Cheap One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD) (Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher) (Milos Forman) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Two-Disc Special Edition)

One Flew Over the Academy
It's difficult for one to speak of this film without gushing superlatives, but "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has to be considered among the greatest ever American pictures. Not a hair is out of place in this fantastic adaptation of Ken Kesey's popular novel, and it's no accident that the movie won every major Academy Award for 1976. (Only two other films have swept the five major Oscars -- Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay -- "It Happened One Night" and "The Silence of the Lambs.") If you like dramas that examine human frailties and peculiarities, this movie is a must see. It will involve you with laughter, anger, dismay, angst, and elation. No cinematic work is perfect, but "Cuckoo's Nest" comes pretty darned close.

Jack Nicholson is in his defining role as "Jack McMurphy"; his persona is not only ideal for the part, but his acting is absolutely splendid. Nicholson is supported by a wonderful cast that includes the painfully unforgettable performance of Louise Fletcher as "Nurse Ratched." Several then unknown actors -- Christopher Lloyd and Danny DeVito among them -- round out the troupe beautifully. The redoubtable director Milos Forman guides his band of exceptional actors through an excellent screenplay and into cinematic immortality.

While this DVD's picture quality leaves much to be desired, it's somehow fitting for this film. Strangely, the documentary-like quality of the movie make the prevalent grain and foreign matter appear as though they belong! This is the only film I've yet seen that doesn't seem to lose much for want of a good print. Still, objectively speaking, Warner showed no respect to this classic by allowing such a poor copy on DVD -- and providing a mediocre transfer to boot. (No surprise, they did a TERRIBLE job with "The Stanley Kubrick Collection"; so bad that they're redoing it.) Recorded sound is merely acceptable. The "special features" may once have been something, but they aren't any longer. DVD collectors expect more nowadays, not just a few pages of text. In the end, however, this item remains a "buy"; it's relatively cheap, and it's the only available DVD version of this great movie.

---

Wonderful, Disturbing Masterpiece of Film
In 1976, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" won the five top Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay), and was the first movie in 45 years to do so. It deserved it. This film is inspiring, disturbing, tragic, triumphant, and gripping.

Jack Nicholson, playing the part he was destined to play, is Randall Patrick McMurphy, a rebellious misfit who convinces people that he belongs in a mental institution so that he can get out of a sentence on a work-farm. He arrives on the secure psychiatric ward and runs head-on into a brick wall named Nurse Ratched, played superbly by Louise Fletcher. Nurse Ratched is in absolute control of herself and the ward, and rules quietly and calmly but with an iron fist. The ward is populated with a very strange group of misfits (it is a psychiatric ward after all), including a young Danny DeVito, a young Brad Dourif, and a young Christopher Lloyd. They follow Nurse Ratched's harmonious routine, day in and day out, with all the appearance of striving for improvement, but with no real gains being made by anyone. Of course, the calm, quiet, go-nowhere routine under a serenely despotic Nurse Ratched is loathsome to Randall Patrick McMurphy, and the two elemental forces of Ratched and McMurphy clash and clash and clash. Who wins the battle? In a concrete way, Nurse Ratched eventually wins. On a bigger level, you make the call.

Two supporting actors should also have won Oscars (sharing it would have been perfect). Will Sampson plays a huge, mute Native American who was committed after killing his father (nowadays it would be called euthanasia). He provides the film with one of the most eerily and tragically triumphant endings in movie history (with very eery music to match). Brad Dourif plays a neurotic, stuttering young man who longs to be normal but is terrified of his mother's disapproval (and his mother is good friends with Nurse Ratched).

This movie addresses themes of independence, individuality, the question of where one's personal rights end and society's rights start, and the definition of what is "normal". Who is more sane, Nurse Ratched or Randall Patrick McMurphy? The easy answer is Nurse Ratched. I'm not sure. I wouldn't want either for a next-door neighbor. Watch the movie and ask yourself that question. It's a tough one to answer. A very rich film.

---

a special edition for a very special movie...
Before 1975 we had great violent epics like "The Godfather", "Mean Streets", and "Easy Rider". but later in 1975, director Milos Forman took a challenge on directing the famous novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". hiring top-notch actors, including the up and rising star Jack Nicolsin. With his amazing debut in Easy Rider, Milos Forman thought he would be the perfect person for this role. this incredible movie shocked the world. even better than the novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is easily one of the greatest films of all-time.

this movie has the stuff. memorable characters, amazing acting, hilarious jokes, shocking moments, and an ending to always be remembered till the day you die. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest easily has the most memorable ending to a film ever. enough talk of this incredible movie, as for the stuff on the special edition... its also great. with a whole extra disk of extras, deleted scenes, and a whole bunch more. I have tons of DVDs and this is easily one of the best purchases I've bought. No, not just because of the movie but the extra stuff on the DVD.

the Two-disk special edition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a great update to a great movie. by all means, you must have this in your collection.