48th Academy Awards · 1976
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Directed by Miloš Forman
“In this clean, orderly, disciplined world, who needs guys like McMurphy? Everybody.”
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The story
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer92%Fresh#49 of 98 winnersIMDb8.61.2M votes#6 of 98 winners
Metacritic84/ 100#51 of 93 winners
TMDB8.4/ 10
Famous lines
I bet in one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass she won't know whether to shit or wind her wristwatch.
But I tried, didn't I? Goddammit, at least I did that.
Now we can make it, Mac. I feel big as a damn mountain.
If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way.
I want my cigarettes! Miss Ratched!
You fooled 'em, Chief! You fooled 'em. You fooled 'em all.
You're no crazier than the average asshole out walking around on the streets and that's it!
Dr. Spivey: Well, you've had five prior arrests for assault.
McMurphy: Five fights, huh? Rocky Marciano's got forty and he's a millionaire.
Jesus, I must be crazy to be in a loony-bin like this.
You know, Billy, what worries me is how your mother's going to take this.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- The film was shot inside the Oregon State Hospital, a real psychiatric hospital and the novel's setting; its director, Dean Brooks, played Dr. Spivey, some cast members slept on the wards, and patients worked on the crew.Wikipedia · Filming
- Kirk Douglas hired Miloš Forman to direct back in the 1960s, but Czechoslovakia's secret police intercepted the copy of the novel Douglas mailed him, and the two lost contact for years.Wikipedia · Development
- Will Sampson, who had never acted before, was found when a used-car salesman Michael Douglas met on a flight called months later to say 'the biggest sonofabitch Indian came in the other day!'Wikipedia · Casting
- It was the second of only three films to win all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Adapted Screenplay, following It Happened One Night and preceding The Silence of the Lambs.Wikipedia · Introduction
- Kirk Douglas, who had owned the rights since 1962 and planned to star as McMurphy, was deemed too old for the film role, a decision that strained his relationship with producer-son Michael Douglas for years.Wikipedia · Casting
- Lily Tomlin was originally cast as Nurse Ratched before Miloš Forman switched to Louise Fletcher; Tomlin then took Fletcher's old role in Nashville, and Fletcher earned about $10,000 for 11 weeks of work.Wikipedia · Casting
- Miloš Forman said the story felt like his own life in Czechoslovakia: 'The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched, telling me what I could and could not do.'Wikipedia · Development
- Cinematographer Haskell Wexler was fired mid-production and replaced by Bill Butler; both were Oscar-nominated, though Wexler claimed only a minute or two of the finished film wasn't his.Wikipedia · Filming
- Ken Kesey wrote an early screenplay narrated by Chief Bromden, quit over creative differences, sued the production and won a settlement, and later told Chuck Palahniuk that he disliked the movie.Wikipedia · Development
- Jack Nicholson had tried to buy the film rights to Ken Kesey's novel himself in the 1960s, but was outbid by Kirk Douglas.Wikipedia · Development