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Poster for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In this clean, orderly, disciplined world, who needs guys like McMurphy? Everybody.

1975 · 2h 13m · R Drama
Directed by Miloš Forman

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Overview

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.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
93%
Tomatometer
Fresh

There's a lot here. But with a classic like Cuckoo's Nest, too much is never enough.

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
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
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
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
Fresh

Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy as if he were born to it, and the supporting cast provides fine, detailed performances.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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