One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) First Time Watching! Movie Reaction! 

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,, I think u also have to feed in the perpetual victim 50s typing pool characterization of real and fictional women during that era, civil rights idealists were rare, contrary to their historic visibility, see how McMurphy's exterior relationships cast women as merchants or merchandise, while he's just a supposed warrant practitioner or a carnival waltzer, perhaps Ratched is a vengeful harpy or a castrating goat-herd ,, mebbe it is all an Anatolian fable but perhaps this and Bonnie and Clyde suggests the same, don't think bc u can succeed as a failure, that yr loses aren't going to win against you ✨😔🚧🚨dead ends have no exit 🎉

,, McMurphy bringing people out of their shell is like the delinquent addict that wishes to crank the party up , so nobody complains about their visible choices within a herd,, once upon a time frat houses and sororities were chosen for the amount of drunken casualties could b found on the front lawn in the wee hours, now they are lauralled for their staunch sobriety testimonials,, ultimately this film is about the final contests of escapism Vs constraint,, with a Freudian mommy medusa that always wins,, remember many enlisted men have only warzones as vacation destinations,, even Peter Pan thought death seemed a fun alternate adventure 😭🤯🎉✨💐

As a Shaun of the Dead fan TBR, you should definitely watch the Spaced episode "METTLE" . It has a very funny Cuckoo's Nest parody starring "The Chief" 's son !

@TBRSchmitt ,, I really think, sometime soon, u need to see, Cool Hand Luke (1967), Papillon (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), The Count of Monte Cristo (1975), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Brazil (1985), Gregory's Girl (1981), Shirley Valentine (1989), Clockwise (1986), Animal House (1978), Trainspotting (1996), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Beach (2000), The Planet of the Apes (1968), Matilda (1996), Vanilla Sky (2001), Logan Lucky (2017), Raging Bull (1980), The Public Enemy (1931), Breathless (1960), Fearless (2006), 24 Hour Party People (2002),✨🗽😏

And amazingly played...

Yes, nurse Ratchet is a character on a power trip. She enjoys the control over them more than actually helping them.

She is very sexy though.

When McMurphy is strangling Nurse Ratched a small part of me is thinking he should succeed in the task. Awful thought I know, but her villainous character is that well written.

Sort of remind me of Kai Winn from DS9 (who is played by the same actor).

I love her Oscar speech, part of which is in sign language for her deaf parents.

yea she was so good as not only the" villain" but the protaganist and YOU 2 should pull up her OSCAR speech and what she does as a salute to her parents, ONe of the most emotional moments in my watching the Oscars when i was growing up. As people say here, it was the 2nd Film to win all 5 major Oscars and Silence of the lambs was the 3rd. I hope sometime DANiel and Samantha can view the 1st- IT happened One night directed by Frank Capra ( WOnderful Life) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert - From the 1930's but just a well done simple film

She was absolutely AMAZING as ANOTHER villain character on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Great actress and we'll deserved winner of that Oscar.

There are few, if any other movie characters that angered me as much as Nurse Ratchet...Proof the actress did an amazing job.

@@cashflowhustles And her character on DS9 was so exactly like this one in presenting a facade of being always calm and reasonable while in fact being driven by her obsessive need for power over others.

Well said. In a way, I think he saves them all to some degree. He gave them experiences that they’ll never forget and brought healing and joy to a dark place, if only for a short while. Even Cheswick says “I’ll never forget you Mac”. But yes, if you’re keeping a scorecard on those who made it out, it was only Chief.

that was the thing the movie gets wrong. In the Novel, almost everyone leaves the Institution for good after the Billy Bibbitt suicide.

@jackprescott9652 wrong? I think they changed the movie version for theatrical affect like they do often do. So I would say "wrong" just different, to garner a different emotional reaction than the book.

well said :)

McMurphy also represents the chaos that comes with true freedom, and the trepidation the patients have at that, which they need to be pushed through their fears to the joy on the other side

It's one of those movies that might take multiple viewings so see its genius

He and Christopher Lloyd basically swapped their characters from this film in Taxi.

I couldn't either. When I saw this for the first time I knew him immediately! He looks the same

Also Meryl Streep as Chief.

Are you sure that wasn’t Brittney Griner?

Haha

There's nothing lighthearted about this.

@@lnetscoutnshelby5691 Humour not your thing.

@@TBRSchmitt Somone you may have missed, Billy was played by Brad Dourif, who was the voice of Chucky in Childs Play and Grima Wyrmtounge in The Lord of the Rings.

@@Kiernan5 And Deputy Pell in Mississippi Burning.

Actors also born in 1937 Anthony Hopkins , Morgan Freeman , Dustin Hoffman , Warren Beatty , Steven Berkoff , George Takei , Billy Dee Williams , George Carlin . Yeah totally once in a generation , that one year and did not list any women , from 1936 , Bruce Dern , Robert Redford , Burt Reynolds , Alan Alda , Dennis Hopper , Joe Don Baker , Jim Hanson , from 1938 Christopher Lloyd , Frank Langella , Terence Stamp , Elliot Gould , Brian Dennehy , Ronny Cox 🙂

@@pete_lind It's a figure of speech. Don't be a dick

I think it`s not very different in this era. There`s data showing almost nobody gets better with pshychiatric help.

@@jackprescott9652 By nobody do you mean the institutionalized? Because that's a pretty broad statement.

@@angelagraves865 The problem is that patients in most cases need *psychological* help, but they don't receive that when not in a ward. In civil life it's just occasional psychiatric contact, which has almost no useful gain at all (jack above didn't mention this but it sounds like he knows, namely psychiatrists are concerned solely with the pharmaceutical side of mental health, ie. brain chemistry - they are *not* the people to whom one might talk to resolve emotional or other issues, the whole lie on the couch and discuss problems scenario). When they're ill is when psychologists get involved, but it likewise has little benefit because patients aren't rational enough to absorb anything useful (at least that's how it works in the UK). Movies always get this wrong, referring to psychiatrists as the shrink that talks about stuff; nope, that's not what they do at all. I am familiar with these matters via friends that have experienced "the system", in one case alas fatally so (hung himself on a ward). I've visited friends on wards and understand how they work. Even something basic like being able to contact a particular doctor in an emergency is difficult. The system does have plenty of staff who are sincere and work with integrity (naturally the occasional exception), but the system is structurally unsound, it encourages patients to retain problems rather than deal with them. Worse, when not on a ward, the nature of regular care visits for patients is exploited for training younger staff rather than providing productive contact, ie. they don't get to see experienced staff who are better skilled at handling their nuanced behaviour, and they certainly never see a psychologist which is what most of them desparately need. The film of course is a movie, but nevertheless it does present the basic clash between the interests of patients and the nature of the system that is tasked with their care. See the Angry Foreigner channel for a video about his attempts to obtain relevant help with his mental health in Sweden.

For me it was always more about totalitarian system where people become so passive that they create this pure illusion of freedom when at the same time they cant do much. System works as long as they dont start to think. Truly free individuals like Jack Nicholson character are crushed and at the end they are two endings for them - become like a rest or die.

@@_ThinAir_ I love this interpretation. Never thought of it this way.

I was waiting for them to recognize Danny De Vito

Brad Dourif as well.

@@TomVCunningham And Michael Berryman.

@@TomVCunningham Brad Dourif was AMAZING as Billy. This whole film is just super incredible. Brad Dourif was great as the villain in a Star Trek Voyager episode and also as Grima Wormtongue on Lord Of The Rings Return Of The King I believe or Two Towers. I forget which one or maybe both but he was excellent in that movie as well although his role was somewhat small.

@@michaelblaine6494 Tbf, Danny DeVito looked VERY different when he was younger. When I first saw this, I didn't recognize him either. He wasn't nearly as fat and his voice wasn't nearly as raspy as it was in the movies I was used to seeing him in from the 90's onward. I didn't start to realize it was him until like the last 3rd of the movie.

Definitely a villain and at the time she became a cultural thing, comparing someone to her or calling someone a Nurse Ratched.

Not villain per se , when its based on mental care in late 1950s , book was published in 1962 , when movie came out 1975 that type of treatment was already gone . Writer , Ken Kesey , worked as night orderly in mental care in 1950s ... in 1970s dismantling mental institution was going on .

@@pete_lindNo. She's a stone cold villian.

She is one of the greatest literary villains ever. Hollywood didn't produce that character.

Up there with Annie Wilkes.

and the Doctor in "Deadwood"

He was also the racist deputy in Mississippi Burning

@@paulhewes7333 Yes he is great as the doc in Deadwood great show one of the best not enough people react to that show

And the villianous Chucky ;^)

@@chrisburns1973 Surprised TBR has not watched Mississippi Burning, great Movie.

Brad Dourif was Grima Wormtongue I. Lord of the Rings The Two Towers.

@Wade Heaton you just made my head explode!

I'm still waiting for them to react to The Last Detail 😢

Plus Doc in Deadwood, one of his best! He was so good in this- his debut film.

@@wadeheaton123 He was also in the original Dune movie :)

Most definitely in the top five for me

i saw this in my early/midteens. probably 15 if i had to guess. it made a massive impact on me and and still does to this day. in my top 5 when rating on entertainment value, but as for impacting my outlook on life gotta be top 2-3 - maybe joint 1st. ive been a mac kind of char myself all my life, was already even at 15 when i saw it. just now as i write that, realising that i recognised myself in him and thats why it impacted me. it had already gotten me in trouble at that age and perhaps this film stopped me totally screwing my life up. you cant beat the system.

Yeah, just the implication that McMurphy of all people could be reduced to being just another one of the chronics for Ratched to control for the rest of his life, it's a depressing thought. Chief saved him.

I couldn't have said it any better myself, I did try in my comment but you did it better haha, I miss this type of filmmaking, we get it in small morsels now but still I wish it was mainstream again like it used to be, hopefully one day Sidenote I wish Summer blockbusters could be like they were in the past too, summer blockbusters of the time were Jaws and Star Wars, easily way better made films then anything we recieve now and I would still consider them to be "films" and not "movies" especially in comparison to what we get now

Avatars with his billions buried such a movie. More precisely, films like Pop Corn, which give a beautiful picture like a wrapper, but do not fill it with high-quality and deep content.

The book is even better.

I've just reacted to this, so I decided to check out other people's perspectives. I was really surprised by their reaction and, for a moment, questioned my interpretation of Ratched 😂

All 100% true that scene with Billy broke my heart McMurphy wanted to revenge for what she did to him she caused Billy's death I'm going to tell your mother power trip I did not see that coming the first time I watched it

Watch the whole video to find out!

And chucky

Omg...billy is grima wormtongue!

Chucky

The three of them worked together again in the movie "Goin" South".

@@kermitlacock5930 That was Jack's first directorial film. Also stars Mary Steenbergen and John Belushi.

So much greatness from that era.

Maybe the cinema was great, but the clothing styles were ridiculous. I'd compare it today's styles. I'm firmly either with some of James Bond's attire in the 60s or the late 90s, when guys wore baggier pants and women wore tighter pants. But there's no question, some of the greatest films of all time came out of the 70s. I just don't think bellbottoms were ever a classy look.

More like mid-60s to mid-70s. After that, moviemaking was quickly succumbing to the influence of the summer blockbuster, brought about by films like _Jaws_ and _Star Wars_ .

@@christhornycroft3686 that’s because you don’t understand the time period. I was alive back then. The 70s were a rebellion of the establishment. It’s where a lot of controlling, rigid ideas came to an end. People were letting loose, wearing bright, free-flowing clothes, because they wanted to, not because society told them to. It’s also why you had such great cinema, because people were free to try new ideas. Society was never the same after then.

@@christhornycroft3686 Not sure what you said to prompt *@NemeanLion* to write all of that. All tou seemed to say was, _"cinema good, but clothing style (esp bellbottoms) were bad."_ And as one that was also alive then, I certainly agree. 😏 Take care! 🙋🏼‍♂️

I disagree she's up there but Percy from The Green Mile was much more evil.

@@giannag4581 Percy's a great shout, what a horrible bastard, I'll never forget him stamping on Mr Jingles 😒

Top 5 with Vader, Chiguhr and Hal

​@@giannag4581 Percy wasnt even the most evil character in Green Mile. Wild Bill was 100 times worse.

Great film.

yeah they gotta do Chinatown soon

Yeah 'Chinatown'. "Forget (about) it..." :0)

I also liked "As Good as it Gets". Can't recall if TBR has already reacted to that one.

Greatest, most realistic and definitely the most horrible ending in movie history for me.

You forget about Brad Dourif, this was also his big screen debut and he also won an Oscar for best breakthrough actor.

Brad Dourif makes his big screen debut as well. And he was nominated for and won Best New Star of the year at the 1976 Golden Globes. He would later play Charles Lee Ray, aka Chucky in the CHILD'S PLAY franchise.

Michael Douglas did produce the movie.

What's significant about that, the Big 5 are considered Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Actress. This film, It Happened One Night and Silence of the Lambs are the only ones to win the Big 5 in Oscar history.

Wow this is a fancy bit of information that exactly explains Ratched's face and blankly pursed lips, just have to remove any microbial trace of emotion and viola the "Nurse is in the Building". I used to get my kids to turn and face the rear view mirror so I could track their lips and make sense of the mumble.

I have never thought about it that way. That just makes her even more evil. Wow!

Yes, he's and a few other cast members were in lots of things and more recognizable to audiences in the past like Sidney Lassick (Charlie) from the Carrie and multiple TV shows and Peter Brocco (Matterson) from Spartacus and literally hundreds of other productions. :)

lol I was waiting for one of them to pick him up

And no merchandise to sell!🤣

Interesting you mentioned Star Wars because that (and Jaws) was the beginning of the end of the little window you speak of.

@@vinnygi Yes, definitely. Both were born out of that period, and yet marked the end of it. Star Wars was kind of the ultimate expression of the movement, with Lucas as auteur pursuing his own personal vision to the utmost, exerting as much control as he could over every element on screen to create a fully immersive diegesis. There’s a sort of sad irony that his approach was so successful that it (and Jaws before it) put megabucks back into the equation of the studios and killed off the movement.

@@forsakenjones4695 Moichandising! Where the REAL money from the movie is made!

Ratched

@@MovieVigilante thanks

LOL, you mentioned Michael Douglas's father. I think you mean the great and famous Kirk Douglas who was more famous than Michael.

@@giannag4581 He ... didn't say anything to the contrary...? Why don't you calm down, no one cares, Chief

What was so shocking is that in real life, she was an exceedingly sweet woman.

@@watchmanonthewall14 sign of a great actress. Saying that most of the nice in real life stars relish playing a good bad guy from time to time. They're usually the most interesting and memorable roles!

@@peteturner3928 100%

I’ve gotta check out “Sometimes A Great Notion”. Thanks for the recommendation. I grew closer to Cuckoo’s nest cuz I used to ride my bike by the hospital where they filmed in Oregon. Didn’t even know the writer wrote another Oregon based story.

I think I read it was filmed at the Oregon State Mental Hospital. It's still open but the area where the movie was filmed is now closed.

The man who played Dr. Spivey was actually the head of the real hospital where this film was shot.

It's a trip to realize that these epic stories came from the mind of an LSD advocate who threw Acid Test parties and led the flamboyant group of Merry Pranksters. For an interesting take on Kesey's life, crack open Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

@@dayceem I read it many years ago and just bought a copy of it when I was in Oregon last time.

His underrated role to me is Exorcist 3, he was so terrifying and just nailed that performance

He played Grima Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings which was a pretty big role.

He played some great villains himself-hes incredible when he acts "angry/psycho". Shame he never made it bigger.

He produced it, but he didn't write, direct, or act in it, so no he really didn't win an Oscar

@@ghostofyourmom Yes, he did. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won the Oscar for Best Picture.

@@ghostofyourmom He did win the Oscar for Best Picture. If a film gets Oscar nominated, the producer(s) receives the nomination because they're the ones who guide the film into production.

@@Madbandit77 I mean you might be right, but I'm pretty sure it's the director who accepts the Oscar for Best Picture. Like James Cameron for Titanic.

Thank you for saying this. I used to work in an intox shelter and during my orientation, my team lead asked why I wanted to work there. I said I wanted to help people and make a do something that felt like it was worth my time. She said she used to be like that too. Wanted to save the world and find purpose but now all she ever did was sign timesheets. People get burnt out but they also need to live and so some lose sight of everything but the carrot on the stick of the next promotion. The job becomes *a job* and "us for them" becomes "us vs them".

Absolutely. I did 1:1 community support work for years and so many staff had these ideas that their job was to "cure" clients with developmental disabilities. Or were working 60 hours a week with one agency and 40 hours a week with another. I dont think they were bad people. I dont think they had anything other than the best intentions and wanted to help their clients. But they didn't have a healthy perception of what helping even is.

I feel like I heard somewhere that the events in Cuckoo's Nest were based on someone's firsthand experience working in a similar institution. So I have to assume that Ratched is a commentary on that person's reaction to what they saw in the staff there. I had to quit working in secure treatment. I wanted to help but it didn't feel like we were helping. I think the person I supported would have been far worse off by herself. I think we offered something. But it didn't always feel right. I don't like power struggles. I think Ratched did. And unfortunately, I think a lot of the people that end up in similar positions end up seeing themselves as parents. They delight in controlling.

I interpreted Ratched simply as someone who became obsessed with power and control. Whatever good intentions she may have had when she first became a nurse were long gone. "Power attracts the corruptible", as the late, great Frank Herbert once said. Ratched's goal every day was to maintain order and control. Any change from her routine was a threat, which she took very personally. Even the actual well-being of the patients were a distant second to her #1 Priority. When challenged, she responded with viciousness and cruelty, like she did with Billy.

lol why hopping so many jobs? As an addictions counselor, I've seen my fair share of shiny-eyed kids graduate and roll in all keen to save lives. But once they've seen the same client returning for the third time or beyond, they start to lose hope and they start to lose focus. The work becomes a battle they take personally. They feel like the clients are wasting their time. They feel lied to and abused. And sure, they are. We all are. But that's what we get paid to do. I think Ratched started taking her job personally and was going to battle against her clients. It's definitely a commentary. But I don't think anyone had to work firsthand to get that perspective. We can all become entrenched in combat against the things we take personally.

The subtext is about the personal freedoms of everyone in this society.

,, I was just wondering if anyone knows of the film or even possibly a TV drama where a young girl who leads a very challenging life is institutionalised in later years and has become either silent or catatonic and due to budget cuts the hospital releases some of the patients with our hope she'll b able to find closure in parts of her life, except a surgeon scraping her forehead says with a bang,, something like, this one's lucky she's not going home ✨😳😳😳

,, I was thinking it might b the UK bbc mini-series starring Timothy Spall and Lindsey Duncan, Shooting the Past,, but I'm not sure it is ✨🤷

And the film adaptation of "Hair"

And Kesey got much of the background and inspiration for the novel while working in a Veterans Administration facility in Menlo Park, California.

I STILL tear up every time, and I have the soundtrack and whenever I hear this song, all I can think about is Chief 💜 😭

The ending should have destroyed you. Your parents were irresponsible for allowing an 11 year old to watch this R-rated movie.

@@straycatttt2766 fu$& off, my parents were awesome and back then parents didn’t feel the need to protect kids from everything in the world that wasn’t sunshine and rainbows.

@@jimtatro6550 , your parents taught you no manners in how to engage in social media discourse without resorting to profanity. Your parents permitted your psyche to be “destroyed” (your word) at age 11.

@@straycatttt2766 and you feel the need to insult people you don’t know, have or will never meet and you failed to see the final line of my original post, I love this movie. As far as how to talk to people online I would prefer to speak to someone to their face as opposed to being self righteous with the internet to hide how small they must actually feel inside. Have a nice day and a wonderful year. (Better?)

Don't forget Carnal Knowledge (1971)

He was also in As Good As It Gets.

I can't even imagine how rough that must have been.

Scatman was also the entrance guard at MIB HQ.

@@Philjj61 On November 22, 1986, Crothers died at the age of 76 at his home in Van Nuys, California, after struggling with lung cancer for nearly four years. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

@@Philjj61 If that's supposed to mean Men in Black Headquarters, Men in Black came out in 1997, so he was dead.

You always say that about Reagan. Democrats have controlled California for decades. High speed rail but people who need help crapping on sidewalks and sleeping under bridges. Assembly and governor have and have had majority for decades. No excuse for democrats.

Damn, everything bad in modern America really _can_ be traced back to Reagan 😲

The recognizable Scatman Crothers, who was also in The Shining.