While serving time for insanity at a state mental hospital, implacable rabble-rouser, Randle Patrick McMurphy, inspires his fellow patients to rebel against the authoritarian rule of head nurse, Mildred Ratched.
Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy as if he were born to it, and the supporting cast provides fine, detailed performances.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
13 Dec 2006
fresh:
Jack Nicholson stars in an outstanding characterization of Ken Kesey's asylum anti-hero, McMurphy, and Milos Forman's direction of a superbly-cast film is equally meritorious.
– A.D. Murphy,
Variety,
19 Feb 2008
fresh:
Viewed 30 years after its release, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest remains a very good motion picture, although one that perhaps just misses the pinnacle of greatness where its reputation suggests it resides.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
4 Nov 2008
rotten:
One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest is an earnest attempt to make a serious film. But in the end the movie backs away from both the human reality and the cloudy but potent symbolism that Ken Kesey found in the asylum.
– Richard Schickel,
TIME Magazine,
20 Feb 2009
fresh:
There's a lot here. But with a classic like Cuckoo's Nest, too much is never enough.