One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (R)
Classic film, but not for kids.
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Movie details
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- Directed By: Miloš Forman
- Cast: Danny DeVito, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher
- Running Time: 128 minutes
- Release Date: 09/23/1975
- Video/DVD Release Date: 09/19/2002
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: R
- MPAA Explanation: Violence and Language
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that this film deals with mental illness and mental hospitals. Characters drink, smoke, curse, have sex, fight, and struggle against the hospital's authority structure. The film also depicts the hospital's efforts to control patients through medication, electroshock therapy, and lobotomy. There is a suicide.
Families can talk about classics. Why do you think this film has lasting appeal? Does it seem dated to you in any way? Since CUCKOO'S NEST is regularly assigned in high school English classes, parents might want to compare and contrast the book versus the movie with their teens.
Families can talk about classics. Why do you think this film has lasting appeal? Does it seem dated to you in any way? Since CUCKOO'S NEST is regularly assigned in high school English classes, parents might want to compare and contrast the book versus the movie with their teens.
Message
Social Behavior:
Main character fakes being mentally ill to avoid jail.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Patients are medicated. One is denied cigarettes.
Violence
Patients fight each other. One smothers another. Many are restrained against their will.
Sex
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Carly Kocurek
Three decades have done little to diminish the power of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. Based on Ken Kesey's novel by the same name, the film addresses the trials of Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a petty criminal who decides to feign insanity to get out of time behind bars and into the easy life at the mental ward. Once inside the white-walled hospital, McMurphy finds himself pitted against Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher). While Nurse Ratched manipulates patients in group therapy and uses a regime of medication and electroshock to maintain control, McMurphy demands the right to watch baseball playoffs and takes the men outside the hospital grounds on a fishing trip. As the conflict escalates, the line between the crazy and the sane grows increasingly blurry.
Is it any good?
Milos Forman's 1975 film adaptation of the Ken Kesey novel is a classic for good reason. Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher turn in near-perfect performances. Supporting cast members, including Danny DeVito as Martini and Christopher Lloyd as Taber, create a band of institution residents who are warm despite evidence of their insanity. Forman's direction is dead-on, as he manages to capture the monotony of routine on the ward without allowing the film to drag.
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Parents and kids say
All Reviews
There are 6 reviews.
Posted on 08/10/07 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 13
Posted on 04/14/06 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 11
Adult Reviews
There are 1 reviews.
Kids Reviews
There are 5 reviews.
Posted on 08/10/07 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 13
Posted on 04/14/06 by Anonymous Kid contributor, age 11
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