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

2. Key Facts Feature Film Drama
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
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 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.
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)
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

12. Casting (cont.)
Forman cast the institution’s administrator as the doctor in the film
Forman used actual patients as extras
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)