One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest terrified me as a child. I
remember seeing it with my mom at around age 10, and it was an
overwhelming, extremely unsettling experience. The cold, steely cages
of the insane asylum, inmates with motionless mouths that conveyed
dark, terrifying psychoses, the highly disturbing ending - it all gave
me nightmares for weeks. For some reason, I could watch the umpteenth
variation on Friday the 13th part XVIII, but such realistic horrors
were just too much for me. Perhaps that's the way it should be.
Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is a rebel and a criminal, but
he's not insane. But that doesn't prevent him from being committed to
the state mental hospital. Under the tyrannical rule of Nurse Ratchet
(Louise Fletcher) McMurphy engages the other patients in a way the
administration can't, his contagious spirit for anarchy and expression
at odds with the hospital's rigid code of conformity. The system has
its own ideas on how to handle obstinance - and individuality - and
the unsettling, tragic climax shocked because it was the standard
operating procedure that no one at the time dared admit was true.
Sweeping the 1975 Academy Awards (winning all five top honors), for
once a film deserved all the accolades. Originally an unsuccessful
stage play that closed unceremoniously after a mere few weeks, it took
nearly twenty years to finally bring Ken Kesey's novel to the screen.
But this is one of those tales of triumph over adversity, where all
the elements came together: the perfect match of a director with the
material, led by an impeccable ensemble who knew they were working
with topnotch material. Czechoslovakian-born Milos Forman had just the
properly skewed perspective to tell this highly American, anti-
establishment tale, not provincial enough to worry the consequences,
yet steeped enough in modern social politics to treat the subject
matter seriously. And the cast has never done better work. Before he
was Jack, Nicholson proved here that he was always an A-list
actor just waiting for the right role to propel him to superstardom.
And in the role of her career, Fletcher creates one of the most
indelible villains in screen history, the name Nurse Ratchet now
synonymous with the worst kind of institutional tyranny, repression
and abuse.
If there is any objection I have to raise
regarding the film, it may be in some of the reactions to it. Even I
just labeled Nurse Ratchet a villain, which isn't particularly
accurate. I believe many reviewers missed the boat in calling the film
a horror movie, or some sort of rallying cry against the mental
health profession. Ratchet isn't a traditional antagonist, twirling
her nurses' shoelaces instead of a mustache. She truly believes in the
system, that what she's doing is right, and is a perfect metaphor for
a system that unknowingly abuses the very patients it is supposed to
be helping. If there is any ultimate "message" to the film,
it is that evil doesn't come with a capital "E," but in the
blind, almost innocent obedience that fosters civil conformity. There
is no more tragic death than the death of the human spirit.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Featuring a 1.85:1
anamorphic widescreen transfer, unfortunately the elements utilized
here aren't in the greatest of shape. Often marred by excessive dirt
and print damage, many sequences look pretty rough, while others just
fine. Colors overall look washed out and dated, and fleshtones veered
too much towards the reds for my taste. Black level if decent but
contrast rather dull, and detail suffers as a result. Warner has
decided to smoosh the entire 133-minute feature on one single-layer
disc (the flip features an open matte, 4:3 full screen transfer), and
there are some noticeable compression artifacts, especially during
fades and long dissolves. A decent transfer, but this film really
needs a full-blown restoration to really look its best.
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
Presented in 2.0
Dolby surround only, this is a fair track of limited source material.
Sparse and minimal, the most pronounced elements are the dialogue, and
composer Jack Nitzche's haunting score. Dynamic range is below
average, with a dated, thin sound throughout that makes the quietest
dialogue often very hard to discern. Despite the the presence of the
mono surround channel, there is little envelopment present. Some minor
bleed of the effects to the rears, but the score is flat and even
ambiance is sorely lacking. With no real LFE present, the mix almost
sounds mono at times, but at least the source elements are in
generally good shape. Hardly a great mix, but it's serviceable.
Also included are French and Spanish mono tracks, English, French
and Spanish subtitles, and English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
Nothing much here
at all, just the film's theatrical trailer in non-anamorphic
widescreen. It's doubly disappointing, as Pioneer released an
excellent laserdisc box set just a few years back...so where are all
those extras?
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you
pop the disc in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting Thoughts
A great film that deserves a
great DVD, alas, this isn't it. The transfer is fine, but the lack of
any real extras is surprisingly. Still, if you can get it at a
discount, at least we have this classic film on DVD at all...
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