Where to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
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A petty criminal pretends to be mentally ill to avoid prison and is sent to a psychiatric ward. His rebellious energy lifts the spirits of the other patients, but brings him into conflict with the strict nurse who controls the institution.
Cast: Brad Dourif, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito, William Redfield, Scatman Crothers, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson, Dean R. Brooks, Michael Berryman, Sydney Lassick, William Duell
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Trivia & production notes
- Jack Nicholson tried to acquire the film rights to the novel in the early 1960s but was outbid by Kirk Douglas's production company.
- Director Miloš Forman was unable to direct the film in the late 1960s because the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and subsequent surveillance by the Czechoslovak secret police prevented him from leaving the country and communicating with Kirk Douglas.
- Ken Kesey wrote an early screenplay from Chief Bromden's first-person perspective but withdrew from the project due to creative differences with producers over casting and narrative choices, and later sued for a settlement.
- Although Kirk Douglas was the original driving force behind adapting the novel, directors Hal Ashby and Miloš Forman felt he was too old to play McMurphy and recast the role, straining his relationship with his son Michael Douglas for years.
- Gene Hackman, James Caan, Marlon Brando, and Burt Reynolds were all considered for McMurphy before Jack Nicholson received the role.
- Will Sampson was cast as Chief Bromden after a chance airplane conversation in which a used-car dealer told Michael Douglas about a very large Native American customer who could fit the part.
- Louise Fletcher was cast as Nurse Ratched after director Miloš Forman saw her in Thieves Like Us, replacing Lily Tomlin who left the production to appear in Nashville.
- Louise Fletcher earned $10,000 for 11 weeks of work while Jack Nicholson's salary was considerably larger and other cast members worked at or near minimum scale.
- The film was shot on location at Oregon State Hospital, an actual functioning mental institution that was also the setting of the novel.
- Principal photography took place over approximately three months beginning in January 1975 at Oregon State Hospital in Salem and the coastal town of Depoe Bay.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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