One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In this clean, orderly, disciplined world, who needs guys like McMurphy? Everybody.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Timing: 2:15 (135 min)
8.6/10
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8.6/10
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Release date
Country
Genre
Budget
$3 000 000
Box office
$108 981 275
Website
Director
Scenario
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Paul Sylbert
Audition
Jane Feinberg, Mike Fenton
Editing
Lynzee Klingman, Sheldon Kahn
Whole Team (42)

Short description

Chief Bromden, a gigantic Euro-Indigenous American patient at a psychiatric hospital, who presents himself as deaf, mute, and docile. Bromden's tale focuses mainly on the antics of tale focuses mainly on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, a petty criminal who, fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.

What's left behind the scenes

  • Louise Fletcher received the role only a week before filming began. This event was preceded by about six months of continuous auditions. Miloš Forman couldn't decide to cast this actress in the project, but after viewing other candidates, he repeatedly invited Louise to auditions until he finally made a final decision.
  • In English, there is a set expression "cuckoo's nest" which means "mental institution".
  • Ken Kesey, the author of the novel of the same name, wrote a screenplay for the film, but it did not appeal to Forman, as the narrative was told from the perspective of Bromden. After that, an offended Kesey stated that he would never watch the adaptation of his own novella 'in such a perverted form.' Moreover, he even sued the film's producers, but his claim was dismissed.
  • Many years later, Ken Kesey lay in his own bed, flipping through TV channels in search of something interesting to watch. Unexpectedly, he came across a rather curious film. Only a few minutes passed before he realized what the picture was, and immediately switched to another channel.
  • Besides Louise Fletcher, Anne Bancroft and Ellen Burstyn also competed for the role of Nurse Mildred Ratched.
  • The most difficult moment in the creation of the film was that no serious film studio wanted to take on such a dubious project. Kirk Douglas met Miloš Forman in Prague, where he told him about his plans and immediately offered him the position of director.
  • Throughout the filming process, actor William Redfield was seriously ill. Several months after completing work on the project, William passed away.
  • Will Sampson argued with Forman about the concept of the Chief Bromden role and ultimately played it his own way.
  • Among the contenders for the role of Randle Patrick McMurphy were such famous actors as James Caan, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, and Burt Reynolds. Ultimately, the role was offered to Jack Nicholson.
  • Miloš Forman’s film was the second in history to win all the most significant awards at the Academy Awards ceremony: "Best Picture", "Best Director", "Best Adapted Screenplay", "Best Actor", and "Best Actress".
  • Ken Kesey wrote his book inspired by his work at a California state hospital for veterans.
  • Kirk Douglas wanted to play one of the roles, but by the time the project was launched, he had aged too much.
  • With the exception of the fishing scene (which was filmed last), the entire film was shot sequentially. The fishing scene was filmed in the smallest harbor in the world, located in Oregon.
  • Forman did not want to film the fishing scene at all, as he believed it would destroy the feeling of confinement experienced by the patients within the hospital space.
  • Most of the extras were actually mentally ill patients. Each member of the film crew was assigned 2-3 patients so that they could find something resembling mutual understanding with the patients.
  • Alexander Morfov staged the play "Eclipse" based on the novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Lenkom Theatre.
  • Kirk Douglas held the rights to the film adaptation for a long time, but his son, no less famous Michael Douglas, ultimately took on the project. Nevertheless, Kirk retained the right to receive a percentage of the profits.
  • This film marked the big-screen debut of Brad Dourif (best known as the voice of the killer doll Chucky in the 1988 film *Child's Play*) and Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Brown from the 1985 film *Back to the Future*).
  • Before starting the filming process, Miloš Forman gathered the entire film crew and showed them the film “Titicut Follies” (1967).
  • The film is based on Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1962).

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