One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Critic Reviews

There's a lot here. But with a classic like Cuckoo's Nest, too much is never enough.

Even granting the artist his license, America is much too big and various to be satisfactorily reduced to the dimensions of one mental ward in a movie like this.

Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest not a great film because it is manipulative, or is it great because it is so superbly manipulative? I can see it through either filter.

Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy as if he were born to it, and the supporting cast provides fine, detailed performances.

Jack Nicholson stars in an outstanding characterization of Ken Kesey's asylum anti-hero, McMurphy, and Milos Forman's direction of a superbly-cast film is equally meritorious.

Viewed 30 years after its release, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest remains a very good motion picture, although one that perhaps just misses the pinnacle of greatness where its reputation suggests it resides.

One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest is an earnest attempt to make a serious film. But in the end the movie backs away from both the human reality and the cloudy but potent symbolism that Ken Kesey found in the asylum.

Classic film, but not for kids.

Nicholson gets to use all the colors on his palette, from quiet, troubled contemplation to the disturbingly truthful, live-wire jesting with which he has become best associated. [Blu-ray]

A marvel of contemporary filmmaking with intelligence, entertainment value, and ponderings on life, manhood, and how society can be much scarier than nurses in white coats...

It's mostly Nicholson that makes the film work, with his fun, but very intelligent, canny turn.

A rare screen adaptation of a beloved novel that maintains the emotional and dramatic power of the original while establishing its own distinctive approach to the story...

The genius of the film is that you never feel you're being preached at, but rather being allowed a fly-on-the-wall view of a systematic crushing of humanity.

The film remains as fresh, shocking, depressing and exhilarating as when it was released.

A terrific adaptation of Ken Kensey's 1962 novel (first done as play) that became timelier in the 1970s, positing a free-spirited hero (the excellent Jack Nicholson) against repressive authoritarianism, embodied by Fletcher's nurse.

Ken Kesey's grim satire of institutionalized authority, bracingly filmed by Milos Forman.

A stirring indictment of how we determine who's sane and who's crazy.

Set in an insane asylum, the film involves the oppression of the individual, a struggle spearheaded by an ebullient Nicholson, turning in a star performance if ever there was one.

A rousing, rock-the-boat feel pulses throughout the film, overpowering its weaknesses.

Without hesitation my No. 1 favorite of all time. At once a comedy and a tragedy, hilarious and heartbreaking, few films have ever achieved such a level of excellence.

awesome classic

Brilliant Nicholson turn...and Fletcher's nurse is one of film's best villains.

excellent in every way