One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Summary & Criticism

[Dr. Mohammad Hossein Hariri Asl]

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest summary and criticism in our film criticism course forum for ESL students to practice all the 4 skills naturally and enjoyably and receive detailed feedback interactively with error correction.

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Summary

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, novel by Ken Kesey, first published in 1962. At a Veterans Administration hospital in Menlo Park, California, Kesey had been a paid volunteer and experimental subject, taking mind-altering drugs and recording their effects, and this experience and his work as an aide at the hospital served as fodder for this novel, his best-known work, which is set in a mental hospital. The book’s film adaptation (1975), starring Jack Nicholson as the main character, became the first movie since It Happened One Night (1934) to win all five major Academy Awards: best picture, best actor (Nicholson), best actress (Louise Fletcher), best director (Miloš Forman), and best screenplay (Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben).

Source: https://www.britannica.com/

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Trailer

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Analysis

Miloš Forman’s 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a harrowing tale of rebellion vs. conformity, maturity vs. immaturity, and the true nature of how we measure and treat mental illness. It’s about the broken penal system, personal pain, trauma, authority, and freedom. It was viewed as a comedy upon its release: Vincent Canby of the New York Times called it a comedy that cannot support its tragic ending, and Roger Ebert, when he first reviewed the film, felt that the film’s overall tone was too light to tackle some of its larger themes. Ebert eventually reassessed the film, including it on his Great Movies list.

Source: https://www.slashfilm.com/

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest film criticism

1. How do you rank this movie, and why do you rank it this way?
2. What is the relationship between the plot of this movie and its title, i.e. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
3. What’s your opinion about the tragic ending of the movie when the protagonist was suffocated by his friend with a pillow?

[Armaghan Houshmand]

1. My score to this movie in 9.5
I can’t tell how much I liked this movie. It was a true definition of bittersweet for me. And full of moral lessons and points that got me think as well. The characters were so funny and well written. I found the comedy parts so brilliant and funny.
2. One flew over the cuckoo nest was a metaphor of the escape of the mental asylum at the end.
3. As I mentioned before it was full of scenes that got me shocked and thinking. Including the ending. I think that chief thought that death is better for Mcmurphy than staying in that situation( he was lobotomized). They had decided to ran away together and in this way Mcmurphy could be free too. I found it a good and memorable ending. One of those that is never gonna get out of your brain.

[Dr. Mohammad Hossein Hariri Asl]

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Awards and criticism

This masterpiece is my favorite film. Everything is so incredibly real. Even the tragic ending of the film proves that the film is so realistic.
I’m shocked when I see even some normal people like Chief lose their hope and interest in making any changes to their lives, and they just kill the time instead of enjoying it.
Due to the injustice of society, some talented people like McMurphy who is smarter than some of those psychiatrists cannot be understood well, and end up being mistreated and harmed by pseudo-scientists, which is in fact, an irony of situation.
For this reason, the film, which is based on a novel, is replete with many cases of burlesque and satire. For instance, the team of psychologists and psychiatrists do nothing except aggravating mental illnesses and disorders.
I’ve watched this film nearly for 10 times, and I boldly give the score of 10 to this film. There is no wonder why this movie has won so many awards!

[Farhang Hooshmand]

At first I did not like the film may be because of suffering of patients that is a reflection of society and also because of what happened to protagonist. But with reviewing the very detailed and nice description of Armaghan and elaborate comments of Dr Hariri I totally changed my idea and understood the deep meaning of it so decided to watch it once more . Thanks both of you for such a smart and deep insight.

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