Now that the festival season is over, and before the ‘gotta see theatricals that might be nominated for the Oscars’ season begins, we thought it might be a good time to knock a few off the List of Shame. In this case, not mine, but rather my wife’s. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is a film I am very well acquainted with. I’ve seen it dozens of times, but all back when it hit Hotel PPV back in 1976. In my old playback op job, I’d watch it pretty much every shift. It was just that good.

The story arc is simple, it’s the characters that make this film a classic masterpiece. With the prowess and skill of Sydney…

Exploring the theme of freedom against the confines of society, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the story of misfits challenging the morality of established order. With its universal appeal that has transcended time & space and simple, poetic storytelling amidst all the madness, this film is nowadays widely regarded as one of world cinema's most respected & greatest films, and deservingly so.

Jack Nicholson stars as Randal McMurphy & if there ever has been a character that Nicholson was born to play, it's none other than this one. No one else could've pulled off Randal as effortlessly as Nicholson did & he was truly at his best here. Louise Fletcher highly impresses as Nurse Ratched, a character that is completely opposite of…

'Is that crazy enough for ya'? Want me to take a shit on the floor?'

Once the credits of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest were rolling, I was just totally speechless. Seldom has a movie sent me on an emotional rollercoaster like this one did. On the one hand, there were so many humorous moments, and on the other hand, this movie was able to affect me in a highly emotional way. This movie combined all of the things a masterpiece needs. A simple, but attractive, story, some loveable characters, lots of great performances and a very profound message.

The story of those guys, that are confined to an asylum and suppressed by their nurses, is less a story…

Everyone kept telling me that Jack Nicholson was fantastic in this film, and to my ears they were saying that Jack was being all The Shining only worse because this time he was in an asylum. Not being a huge Jack fan and actually despising Jack-doing-his-shtick, what people thought was praise was actually confirmation that I should never watch this film, classic be damned.

There are at least two other assumption I carried into this first viewing. I had seen little bits and pieces throughout my life, when my parents watched it on TV. I knew there was a riot scene (turns out it was the patients 'watching' the baseball game) and I knew that there was a nurse from…

I’m starting with the book because it does something pretty interesting that the movie chooses to toss out: it tells the story from the perspective of the Chief Bromden, whose observations are the ones that we learn all about Randle McMurphy and the environment of the mental hospital. Randle changes him, and we get to understand why.

The movie is told instead from Randle’s perspective (Nicholson giving it everything & does a pretty good job). I get that it’s easier for a movie to tell it that way, but it feels like whitewashing. Chief Bromden in the movie is not as fleshed out, mainly because he’s mute for most of it. The only clues we get are from McMurphy’s taunting, as…

Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) vai parar em uma instituição de tratamento mental após alegar problemas psiquiátricos e escapar da prisão por estupro de vulnerável. Lá chegando se depara com a rígida Enfermeira Ratched (Louise Fletcher) e os internos Martini (Danny DeVito), Chefe (Will Sampson), Billy (Brad Dourif), Taber (Christopher Lloyd), Harding (William Redfield), Cheswick (Sydney Lassick) e outros, e tem que lidar com sua adaptação a este ambiente.

O diretor tcheco Milos Forman conquistou Hollywood ao vencer os cinco principais prêmios do Oscar com Um Estranho no Ninho, estrelado por aquele que talvez seja o maior representante (na área de atuação) da Nova Hollywood e contando com um elenco de apoio notável, embora na época vários fossem estreantes.

Inspirado no…