One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Film Directed by Milos Forman

2. Key Facts • Type of Work: Feature Film • Genre: Drama • Where it was filmed: Oregon State Mental Hospital in Salem, OR • Date of Release: 1975 • Setting: Oregon State Mental Hospital, 1963

3. The Director – Milos Forman • Born in 1932, outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia • Began making films in the 1960s; style based on realism and lack of traditional heroes • Loves of a Blonde (1966) nominated for an Academy award for Best Foreign Language Film; Fireman’s Ball received same recognition in 1967-- however, communist authorities labeled it a threat and banned the film. • One year while Forman was visiting Paris, the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia; he never returned to his homeland; the image of the Soviet Union tanks rolling into his country continued to haunt him and echoes throughout his work on …Cuckoo’s Nest • 1971- American film debut, Taking Off (a comedy about the lack of understanding between young people and their parents)

4. Context of the Novel’s Adaptation • Kesey’s 1962 novel initially adapted as a Broadway play in 1963 starring Kirk Douglas • K. Douglas bought the film rights and tried unsuccessfully for 12 years to generate interest from Hollywood; he later sold the rights to the film to his son, Michael Douglas • M. Douglas co-produced the United Artists film with Saul Zaentz • Producers chose Forman to direct the film because of his ability to capture concerns of the times • Forman’s Taking Off reflected the theme of the generation gap in the 1960s and 1970s; a time when, especially, young people began questioning all manners of authority, old-fashion institutions, and the social status quo

5. Context (cont.) • Civil Rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s; women’s liberation movement of the 1970s; followed by the a particularly transforming event of the times – National Guardsmen opened fire on student protesters at Kent State University in 1970, prompted by a rock throwing incident, and killed four students • A few years later, American faith in authority was further shaken by Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up (led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974) • Mid-70s baby-boomers’ counter-culture was ripe for a film dramatizing rebellion against oppressive bureaucracy and insistence upon rights, self-expression, and freedom • In 1975, the antiauthority stance of Forman’s film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest resonated strongly with the events of the 1970s.

6. Critics • Perhaps the best-known antiauthority film in history; today this film is considered to be one of the greatest American films • Kesey’s film “came along when the right metaphor for the human condition was a loony bin”– Kael for The New Yorker • Top U.S. film critics gave the film positive reviews; any reservations that critics had related to the film’s simplification of themes in Kesey’s novel NOTE: Kesey was so upset by the filmmaker’s choice to change the perspective of the story-telling (away from Chief Bromden’s first-person perspective) that he sued the producers • Kesey never saw the movie; as Faye Kesey explained: “There was a legal dispute over financial earnings from Cuckoo’s Nest, during which we met with this awful lawyer who was really horrid to be around. At one point, he became so irate with Ken and yelled at him saying, ‘when this movie comes out, you’ll be the first in line to see it.’ Ken glared back at him and swore he’d never see the film. And that was that.”

7. Critics (cont.) • “A film so good in so many of its parts that here’s a temptation to forgive when it does go wrong. But it does go wrong, insisting on making larger points than its story should really carry, so that at the end, the human qualities of the characters get lost in the significance of it all. And yet there are those moments of brilliance.” –Roger Ebert (film critic, winner of a Pulitzer Prize) • Ranked #33 on American Film Institute’s list of AFI 100 Years…series • Nurse Ratched ranked #5 on the Institute’s list of 50 Greatest Villains

8. Acknowledgements • The 7th highest-grossing film ever (at its time)—bringing in almost $300 million worldwide • Beat out Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) for Best Picture • Film deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry in 1993 • 1975 Director’s Guild Award: Milos Forman • Film was shown in Swedish cinemas between 1975 and 1987—12 years! Which is still a record

9. 1975 Academy Awards • Best Picture: Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas • Best Director: Milos Forman • Best Actor: Jack Nicholson • Best Actress: Louise Fletcher • Best Adapted Screenplay: Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman • First film to win all five major Academy Awards since It Happened One Night (1934) and not repeated until Silence of the Lambs (1991)

10. Casting • Randle Patrick McMurphy – JACK NICHOLSON • Nurse Mildred Ratched – LOUISE FLETCHER • Dale Harding – WILLIAM REDFIELD • Dr. John Spivey – DEAN R. BROOKS • Orderly Turkle – SCATMAN CROTHERS • Martini – DANNY DE VITO • Jim Sefelt – WILLIAM DUELL • Billy Bibbit – BRAD DOURIF • Max Taber – CHRISTOPHER LLOYD • Chief Bromden – WILL SAMPSON • Fredrickson – VINCENT SCHIAVELLI • Charlie Cheswick – SYDNEY LASSICK • Ellis – MICHAEL BERRYMAN • Attendant Washington – NATHAN GEORGE • Attendant Warren – MWAKO CUMBUKA • Nurse Itsu – LAN FENDORS • Nurse Pilbow – MIMI SARKISIAN

11. Casting (cont.) • The role of Nurse Ratched was turned down by 5 actresses including Anne Bancroft and Angela Lansbury; Fletcher accepted casting only a week before filming began • The role of McMurphy was originally offered to James Caan; Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were considered as well. • Film debuts for Sampson (Chief), Dourif (Bibbit), and Christopher Lloyd (Taber) • One of 1st films for DeVito (Lloyd and DeVito co-starred several years later in the television series Taxi)

12. Casting (cont.) • Forman cast the institution’s administrator as the doctor in the film • Forman used actual patients as extras • In the role as Chief Bromden, Forman cast Will Sampson, a non actor, a full-blooded member of the Creek tribe working as a park ranger near Salem, Oregon • Nicholson’s acting persona as the heroic rebel McMurphy had earlier been set with his performances in Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970)