I was recently a guest on the (LAMMY award winning) podcast “The Matineecast”. For those of you who haven’t listened to The Matineecast (WHY NOT?) it’s hosted by The Mad Hatter who is also the brains behind the movie blog “The Dark of the Matinee”. Early on in the show he always does a segment entitled “Know Your Enemy” in which he asks a series of questions. One of them is “what is a Classic or essential movie you have never seen?” That was an easy question for me to answer, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Released the year I was born and winner of five Oscars, it is a really significant movie. The Oscars were all big ones, it was actually the first movie since Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) to sweep the major categories: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). It also picked up nominations for Original Music Score, Cinematography, Film Editing and Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif). It went on to go one better at the BAFTA’s adding a Supporting Actor win for Dourif as well as the big five again. It was a huge financial success making around twenty five times it $4.5million budget in the domestic American market alone. It was also a hit in the late 70’s early 80’s on the fast growing VHS rental market. To put it simply we are talking about a pretty major movie in cinema history that I had never seen.
So why had I never seen it? By the mid 90’s I had already developed an obsession with movies and had seen a lot of classic movies, if you had asked me at the time I would probably have said The Godfather Part II was my favourite movie. It was around this time I became aware of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Jack Nicholson was a big star, even kids at school who weren’t into movies knew him as The Joker from Batman (1989) (back then who would have thought his performance would be surpassed by another actor playing the Joker two decades later!), a big fan on Chinatown (1974) I had just seen its belated sequel The Two Jakes(1990), I had seen Easy Rider many times (and had an American flag on the back of my leather jacket inspired by Peter Fonda’s character). Anyway I digress I think it must have been a late night season of Nicholson movies on at the time as I had also seen Five Easy Pieces around the same time. So one night I had been out with some friends came home just in time to set the VCR recording before going to bed. A few days later I came to watch the movie only to find it recorded over. At the time I blamed my brother or my parents for the terrible transgression, I truth looking back they probably didn’t even know I had recorded it!
Not one to worry about these things I knew it would be on again soon. It wasn’t the next time it was due to be on years later it was bumped from the schedule, I think somebody died and they put a movie on as a tribute. And then it must have just faded from memory until last month knowing I was going to be asked the question by Hatter I thought I would make a list of the big movies I have never seen, the movies that seem to come up when he asks other people seem to be epic classics that people find daunting like Gone with the Wind or some of the David Lean movies, I have seen all of them! So I went to IMDB and decided I would go with the highest placed movie on their top 250 that I had never seen. I have seen approximately 95% of the 250 but standing out at number 8 with an average rating of 8.8 from over 200,000 votes was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Seeing it there all my memories of failed attempts to watch it came flooding back and I decided I would make no effort to watch it but would come up on TV one day. So when Hatter told me how great it was and I was in for a treat I said something like I would catch it on DVD sooner or later. Then a strange thing happened, I must have put it in my Love Film (a UK website like Netflix) queue sometime in the past and forgotten it. As one day last week it dropped through my letterbox, so between world cup football matches I have just gotten around to watching it. But was it any good? Simply put it was fantastic.
Assuming I am not the last person in the world to see the movie here is a brief synopsis: R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) isn’t the most stable person and he has a few issues but he clearly isn’t crazy. In an attempt to avoid hard labour in prison he pretends to be crazy and gets transferred to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. Spending his days playing cards or Basketball and pretending to take his medication, he fits into his new environment surprisingly (and frighteningly) well. Although often disruptive he soon has a positive effect on some of the other patients who have been living under the cloud of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), a tyrant who rules the ward through fear and humiliation.
Nicholson is truly brilliant giving one of his best ever performances but to dismiss it as a one man movie would be to underestimate the depth of the movie. The supporting cast includes Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli and Brad Dourif as well as Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched who is mesmerising in a part turned down by every big name in Hollywood. Interestingly the movie is driven by both character and at times plot making it totally engrossing and immersive. I was amazed to discover it is nearly a two and a quarter hours long, it felt like an hour and a half! As the narrative unfolds, you kind of know where it’s going and how it will end up but this really doesn’t matter. When it comes the end is perfectly handled being both heartbreaking and uplifting at the sme time.
If I were to be asked the same question again now the next highest ranked movie on the IMDB 250 that I haven’t seen is WALL•E (2008) at no. 46, but a more significant movie I haven seen would be E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) I have to say I am in no rush to see either.
Hey, thanks for the plug!
Glad to hear you have finally seen this – a movie that I care a great deal for – and that you enjoyed it. Sometimes when too much time passes on “a classic”, one ends up watching it and think “what’s the big deal?”. Glad you were able to see this particular classic for the lyrical lunacy it is.
For bonus points – did you know that it’s one of only THREE movies to win Oscars for Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Actress?
Bet ya can’t name the other two without looking it up!
I do actually, the most recent was in my Oscar watching lifetime but I still say Brian Cox is the best Hannibal Lecktor! The other, I didn’t know until I found it researching for this review last week but I do mention it above.
Bout time. I saw it when I was eleven.
I was busy watching zombies, vampires and 40’s/50’s film noir when I was eleven.
The only reason I saw this was because I saw it in class while I was in high school. Else, I probably would have been in the same situation as you even though it regularly shows on TV… Now there is dozens of other “classics” that I have yet to see and to be honest, most of them are very much at the back of the line in terms of priority!
I’m not sure I would have appreciated it if I had seen in too young.
So happy you finally got to see this! It isn’t a movie I can see over and over again. I watch it once every so many years, but it is by far one of my favorite films that quietly and simply takes you on a ride and by the end you’ve quite frankly underestimated it. And yes, Nicholson was incredible, but Dourif and Fletcher were equally good.
WALLE is worth your watch for the first forty five minutes alone.
ET I’ve never really liked.
I know what you mean, I want to see the movie again, just not yet. There is a story behind me not seeing ET. I may tell it one day. Wall E, I just can’t get excited by animation, sorry!
What a great blog. I only found it through your comment on Meredith’s, but I’m loving what I’m seeing. I often think about ‘doing’ the entire Top 250 but, like you, there are a few there that I can’t bear the idea of sitting through – almost all of them dated 1989 and later. I reckon I’ve done four fifths, though.
As for One Flew…I have to admit, I’ve never been blown away by it, nor have I ever been much of a Nicholson man. Chinatown apart, I can’t think of a movie of his that I own. Heresy, I know.
I’m looking forward to settling back with a cuppa and perusing the rest of this site.
Thanks for the comments glad you found me, thanks M. If you are unsure about Nicholson check out THIS movie.
I’m also somehow immune to ET. Give Wall-E a go. It amazes me how many “classic” movies I’ve never seen.
I respect this one, but I really can’t love it (though, of course, Jack is great). Weird thing about Jack, I was thinking about this the other day – something worthy of a post, actually – ever time he won the Oscar his leading lady one. Fletcher, MacLaine, Hunt…it’s as if he just drags them along for the ride.
And though I love David Lean I still have not seen The Bridge on the River Kwai. I don’t have any excuses other than my laziness.
Interesting point about the Oscars, I hadn’t thought about that!
The Bridge on the River Kwai is well worth a look, as much as David Lean is known for his epic’s, and they are great I struggle to see past Brief Encounter as his best movie.
All of us must agree to stop calling Ryan’s podcast the LAMMY award-winning podcast, or else his head will expand exponentially and he’s going to forget all us little people!
He was so (overly) modest and self-deprecating about his wins and nominations that I found it funny to overtly mention it. I think he will be more concerned about you using his real name!
Just out of curiosity do you include yourself as one of the “little people”? I will have to start referring to you as “LAMMY award-winning Best Blog of the year 2010 M. Carter @ the movies”
Yeah really – what’s with yanking off my hat and revealing my secret identity??
It’s not that secret since you posted a photo of your birthday cake with your name on it!
WOW, I feel so small now that I have not seen so many of the 250 titles on IMDb. Hats off to have seen 95%, that’s a tough act to follow Andy! So no, I have not seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, nor The Shining either, as we’re talking about Jack. I mentioned in my meme in the past that I have never seen Casablanca and North by Northwest, but that I’ll try to see those this year.
All the movies you mention there are worth seeing. Casablanca has been in completion with Some Like it Hot form many years as my all time favourite movie. North by Northwest, is my favourite Hitchcock and The Shining is my second favourite Jack Nicholson after Chinatown.
Check back in about an hour for a review of a classic movie that far too few people have seen.
Haven’t seen One Flew..either, but I bought it recently and will definitely watch soon. Another major one I haven’t seen yet is The Shining, soon, soon…
Haven’t seen this since High School, it’s been sitting in my instant queue for ages now, I will be watching this immediately so that I can compare notes. Thank you for opening my eyes, dear friend.
I actually saw this earlier this year. Not bad.
As for an essential movie I’ve never seen, um, it’s gonna be something I’m gonna get bad cred for: the Lord of the Rings trilogy. *ducks from flying tomatoes*