Part of Restoration Roundup
With an insane asylum standing in for everyday society, Miloš Forman’s 1975 film adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel is a comically sharp indictment of the urge to conform. Playing crazy to avoid prison work detail, manic free-spirit Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is sent to the state mental hospital for evaluation. There he encounters a motley crew of mostly voluntary inmates, presided over by the icy Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).
Ratched and McMurphy recognize that each is the other’s worst enemy: an authority figure who equates sanity with correct behavior, and a misfit who is charismatic enough to dismantle the system simply by living as he pleases. McMurphy’s message to live free or die is ultimately not lost on one inmate, revealing that escape is still possible even from the most oppressive conditions.
Restored in 2025 by the Academy Film Archive, with restoration funding provided by Teatro Della Pace Film and special thanks to Paul Zaentz.
“As direct and simple as it is funny and moving, this is a masterpiece of dramatic naturalism.” —Colin Kennedy, Empire Magazine “There’s probably not a single sequence in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST that isn’t perfectly calibrated. It’s so rare for a film to achieve that ethereal sort of synergy, wherein all the elements are exactly where they should be, yet nothing feels forced, predictable, or overly dramatized. I must’ve seen this dozens of times, and each time my heart breaks, soars, and fills with anger.” —Alex Saveliev, Film Threat “It’s not just Nicholson’s performance that makes this film a masterpiece; it’s the fact that Forman was able to prevent that performance from capsizing the whole enterprise.” —Wendy Ide, The Observer
