back then they took you in front of a table of 8-10 actual Drs after a couple of weeks in, then every week afterwards, but if you didn't do EVERYTHING they told you the previous week & pass each of their verbal exams, after around third try they just kept you & you'd probably never get out! I had a schizophrenic friend who wasn't allowed to go home for Christmas with his schizophrenic brother from same hospital for Christmas one year, both assumed would never permanently be relrased, so he escaped. They found him a couple weeks later frozen to death by a lake! This was as late as 1987 & only changed in '90's here in America! Unfortunately now it's almost just as fukd as before since they just throw big pharma scripts at you & kick you out the door once they can't make more money!😔 Keep up all your great work, friend! Is what the world needs now more than ever!!! See ya! ✌🌎❤ 🙏
In a famous experiment in the 1970s, a psychology professor had some of his college students admitted to a mental hospital (with only the chief of the hospital aware of the experiment) with instructions to act perfectly normally after being admitted, and recorded how long it took the doctors to realize there was nothing wrong with them and they didn't belong there. The results were shocking -- some of the students were discharged quickly, but several of them were forced to stay for weeks, and two of the students were kept in the institution until the professor intervened to get them released.
@@gdiaz8827Like I said, too many horror stories to tell here, friend, but I myself was committed at 18yro in '90. I was fortunate to have a "coach" who'd been committed before. I called him first chance I got in & he told me to do EVERYTHING they told me & no fukn around or I'd be DONE!!! Took me a month to get out by doing so! If didn't take meds they'd strip you naked, throw you in the rubber room & inject you! Many women were sexually abused, of course. Looked just like hospital here, & in excellent must-see if haven't, "12 MONKEYS." One day me and another patient were outside smoking during a storm, lightning struck hospital & knocked power out. Hospital switched on emergency generator but all the doors got locked so we got stuck outside. When doors finally opened we found ourselves alone walking toward elevator trying to get back to our ward. We thought we were in trouble for getting stuck outside. We noticed a door open leading to the basement floor. We took a look and it was like a dungeon! Had shackles on the walls! Hopefully that was just a relic of the past, but was horrifying nonetheless. Who knows wtf some of the twisted staff still did down there? Was barbaric af! I later went on to work in the field & knowing how it's run is horrifying on different level now, sad to say. Is why there's a mental health epidemic going on right now in America that you don't hear much about because it's all about the BIG money anymore! Sigmund Freud, FATHER OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, had about 30 patients his entire career & stuck with each as their personal life-coach to the end. A 6-yr nurse practitioner at your local mental health center gets that many or more their first two years working in the field these days! And 3-5 yrs later they usually move on to work elsewhere, leaving their patients, & a newbie comes in to take their place. Its a revolving door of players. Same with med-providers! They have to follow memos, effectively tying one hand behind their backs as 6-yr degree NP underlings, with no subjective leeway on matters an actual Dr can make! YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE SUBJECTIVE DECISIONS ON THE SPOT WHEN DEALING WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES & PASSING OUT CHEMICALS THAT MAY DAMAGE THEM FOR REST OF THEIR LIVES!!! SMGDMFH!😔 The centers have only one actual Doctor/PhD who comes in once every week to sign paychecks & doesn't know his patients from Adam! You have to have good insurance or $150-$200 per visit for a REAL doctor anymore. You used to be able to find PhDs that would take government insurance & could bypass the centers, but they faded that out about 10 yrs ago to herd the most vulnerable into their brand new centers popping up everywhere, at least here in TN! Sad af!😔💔 Oh well, we got young Lights shining like Centane here gonna make things better for the world!🤗💕 Hope your doing better now, friend! Thanks for sharing! Best Wishes from NashvilleTowne! 🎸 🎶 🙏❤
@@charlize1253 I remember that from my undergrad studies, friend! You a Psych major, minor? I didn't see you here. I just replied to gdiaz & shared a bit more if interested?
Good thing you were so tired or that could have gone really long.. jk. What you're talking about is no laughing matter, and I can tell it hits close to home for you. I've got a daughter myself who's been diagnosed with schizophrenia and we as a family know how scary that illness can be. She's one of the lucky ones who has family that has never stopped fighting for her and we've got her at home now, on balanced meds living a healthy happy life, one day at a time. 🙏❤️👍
Where they took the boat out to sea is called Depoe Bay. I almost died there in 1978 when I was 18. Huge rollers hit our boat and nearly capsized us and launched me into the water. My brother was able to pull me back into the boat. Quite a memorable day.
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is my favorite Milos Forman directed movie, followed by "Amadeus". Both are masterpieces IMO. I saw this at a young age (too young for a rated R movie). It was the first movie that I recognized truly incredible acting (especially from Jack Nicholson). It was also the first movie that really drew me in on an emotional level. I found myself really hating Nurse Ratchet.
"Ragtime" is another great one he directed. Those are his best English movies. But "The Fireman's Ball" and "Loves Of A Blonde" are also masterpieces, those are the movies that first put him on the map in the 60s, part of the Czech New Wave. But definitely "Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus" and "Ragtime" are his American masterpieces. Too bad he recut "Amadeus" and you can't even get the original theatrical version anymore, it was WAY better in its original state.
Yes, agree with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as his best movie. Also "Hair" needs to be mentioned. But in fact I also really like his later movies -"People vs Larry Flynt" and "Man on the Moon", which are both quite underrated imho. And ofc "The Fireman's Ball", but this is I think movie which wouldn't resonate with non-czech audience very much.
When I was in school I worked at a mental health facility. I worked with mostly violent people at first and later with bedridden people. Very sad stuff. Over worked, Underpaid, understaffed, and under appreciated.
The movie was based on a 60's novel by Ken Kesey. The story is basically a metaphor of American society: our citizens are basically kept in line by the authorities, who use various tactics (racial division, gaslighting, drugs, etc.). Great film.
The title of the film comes from a nursery rhyme: Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn, Apple seed and apple thorn; Wire, briar, limber lock, Three geese in a flock. One flew east, And one flew west, And one flew over The cuckoo's nest. Ken Kesey chose that as the name for his book, which is told from the point of view of the Big Chief. Of course the mental hospital can be considered a nest full of cuckoo people, as "cuckoo" is a casual synonym for "crazy."
I read the book and it's all through the eyes of Chief and gives a lot more perspective to the movie and some of the things that happen and the interactions between him and Mac. Chief is a really shy and timid character and they reference that in the film when he says to Mac "You're much bigger than me", because to him Mac is much bigger in spirit. It doesn't matter to Chief that he's a large man, because he feels so small inside. Mac sorta wakes him up though, inspires him, to live, instead of hide from the world in a mental institution just because he's scared of and intimidated by it. The movie is really about Chief.
@@karidennis6154 Well I started in 89. I had a friend who was there in the 70’s and there was a bit of similarity. Ken Kesey the brilliant writer wrote it as taking place in the 60’s. It was probably quite like it. Fun fact one of my supervisors was a hippy in the 70’s and planting trees in the woods and was picked up by Ken Kesey who lived outside of Eugene. Took hi. To his farm. By the time I left in 2011 there was a new hospital built. The part where the movie was shot was a museum. The yard where they jumped the fence was a yard we used up until the end. Right before my friend and I quit we snuck into the wing where they shot most of the film which had been locked off for decades. That was pretty cool.
Ken Kesey was at university and was a volunteer for the CIA who were doing LSD trials. Kesey used to sneak acid to do at work which was in a psychiatric hospital where he wrote this book. The book sold very well, so Kesey and his group of "Merry Pranksters" acted as roadies for the Grateful Dead as they toured around America in a yellow sunshine bus distributing acid in orange juice, basically kick-starting the hippie movement. This is all documented in the book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
@02:58 Anybody else recognize *Brad Dourif?* He played Grima WormTongue in the Lord Of the Rings triology. PS: The movie is 48 years old but still, the faces of *Jack Nicholson* (as Randie McMurphy), *Danny DiVito* (as Martini) & *Christopher Lloyd* (as Max Taber) are very recognizeable. I hope you also recognize *Vincent Schiavelli* (as Bruce Frederickson) who also played the subway ghost in the 1990 movie Ghost, *Will Sampson* (as Chief Bromden) who also played Umilak in the 1977 movie Orca, The Killer Whale & *Scatman Crothers* (as nightguard Turkle) who also voiced Scat Cat in Disney's 1970 animated movie The Aristocats & played Dick Hallorann in the 1980 movie The Shining.
This was the first movie I saw Dourif in. So in my case it's been the other way round. By the way at this age in the mid 1970s he would have been a great choice to impersonate Egon Schiele. At least in my eyes.
@@tubekulose Yes I can see the "0ther way around" =) . About Egon Schiele (the painter I presume), though, I am not sure I understand what you mean unless you're of the opinion Dourif resembles him.
Greetings from Southern California. Jack Nicholson did this 5 years before The Shining. So, the film is almost 50 years old! Many of the actors have passed away including Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) who was 88 and residing in France when she died last September. You might recognize one of America's hardest working character actors. Brad Dourif played Billy Bibbit. His best known lead acting role is his voice of the doll Chucky in the CHILD'S PLAY franchise which started during the '80s. Remember Grima Wormtongue from The Lord of The Rings (THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING)? That's him also. I believe you have reacted to these on your channel. There are 25 years between this and LOTR but, to refresh, Grima ran to the white wizard Saruman after being thrown out of Rohan and then tells Saruman about the the refuge at Helms Deep in THE TWO TOWERS. In THE RETURN OF THE KING, he stabs Saruman causing his death. Anyway, the man who played Billy Bibbit is still acting to the present day. Bye for now!
There was nothing wrong with McMurtry other than he was a nonconformist. In a famous experiment in the 1970s, a psychology professor had some of his college students admitted to a mental hospital (with only the chief of the hospital aware of the experiment) with instructions to act perfectly normally after being admitted, and recorded how long it took the doctors to realize there was nothing wrong with them and they didn't belong there. The results were shocking -- some of the students were discharged quickly, but several of them were forced to stay for weeks, and two of the students were kept in the institution until the professor intervened to get them released.
Good reaction to an important film which speaks deftly to the struggle of the human spirit to escape the powers determined to destroy human freedom. Please read Ken Kesey's novel of the same name from which this movie was created. The story is written as Chief Bromden's narrative. The book, it's play, and this subsequent film were highly influential in the public's awareness of abuses in the mental health institutions industry of the day. The use of lobotomies, electro shock therapy, and overmedication, as punishments for unruly patients was rampant and patients had no recourse or oversight against abuses. Kesey's novel was actually an exposé and led to legislation to correct these egregious wrongdoings. Good job, Kamilla -
Vintery mintery cutery corn, Apple seed and apple thorn, Wire briar limber lock, Three geese in a flock, One flew east, one flew west, And one flew over the cuckoo's nest. - In the book, this nursery rhyme that went through Chief Bromden's mind when he got electroshock treatment. Nurse Ratched didn't want to send McMurphy back to the prison farm because she wanted to break him. She's a nurse in name only. She doesn't want to help the patients. She's an authoritarian whose main goal is to control people, by any means she can muster, including dishonesty, manipulation, and force if necessary. And if that doesn't work, she destroys the person. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is one of my favorite books. It has a different tone from the movie. For one thing, Chief Bromden is the narrator in the book, and he's schizophrenic. The story is told through his delusional, hallucinating eyes, and this carries a kind of truth that you can't get merely by describing events.
Only three films have ever won all of 'The Big 5' Oscars in one year: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress and Best Screenplay. The first was a 1934 film called 'It Happened One Night', this film was the second and the third was 'The Silence of the Lambs' from 1991.
The Black actor towards the end of the film was Scatman Crothers who appeared with Nicholson in The Shining and also John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist
Fun fact about this movie: the studio offered Kirk Douglas a chance to get involved in this project, but he said he was busy. He told them to approach his son (Michael) about it. He jumped in, and the thing cleaned up at the Oscars.
I loved when you spoke Norwegian. Been there several times. I'm also a nursing assistant/practical nurse, but in Finland. This is a great movie, one of my all time favourites. Good reaction, I did relate to your reactions many times.
A couple interesting, comedic takes on this same idea are the movies "The Dream Team" with Michael Keaton and "Crazy People" with Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah.
One of my favorite movies of all time. A great cast of characters. Great acting all around. It definitely makes you think about people that are in this type of situation. A bittersweet ending.
I know you sometimes read the books associated with the movies you watch. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a classic. The story is told through the eyes of the Chief. May be worth a look.
This story takes place in the early 60's when mental institutions were a lot less patient friendly to say the least where electro-shock therapy was pretty common and lobotomies were done as in the film.
Hi Centane,, thanks for reacting to this movie. IMO Nurse Ratched is as diabolical a movie villain as they come, She uses her position and knowledge of the patients' wekanesses to stir them up, bring them down, or go to extremes(especially in Billy's case) just so she can exert and feel in control. Electro shock therapy was used a long time ago, and so thankful we have come a long way since then. the mind is such a complex thing, I don;t know if we will ever fully understand how it works, but I hope people like you help get us there with understanding. This is a really good movie. Thanks again.
34:37 It was a common practice to make patients less aggressive by performing a surgical "Frontal Lobotomy" that removes parts of the frontal lobe of the brain. This was finally ended in 1967.
Sadly, electro-shock therapy was common back at that time. This movie is very powerful and everyone was perfectly cast, from Mac down to everyone else too.
I rented this movie with my mom and my best friend in 1985 on vhs when we were 13 years old. My mom had seen it at recommended the film. My friend Vegard died of a heroin OD in the year 2000 when he was 28. I always think of him when I see this movie. He was a great guy. I still speak with his parents and his little sister. This movie means a lot to me.
Rick Roderick has some interesting insights about this movie...when he lectures about Foucault, the panopticon, the carceral state, docile bodies, etc.
Mack had a pre-frontal lobe lobotomy and that is why Chief smothered him to death. Chief knew Mack's spirit was gone. I saw this movie just after I finished nursing college. It is one of the best movies in my lifetime. J.L., R.N.
You have the Joker, the Penguin, and Doc Brown all in one film! And Scatman! You may know Brad(Billy) from Lord of the Rings as Wormtongue but also the voice of Chucky.
Wow, I'm a film buff at many levels, not my favorite film but seen this 3 times and I never realised Danny Devito & Christopher Lloyd were in it. The beauty of cinema is always discovering new things.
From the many times I've seen this, from when Billy screams his paniced "NO!"'s to Nurse Ratchett to when we see Chief jogging to freedom, I can't help but tear up and sometimes, like now, actually weep a bit. "Amadeus," a movie about the musical genius, Mozart, is also by this director, and, impossibly enough, may be an even better film.
Another movie where a great performance by the antagonist really makes it. Nurse Ratched is legendary as an evil nurse. Louise Fletcher played her so well. Nurse Ratched is probably the most mentally ill person in that place and she is in charge. Loved your reaction when you realized that Chief could talk. :)
Ken Kesey not only an author but an American cultural icon(for better or worse) wrote the book. Look up the further bus and the cool aid acid tests. The book was written from the perspective of chief not McMurphy. That was one of the reasons Ken did not like the movie. I love it and even if it didn't fit Ken's vision it is an ultra classic powerhouse film. Another movie based on a Kesey book is sometimes a great notion. An intense character study that has for me the most powerful scene in all of cinema within it. Ken did approve of this one. Paul Newman produced, directed and starred in this along with a great cast including Henry Fonda. Did you notice Billy was not stuttering after he came out of the room? Not until nurse Ratched(that name entered the collective lexicon as a way to say little tyrant) threatened to tell his mother? It is very entertaining to see such a young person watch movies that were so huge back in the day. Had fun thanks for posting
BTW - tiny nitpick; Norwegian psych-wards *at the time* that this film portrays - were like this! There are some absolutely horrific stories of archaic psychiatric "healthcare" even here in Norway! I'm assuming you didn't mean the contrary, when you made the comment, I'm just throwing it out there, in case anybody gets a different idea :D Also, a lot of younger people do not recognize the lobotomy-scars - and I don't blame them. Decades move on, and things that was once recognizable (even as a trope) are no longer; viewers up untill 80s and 90s would usually recognize the lobotomy scars right away, even if the practice was long gone - but now it seems like a completely forgotten thing.
This is honestly heartbreaking 😭 I've rewatched this movie twice since seeing it, i loved it even tho it had horrible scenes 🥺 Thank you so much for informing in such a respectful and nice way! I learn so much everyday from people like you, I honestly really appreciate it ❤️
Let me just say, I've actually been in Nicholsons characters situation before, slightly different, more legal implications if you get in a fight or something, but I can't even tell you the degree to just how accurate this is. Almost every single character in this movie, I knew someone like that when I was there. There's always one guy who acts like he's stupid or something, but he's really just quiet and later you come to find out he's one of the most competent there. When they're yelling at the TV, the pretend baseball game, stuff like that would happen. I saw this movie after I was there so when I saw this, I almost couldn't believe just how realistic it is. Secondly, you are incredibly gorgeous;)
One of my favorites. I saw it in psych class back in high school as a glimpse of what mental "healthcare" used to be and how things are run these days (well, back in 2008).
This movie in some ways always hits close to home, but I always enjoy the memories watching this with family. There's another movie I think you'd get a kick out of. It's called Rambo: first blood.
They talked a lot about the benefits of electroshock therapy, but in a lot of places it was just used as a form of punishment. Mental health care went through a huge amount of changes in the 1960's, in part because of this book.
Thanx very much for the reaction Centane. You were right-on IMO!!! The book, kept relatively faithful in this movie, was written by KenKesey. MrK had been an attendant in a mental hospital in OR during the late 1950s (cuz he could write at night when the patients went down), and he wrote this about the problems he observed there... He also got access there to the then very little known psychedelic drug LSD, which he came to regard as a drug that could save the world if widely distributed! His acid-loving commune in the early 60s was known as the MerryPranksters. Their outrageous activities were chronicled by another pretty famous writer, TomWolfe, in his book TheElectricKoolaidAcidTest.
I read somewhere that Jack Nicholson's first movie role was on the black & white version of " Little Shop Of Horrors " . He played the part of the patient at the dentist 🦷
Funny how this movie had Scatman Crothers who played in The Shining as The the caretaker of the hotel, The Joker, The Penguin, Chucky, Doc Brown and The Subway ghost from Ghost.
this story has many levels, but it is a beautiful example of totality. Its director, Cech Milos Forman, lived in the house of socialism for most of his life in the Czech Republic, so he was the best at showing their absurdity or beautifully targeted attacks against the regime, such as the scene with the football match. honor his memory
winner of Oscars for Best Picture, Best actor (Jack N's huge breakout role), Best Actress (the Big Nurse) Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Billy) . Based on a great novel of the same name
One of the GREATEST movies ever made. It changes you, leaves you with a different worldview, a much deeper level of empathy towards your fellow human beings. Powerful stuff.
Republicans never watched it and if they did, their empathy lightbulb never went on. Lets remember who shut down every single mental hospital in the US because sick people in the US deserve zero empathy.... republicans.
It's a battle between Nurse Ratched (the authority figure) and McMurphy (the rebel) for control of the group. Her knowledge that Billy's past problems would be triggered by mentioning his mother shows her true nature. Notice he was not stuttering when first questioned after they found him with Candy, but when she brought up his mother the stuttering returned.
yes good observation and she is a snake
RIP Louise Fletcher. She was so good at portraying evil, hateful characters. Her role on Deep Space Nine as recurring character Winn Adami shows how well she can play conniving, scheming characters.
I think Brad Dourif is an under-rated actor. He was good here, and in Dune, and in Myst III: Exile, and in Lord of the Rings...
@@Hiraghm Indeed. He was also really creepy in The Exorcist III and as Lon Suder in Star Trek Voyager (season 2: "Meld", "Basics part 1" and season 3 "Basics part 2").
@@JustWasted3HoursHere
She also played a very hateful
character in the 1987 film version
of "Flowers In The Attic".
In real life, the nurse, Louise Fletcher, is a very nice woman. Look up her Oscar speech. Both her parents were deaf and she signed her thank you to them.
She recently passed away. Louise also earned an Emmy nomination for a guest spot on the drama "Picket Fences".
I would argue some of her best work was done on Star Trek Deep Space 9!!! It was Emmy caliber IMO!!!!
Remember Brainstorm? When she goes into cardiac arrest. In her dying moments she hooks herself up to the machine. ruclips.net/video/uFQrd2Y9R04/видео.html&feature=share9
Fun fact; Louise Fletcher was so disturbed by her portrayal of nurse Ratchet that she had a boudoir photo taken of herself and gave copies to the cast members.
She also played Frank’s mom, Peg in Shameless. And she was awesome! She was only in a couple episodes but her presence felt longer. Yeah she was an incredible actress. R.I.P. 🙏
It's an incredible film, lets you understand how pure evil can reside so easily within any place where people require help.
It shows the arbitrary nature of authority.
I worked with mental health residents as a CNA for 31 years. The actors who played the patients all hit the nail right on the head! Each one reminds me of patients I have worked with personally.
Thanks for your service in that field 😊. My father spent some time in a lower-key version of a place like this for 6 months. He was a very functional patient but I remember visiting when I was 15 and being attacked by another man who liked to wear a bike helmet but tried to hit me with it. My first introduction to learning empathy for people with issues I've never encountered.
Me too, I worked as a CNA in a Psychiatric Unit for over 19 years and loved it. Worked with and met some very nice people.
Brad Dourif is an amazingly talented and underutilized actor. He elevates every movie in which he appears.
And at this age in the mid 1970s he would have been a great choice to impersonate Egon Schiele. At least in my eyes.
Brad Dourif is a firm believer in taking every job that comes his way. He shows up in the damndest places.
Exorcist III and HBO's Deadwood, for two. ♥
@@mr.a8315 In my opinion "Exorcist III" is quite an underrated movie.
The best is when Brad is a serial killer on Star Trek Voyager. Tuvok mind melds with him. The serial mind is not logical.
Filmed in Oregon , Dr Spivey was an actual Psychiatrist and technical consultant on the movie set . Actress Louise Fletcher *Nurse Ratchet" hated the movie and only saw it once at the Premiere. She was one of the nicest people on earth and the exact opposite of her character. The operation on Mac was called a Prefrontal Lobotomy used up until the 1960s when it was deemed inhumane and eliminated from medical practice.
I love Chief so much. This film overlooks the fact that he was a war veteran too. It’s also heartbreaking that because everyone thinks he’s deaf, the orderlies think they can taunt him for being half Native American. No wonder he feels small and weak in the hospital, he’s been through this his entire life. His father had his lands practically snatched from him by the government and had his own issues with alcohol abuse.
Billy went on to become a great character actor. He was in LOTR, Dune and over 80 other movies.
'Excellent actor. He played (brilliantly,) Doc in the HBO series, DEADWOOD.
He was the voice of CHUCKY in that whole franchise. Not my thing (CHUCKY,) but, it was really popular. He is a good actor.
Can't forget about Wise Blood. His best performance.
His daughter has followed in his footsteps. He played the mentat for Vladimir Harkonnen in the 80s DUNE
A number of great character actors in this.
This is such a great movie. An excellent character study, and a commentary on the human will. The moment when Chief is running away and it fades to black is so bittersweetly rewarding.
Will Sampson, who played the Chief, had never acted before when the producers found him (he was a bronco buster in a rodeo) but you'd never know that from this performance. Great job all around to everyone involved with this movie.
This movie is one of only three to win the five major Academy Awards: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Screenplay; Best Actor; Best Actress.
The other two are - It Happened One Night (1934) & The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Three very, very good films.
Umm American Beauty was a top five winner also...;)
@@jannathompson2262
You are correct.
@@artdeco64 American Beauty is a great movie;)
everything everywhere all at once also
I cried like a baby first time watching it, back then. Still can. One of the best movies about freedom, ever.
The director is Miloš Forman, a Czech filmmaker, who lost both parents who were sent to 2 different Concentration Camps in Germany. He has won numerous awards for his films and died in 2018. Cuckoo’s nest was a novel in 1962, which was made into a play, and was produced on Broadway in 1963 starring Kirk Douglas.
Really great interview with Forman
ruclips.net/video/Q5MEOm0-1U8/видео.html
Kirk tried to get a film adaptation of "Nest" off the ground, but to no avail. His son, Michael, a legend in his own right, managed to, and Kirk used to playfully give him grief for not casting him as McMurphy.
@@Madbandit77 yes, it would be interesting to know how that would have affected the overall film. But Kirk was in his late 50’s by then, and producers were concerned he was too old, whereas Jack was in his late 30’s and was one of the most sought after actors at the time. The book’s author, Ken Kesey, thought Gene Hackman, who would have been in his mid 40’s then, should have been cast. That is another interesting scenario to consider. Along with the character of Mc Murphy, the entire cast was so strong that maybe the film would have been equally good regardless.However, Jack does bring a unique and explosive quality, with so much complexity, that it is one of his great performances. I think the haunting score by Jack Nitzsche also contributed heavily to its success.
Writer did work in mental hospital in late 1950s , also when this movie came out frontal lobe lobotomy was banned in US
"Lobotomies" are still done to cure some conditions , much cleaner and accurate gamma knife brain surgery .
Other good one is Awakenings , Robin Williams and Robert De Niro , sadly when Robin started his own L- Dopa treatment , was he thinking he ends like Robert De Niro character ?
This movie had a big effect on me when I first saw it. Wasn't expecting to be moved so much by it. That ending....
This was Christopher Lloyd's first movie. It's funny that his debut would lead to other quirky and slightly crazy characters such as Doc Brown (Back to the Future) and Reverend Jim Ignatowski on the tv series Taxi along with his Taxi costar Danny DeVito who was Martini in this film
My late, great beloved Nana was a nurse at Essondale ( the British Columbia Funny Farm for Men). She totally loved the loonies and the feeling was mutual. They played a lot of cribbage and gin rummy.
@@colinwilson4609 'The funny farm' has to be one of the all-time-great euphemisms, but it's a long time since I encountered anyone using it! 😀
@@previouslyachimp You're welcome!
@@colinwilson4609 😊
More likely his innate style appealed to those casting the role in the first place.
ie he does crazy so very well to begin with.
Nurse Ratched is on of the most evil characters in film history, IMO.
I've known several nurses in my life (related to two), and unfortunately I've met quite a few more over the last few years because of health problems. The nurses I've dealt with are among the finest people I've ever known. Maybe I've just been lucky to not run into any bad ones, but I love 'em all.
Then she became Kai Winn on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Perfect role for her.
Percy (Doug Hutchison) from "The Green Mile" is often a top contender as well, easily one of the most hated. You thoroughly hate his guts.
I'm willing to wager that the nurses you've encountered were not mental health nurses.
@@inspectre27 I'd recommend that you not make that wager, even though I could use the money :-)
Like all professions that give power over people there will occasionally be individuals attracted to the profession for the sake of that power rather than anything else about it.
Just as we have seen doctors and police be murderers, it is entirely possible for nurses to be exactly this kind of person - and all the more possible when they work within a mental hospital with absolute power over their victims.
Generally speaking though, the greater effort expended to attain the position, the less likely that they will be the type to abuse it - which is why so few doctors are like this, the effort to become even a low level doctor is just far too high a bar for almost all people who don't genuinely wish to be a doctor for either healing people and/or the money associated with the profession.
It is also very interesting to read the book. It is fully narrated by Chief and many characters have quite backstory or motivation explained. For example Nurse Ratched is single ex-army nurse, which is quite explaining her stubborness and eager to control.
The actor who played Nurse Ratchet was an amazing villain. She played the bad guy in many things, and was amazing every time.
I loved her recurring role on Deep Space Nine.
She definitely had a talent for playing the antagonist. She won the Academy Award for playing Nurse Ratched.
@@robertszekely8686 She was also brilliant in DS9.
@@erictaylor5462 yes she was. She played the role of Kai Winn great. May she rest in peace.
The actor who portrayed Billy is the same actor who portayed Grima Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; Brad Dourif. That'll blow your mind if you didn't realise.
Brad was nominated for an Oscar for the role, his first film job.
He was also excellent playing the role of Doc Cochran in the HBO TV series Deadwood.
This was the first movie I saw Dourif in. So in my case it's been the other way round. By the way at this age in the mid 1970s he would have been a great choice to impersonate Egon Schiele. At least in my eyes.
He is also the voice for Chucky in the Child's Play movie franchise.
He played the redneck Deputy Sheriff in Mississippi Burning
The Acting from everyone was phenomenal.
A great classic film propelling Jack Nicholson to fame as one of America's most versatile actors. A true gem of a movie.... However, you have to remember the movie is set to take place during the early 1960s so mental wards and Psychiatric hospitals were still pretty barbaric back in that time period. You can't compare it to how Norwegian mental hospitals are today. I'm 66 and this takes place around the time I was 6...many many decades ago.
The methods in mental hospitals may have changed, but the mentality hasn't.
Nurse Ratched is one of the coldest villains of all time imo. A real c u next Tuesday.
Also, I would suggest Cool Hand Luke at some point. Many parallels between that film and this one!
In a college acting class my friend and I pick the scene where Chief takes a stick of gum. I played Chief. The day we were to perform it for the class my friend said he was going to give a real stick of gum, and to just go with it. I thought that would be fun, so I agreed. In the performance he pressed it into the palm of my hand. When I opened my hand it wasn’t gum, but a condom. I completely broke character laughing, and tossed it away. Our teacher saw what it was and fell out of his seat laughing. It took everyone 20 minutes to calm down from the hysterical laughter and we started over, with strict instructions of NO props. Lol We got an A+
"....and they say that Chief is still running to this day" 🤣Wow, this movie made you speak Norwegian! We don't see that everyday! 😄 I'm bummed that you thought there was a "twist" in this movie. I mean, Chief speaking is a twist, but I think they were recommending it to you more because of "Shutter Island" took place at an asylum. Other reactors have gone into this movie thinking it's a comedy! It's just a straight drama, through and through, with amazing acting! Depressing is usually the word that was used to describe it at the time! And yeah, NO ONE likes Nurse Ratched! In fact, I saw on some list that she was named the number two screen villain of all time, right underneath Hannibal Lecter from "Silence Of The Lambs"! You are the PERFECT reactor for this movie, though, just because of your nurse background, I was psyched to see that you hit this one! :D
Thanks for watching and reacting to this film. Everyone should see it. Such a masterpiece of moviemaking!!
Am too tired to go into what it was like back in the day in those places, but have to say that when Nurse said they're all there voluntarily, it's only a half-truth! Once you commit yourself, you're just as committed as those involuntarily unless you just do exactly as you're told! People don't realize that until they commit themselves. First time you disagree they start adding time till possible release. Back then they took you in front of a table of 8-10 actual Drs after a couple of weeks in, then every week afterwards, but if you didn't do EVERYTHING they told you the previous week & pass each of their verbal exams, after around third try they just kept you & you'd probably never get out! I had a schizophrenic friend who wasn't allowed to go home for Christmas with his schizophrenic brother from same hospital for Christmas one year, both assumed would never permanently be relrased, so he escaped. They found him a couple weeks later frozen to death by a lake! This was as late as 1987 & only changed in '90's here in America! Unfortunately now it's almost just as fukd as before since they just throw big pharma scripts at you & kick you out the door once they can't make more money!😔
Keep up all your great work, friend! Is what the world needs now more than ever!!!
See ya!
✌🌎❤
🙏
I was in the late 90s, in California, it didnt change that much the nurses sucked
In a famous experiment in the 1970s, a psychology professor had some of his college students admitted to a mental hospital (with only the chief of the hospital aware of the experiment) with instructions to act perfectly normally after being admitted, and recorded how long it took the doctors to realize there was nothing wrong with them and they didn't belong there. The results were shocking -- some of the students were discharged quickly, but several of them were forced to stay for weeks, and two of the students were kept in the institution until the professor intervened to get them released.
@@gdiaz8827Like I said, too many horror stories to tell here, friend, but I myself was committed at 18yro in '90. I was fortunate to have a "coach" who'd been committed before. I called him first chance I got in & he told me to do EVERYTHING they told me & no fukn around or I'd be DONE!!! Took me a month to get out by doing so! If didn't take meds they'd strip you naked, throw you in the rubber room & inject you! Many women were sexually abused, of course. Looked just like hospital here, & in excellent must-see if haven't, "12 MONKEYS." One day me and another patient were outside smoking during a storm, lightning struck hospital & knocked power out. Hospital switched on emergency generator but all the doors got locked so we got stuck outside. When doors finally opened we found ourselves alone walking toward elevator trying to get back to our ward. We thought we were in trouble for getting stuck outside. We noticed a door open leading to the basement floor. We took a look and it was like a dungeon! Had shackles on the walls! Hopefully that was just a relic of the past, but was horrifying nonetheless. Who knows wtf some of the twisted staff still did down there? Was barbaric af! I later went on to work in the field & knowing how it's run is horrifying on different level now, sad to say. Is why there's a mental health epidemic going on right now in America that you don't hear much about because it's all about the BIG money anymore! Sigmund Freud, FATHER OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, had about 30 patients his entire career & stuck with each as their personal life-coach to the end. A 6-yr nurse practitioner at your local mental health center gets that many or more their first two years working in the field these days! And 3-5 yrs later they usually move on to work elsewhere, leaving their patients, & a newbie comes in to take their place. Its a revolving door of players. Same with med-providers! They have to follow memos, effectively tying one hand behind their backs as 6-yr degree NP underlings, with no subjective leeway on matters an actual Dr can make! YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE SUBJECTIVE DECISIONS ON THE SPOT WHEN DEALING WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES & PASSING OUT CHEMICALS THAT MAY DAMAGE THEM FOR REST OF THEIR LIVES!!! SMGDMFH!😔 The centers have only one actual Doctor/PhD who comes in once every week to sign paychecks & doesn't know his patients from Adam! You have to have good insurance or $150-$200 per visit for a REAL doctor anymore. You used to be able to find PhDs that would take government insurance & could bypass the centers, but they faded that out about 10 yrs ago to herd the most vulnerable into their brand new centers popping up everywhere, at least here in TN! Sad af!😔💔
Oh well, we got young Lights shining like Centane here gonna make things better for the world!🤗💕
Hope your doing better now, friend! Thanks for sharing!
Best Wishes from NashvilleTowne! 🎸 🎶 🙏❤
@@charlize1253 I remember that from my undergrad studies, friend! You a Psych major, minor? I didn't see you here. I just replied to gdiaz & shared a bit more if interested?
Good thing you were so tired or that could have gone really long.. jk. What you're talking about is no laughing matter, and I can tell it hits close to home for you. I've got a daughter myself who's been diagnosed with schizophrenia and we as a family know how scary that illness can be. She's one of the lucky ones who has family that has never stopped fighting for her and we've got her at home now, on balanced meds living a healthy happy life, one day at a time. 🙏❤️👍
This is one of the best movie ever made. It won the 5 main Oscar prizes
Where they took the boat out to sea is called Depoe Bay. I almost died there in 1978 when I was 18. Huge rollers hit our boat and nearly capsized us and launched me into the water. My brother was able to pull me back into the boat. Quite a memorable day.
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is my favorite Milos Forman directed movie, followed by "Amadeus". Both are masterpieces IMO. I saw this at a young age (too young for a rated R movie). It was the first movie that I recognized truly incredible acting (especially from Jack Nicholson). It was also the first movie that really drew me in on an emotional level. I found myself really hating Nurse Ratchet.
"Ragtime" is another great one he directed. Those are his best English movies. But "The Fireman's Ball" and "Loves Of A Blonde" are also masterpieces, those are the movies that first put him on the map in the 60s, part of the Czech New Wave. But definitely "Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus" and "Ragtime" are his American masterpieces. Too bad he recut "Amadeus" and you can't even get the original theatrical version anymore, it was WAY better in its original state.
Yes, agree with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as his best movie. Also "Hair" needs to be mentioned. But in fact I also really like his later movies -"People vs Larry Flynt" and "Man on the Moon", which are both quite underrated imho. And ofc "The Fireman's Ball", but this is I think movie which wouldn't resonate with non-czech audience very much.
5 years later Jack Nicholson and Scatman Crothers (Turkle) were back together in The Shining
When I was in school I worked at a mental health facility. I worked with mostly violent people at first and later with bedridden people. Very sad stuff. Over worked, Underpaid, understaffed, and under appreciated.
Winner of 5 Oscars including Best Picture.
The movie was based on a 60's novel by Ken Kesey. The story is basically a metaphor of American society: our citizens are basically kept in line by the authorities, who use various tactics (racial division, gaslighting, drugs, etc.). Great film.
I love it when you talk/go off in Norwegian.
The title of the film comes from a nursery rhyme:
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over
The cuckoo's nest.
Ken Kesey chose that as the name for his book, which is told from the point of view of the Big Chief. Of course the mental hospital can be considered a nest full of cuckoo people, as "cuckoo" is a casual synonym for "crazy."
I read the book and it's all through the eyes of Chief and gives a lot more perspective to the movie and some of the things that happen and the interactions between him and Mac. Chief is a really shy and timid character and they reference that in the film when he says to Mac "You're much bigger than me", because to him Mac is much bigger in spirit. It doesn't matter to Chief that he's a large man, because he feels so small inside. Mac sorta wakes him up though, inspires him, to live, instead of hide from the world in a mental institution just because he's scared of and intimidated by it. The movie is really about Chief.
It's Mr Halloran and Jack Torrence.
The scene where he crashes through the window at the end is the first time I ever got emotional watching a movie
Fun fact…I worked at the State Hospital that this was filmed at for 22 years.
Was it anything like the movie? Just wondering
@@karidennis6154 Well I started in 89. I had a friend who was there in the 70’s and there was a bit of similarity. Ken Kesey the brilliant writer wrote it as taking place in the 60’s. It was probably quite like it. Fun fact one of my supervisors was a hippy in the 70’s and planting trees in the woods and was picked up by Ken Kesey who lived outside of Eugene. Took hi. To his farm. By the time I left in 2011 there was a new hospital built. The part where the movie was shot was a museum. The yard where they jumped the fence was a yard we used up until the end. Right before my friend and I quit we snuck into the wing where they shot most of the film which had been locked off for decades. That was pretty cool.
Enjoyed her perspective.
Ken Kesey was at university and was a volunteer for the CIA who were doing LSD trials. Kesey used to sneak acid to do at work which was in a psychiatric hospital where he wrote this book.
The book sold very well, so Kesey and his group of "Merry Pranksters" acted as roadies for the Grateful Dead as they toured around America in a yellow sunshine bus distributing acid in orange juice, basically kick-starting the hippie movement. This is all documented in the book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
....It's not just a baseball game Centane, IT'S THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!
@02:58 Anybody else recognize *Brad Dourif?* He played Grima WormTongue in the Lord Of the Rings triology.
PS: The movie is 48 years old but still, the faces of *Jack Nicholson* (as Randie McMurphy), *Danny DiVito* (as Martini) & *Christopher Lloyd* (as Max Taber) are very recognizeable. I hope you also recognize *Vincent Schiavelli* (as Bruce Frederickson) who also played the subway ghost in the 1990 movie Ghost, *Will Sampson* (as Chief Bromden) who also played Umilak in the 1977 movie Orca, The Killer Whale & *Scatman Crothers* (as nightguard Turkle) who also voiced Scat Cat in Disney's 1970 animated movie The Aristocats & played Dick Hallorann in the 1980 movie The Shining.
This was the first movie I saw Dourif in. So in my case it's been the other way round. By the way at this age in the mid 1970s he would have been a great choice to impersonate Egon Schiele. At least in my eyes.
@@tubekulose Yes I can see the "0ther way around" =) . About Egon Schiele (the painter I presume), though, I am not sure I understand what you mean unless you're of the opinion Dourif resembles him.
@@zeezee9670 😂Yes, the painter. I think he resembled him.
Schiavelli was also in
"Fast Times At Ridgemont High"
& "Better Off Dead", playing teachers.
Scatman Crothers was also in
"Silver Streak" & "Zapped!"
Ratched is a prime example of the Head Girl Mentality.
Greetings from Southern California. Jack Nicholson did this 5 years before The Shining. So, the film is almost 50 years old! Many of the actors have passed away including Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) who was 88 and residing in France when she died last September. You might recognize one of America's hardest working character actors. Brad Dourif played Billy Bibbit. His best known lead acting role is his voice of the doll Chucky in the CHILD'S PLAY franchise which started during the '80s. Remember Grima Wormtongue from The Lord of The Rings (THE TWO TOWERS and THE RETURN OF THE KING)? That's him also. I believe you have reacted to these on your channel. There are 25 years between this and LOTR but, to refresh, Grima ran to the white wizard Saruman after being thrown out of Rohan and then tells Saruman about the the refuge at Helms Deep in THE TWO TOWERS. In THE RETURN OF THE KING, he stabs Saruman causing his death. Anyway, the man who played Billy Bibbit is still acting to the present day. Bye for now!
He played the redneck Deputy Sheriff in Mississippi Burning.
I have been in twice for depression, one voluntary and the other forced. Unfortunately the nurses are crazier than the patients.
very true
Sometimes people that work in these places can be quite brutal.
There was nothing wrong with McMurtry other than he was a nonconformist. In a famous experiment in the 1970s, a psychology professor had some of his college students admitted to a mental hospital (with only the chief of the hospital aware of the experiment) with instructions to act perfectly normally after being admitted, and recorded how long it took the doctors to realize there was nothing wrong with them and they didn't belong there. The results were shocking -- some of the students were discharged quickly, but several of them were forced to stay for weeks, and two of the students were kept in the institution until the professor intervened to get them released.
Good reaction to an important film which speaks deftly to the struggle of the human spirit to escape the powers determined to destroy human freedom.
Please read Ken Kesey's novel of the same name from which this movie was created. The story is written as Chief Bromden's narrative.
The book, it's play, and this subsequent film were highly influential in the public's awareness of abuses in the mental health institutions industry of the day. The use of lobotomies, electro shock therapy, and overmedication, as punishments for unruly patients was rampant and patients had no recourse or oversight against abuses.
Kesey's novel was actually an exposé and led to legislation to correct these egregious wrongdoings.
Good job, Kamilla -
Vintery mintery cutery corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire briar limber lock,
Three geese in a flock,
One flew east, one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
- In the book, this nursery rhyme that went through Chief Bromden's mind when he got electroshock treatment.
Nurse Ratched didn't want to send McMurphy back to the prison farm because she wanted to break him. She's a nurse in name only. She doesn't want to help the patients. She's an authoritarian whose main goal is to control people, by any means she can muster, including dishonesty, manipulation, and force if necessary. And if that doesn't work, she destroys the person.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is one of my favorite books. It has a different tone from the movie. For one thing, Chief Bromden is the narrator in the book, and he's schizophrenic. The story is told through his delusional, hallucinating eyes, and this carries a kind of truth that you can't get merely by describing events.
Only three films have ever won all of 'The Big 5' Oscars in one year: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress and Best Screenplay. The first was a 1934 film called 'It Happened One Night', this film was the second and the third was 'The Silence of the Lambs' from 1991.
The Black actor towards the end of the film was Scatman Crothers who appeared with Nicholson in The Shining and also John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist
Fun fact about this movie: the studio offered Kirk Douglas a chance to get involved in this project, but he said he was busy. He told them to approach his son (Michael) about it. He jumped in, and the thing cleaned up at the Oscars.
I loved when you spoke Norwegian. Been there several times. I'm also a nursing assistant/practical nurse, but in Finland.
This is a great movie, one of my all time favourites.
Good reaction, I did relate to your reactions many times.
A couple interesting, comedic takes on this same idea are the movies "The Dream Team" with Michael Keaton and "Crazy People" with Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah.
One of my favorite movies of all time. A great cast of characters. Great acting all around. It definitely makes you think about people that are in this type of situation. A bittersweet ending.
I know you sometimes read the books associated with the movies you watch. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a classic. The story is told through the eyes of the Chief. May be worth a look.
This story takes place in the early 60's when mental institutions were a lot less patient friendly to say the least where electro-shock therapy was pretty common and lobotomies were done as in the film.
I saw the live theatre version of this, starring Christian Slater!
Hi Centane,, thanks for reacting to this movie. IMO Nurse Ratched is as diabolical a movie villain as they come, She uses her position and knowledge of the patients' wekanesses to stir them up, bring them down, or go to extremes(especially in Billy's case) just so she can exert and feel in control. Electro shock therapy was used a long time ago, and so thankful we have come a long way since then. the mind is such a complex thing, I don;t know if we will ever fully understand how it works, but I hope people like you help get us there with understanding. This is a really good movie. Thanks again.
TV's were expensive in the 1960s. Having even one in a facility was rare
34:37 It was a common practice to make patients less aggressive by performing a surgical "Frontal Lobotomy" that removes parts of the frontal lobe of the brain. This was finally ended in 1967.
Sadly, electro-shock therapy was common back at that time. This movie is very powerful and everyone was perfectly cast, from Mac down to everyone else too.
I rented this movie with my mom and my best friend in 1985 on vhs when we were 13 years old. My mom had seen it at recommended the film. My friend Vegard died of a heroin OD in the year 2000 when he was 28. I always think of him when I see this movie. He was a great guy. I still speak with his parents and his little sister. This movie means a lot to me.
I love you even more knowing that you're a nursing assistant
Rick Roderick has some interesting insights about this movie...when he lectures about Foucault, the panopticon, the carceral state, docile bodies, etc.
Mack had a pre-frontal lobe lobotomy and that is why Chief smothered him to death. Chief knew Mack's spirit was gone.
I saw this movie just after I finished nursing college. It is one of the best movies in my lifetime. J.L., R.N.
You have the Joker, the Penguin, and Doc Brown all in one film! And Scatman!
You may know Brad(Billy) from Lord of the Rings as Wormtongue but also the voice of Chucky.
Wow, I'm a film buff at many levels, not my favorite film but seen this 3 times and I never realised Danny Devito & Christopher Lloyd were in it. The beauty of cinema is always discovering new things.
From the many times I've seen this, from when Billy screams his paniced "NO!"'s to Nurse Ratchett to when we see Chief jogging to freedom, I can't help but tear up and sometimes, like now, actually weep a bit. "Amadeus," a movie about the musical genius, Mozart, is also by this director, and, impossibly enough, may be an even better film.
Appreciate your professional take on this movie.
Another movie where a great performance by the antagonist really makes it. Nurse Ratched is legendary as an evil nurse. Louise Fletcher played her so well. Nurse Ratched is probably the most mentally ill person in that place and she is in charge. Loved your reaction when you realized that Chief could talk. :)
Billy was the voice of Chucky the killer doll. And the serial killer in the Exorcist 3. He was great in that role.
Don't know if you recognized him, but Billy is played by Brad Dourif, who we also saw as Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings. :)
Ken Kesey not only an author but an American cultural icon(for better or worse) wrote the book. Look up the further bus and the cool aid acid tests. The book was written from the perspective of chief not McMurphy. That was one of the reasons Ken did not like the movie. I love it and even if it didn't fit Ken's vision it is an ultra classic powerhouse film. Another movie based on a Kesey book is sometimes a great notion. An intense character study that has for me the most powerful scene in all of cinema within it. Ken did approve of this one. Paul Newman produced, directed and starred in this along with a great cast including Henry Fonda. Did you notice Billy was not stuttering after he came out of the room? Not until nurse Ratched(that name entered the collective lexicon as a way to say little tyrant) threatened to tell his mother? It is very entertaining to see such a young person watch movies that were so huge back in the day. Had fun thanks for posting
BTW - tiny nitpick; Norwegian psych-wards *at the time* that this film portrays - were like this! There are some absolutely horrific stories of archaic psychiatric "healthcare" even here in Norway! I'm assuming you didn't mean the contrary, when you made the comment, I'm just throwing it out there, in case anybody gets a different idea :D
Also, a lot of younger people do not recognize the lobotomy-scars - and I don't blame them. Decades move on, and things that was once recognizable (even as a trope) are no longer; viewers up untill 80s and 90s would usually recognize the lobotomy scars right away, even if the practice was long gone - but now it seems like a completely forgotten thing.
This is honestly heartbreaking 😭 I've rewatched this movie twice since seeing it, i loved it even tho it had horrible scenes 🥺
Thank you so much for informing in such a respectful and nice way! I learn so much everyday from people like you, I honestly really appreciate it ❤️
You have to watch the movie classic „12 Angry Men“ from 1957 you will love it
Love that movie
It was the 70's. Mental health care then was worse than it is today, and today it's about at the level of physical health care was on 1800.
Let me just say, I've actually been in Nicholsons characters situation before, slightly different, more legal implications if you get in a fight or something, but I can't even tell you the degree to just how accurate this is. Almost every single character in this movie, I knew someone like that when I was there. There's always one guy who acts like he's stupid or something, but he's really just quiet and later you come to find out he's one of the most competent there. When they're yelling at the TV, the pretend baseball game, stuff like that would happen. I saw this movie after I was there so when I saw this, I almost couldn't believe just how realistic it is. Secondly, you are incredibly gorgeous;)
One of my favorites. I saw it in psych class back in high school as a glimpse of what mental "healthcare" used to be and how things are run these days (well, back in 2008).
A totally mind-twisting film is “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990).
This movie in some ways always hits close to home, but I always enjoy the memories watching this with family. There's another movie I think you'd get a kick out of. It's called Rambo: first blood.
They talked a lot about the benefits of electroshock therapy, but in a lot of places it was just used as a form of punishment. Mental health care went through a huge amount of changes in the 1960's, in part because of this book.
Your comments and conclusions are spot on !!!
Thanx very much for the reaction Centane. You were right-on IMO!!!
The book, kept relatively faithful in this movie, was written by KenKesey. MrK had been an attendant in a mental hospital in OR during the late 1950s (cuz he could write at night when the patients went down), and he wrote this about the problems he observed there... He also got access there to the then very little known psychedelic drug LSD, which he came to regard as a drug that could save the world if widely distributed!
His acid-loving commune in the early 60s was known as the MerryPranksters. Their outrageous activities were chronicled by another pretty famous writer, TomWolfe, in his book TheElectricKoolaidAcidTest.
Lady when you busted out Norwegian to curse the nurse, shit had me weak ❤
You are Norwegian? Holy smokes I would have never guessed. You English is perfect. On top you are really special.
Milos said "it must be real" and it is!!
I love her beautiful face and accent. How she says utter instead of other is adorable
I read somewhere that Jack Nicholson's first movie role was on the black & white version of " Little Shop Of Horrors " . He played the part of the patient at the dentist 🦷
My favorite movie for the Drama genre, Jack plays one of the all-time great characters here and Nurse Ratched was a great b@@@h.
Funny how this movie had Scatman Crothers who played in The Shining as The the caretaker of the hotel, The Joker, The Penguin, Chucky, Doc Brown and The Subway ghost from Ghost.
Jack and Leo fought each other in an episode of Celebrity Death Match
Nearly all the actors studied with Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg or Uta Hagen.
this story has many levels, but it is a beautiful example of totality. Its director, Cech Milos Forman, lived in the house of socialism for most of his life in the Czech Republic, so he was the best at showing their absurdity or beautifully targeted attacks against the regime, such as the scene with the football match. honor his memory
This movie sits right next to the godfather as best movies ever❤️🤘 ms ratchet is one of the most highly rated role as a villian in cinema history
Brad Dourif (Billy) was great 25 yr.s later as Grimma Wormtongue inLOTR
Electroshock therapy started (along with other ways to induce seizures) because after a seizure a person feels relaxed and calm.
years later, "Chief" went on to portray Chief Ten Bears in the Clint Eastwood movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales"
The actor playing Billy is also Grima Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings.
winner of Oscars for Best Picture, Best actor (Jack N's huge breakout role), Best Actress (the Big Nurse) Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Billy) . Based on a great novel of the same name