One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Warner | minutes | | | Standard DVD reviewed by: Christopher Bligh

There have only been three movies in the history of the Oscars that have gotten what's called "the big five". The five consist of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. It Happened One Night was the first and The Silence of the Lambs was the most recent, but in the middle was the big year of 1975 just when you were about to go into the water and deal with 24 individual stories in the city of the Grand Old Opry, there was an entry that became #2 for "the big five" and those aformentioned movies all lost out to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Randall P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) has just been admitted to a mental institution. There he encounters many patients with many problems, some of which can't speak for themselves and others have more to say. Nobody knows whether McMurphy is normal and doesn't belong or that he's crazier than all the rest. He brings his fun and craziness to the patients and puts an intriguing effect on them, all except the nurse in charge, Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who believes his manor is putting a negative effect on all the patients and goes to different measures about the situation.

It's interesting to see so many little known actors at that time have their film debuts with this film. All the performances right across the board are sensational and this viewer almost was convinced before they all made it that they were all residents of the asylum.

The film also spawns one of the most unique scores by Jack Nitzsche. The combination of unusual beats and sounds. It's funny, heartbreaking, disturbing, depressing and uplifting but most of all it's entertaining and you don't have to go too cuckoo to like the Cuckoo's Nest.

This is the second release of this title from Warner and in this case, an improvement imagewise over the first. It is filmed in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and the print seems sharper and cleaner than previous transfers have shown. There is little grain and despite the limitations of color and the source material being from the 70s, all is shown beautifully. A very good transfer.

Another big improvement in this re-released title is the sound. Also with it's own share of limitations, like the muteness of the sound of most 70s movies, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track gives clarity to the dialogue and opened up a bit more during the outdoor scenes but the score was well spread out amongst all channels and it sounded great. This disc also has a French Digital Mono track as well as English, French and Spanish subtitles.

The previous release was so short on extras, there wasn't even a trailer included. This time around, as part of Warner's Two Disc Special Editions, there are more extras. On Disc 1, we're introduced to a commentary by director Milos Forman, and producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz. It's an entertaining piece recorded all 3 seperately and though Forman has some things to say, it's not as much as the two producers had and they share some nice stories about the production, casting and the movie in general. Also on Disc 1 were Cast and Crew bios along with the Awards that it won and were nominated for.

On Disc 2, we have a documentary about the making of the film which is an abbreviated version of a previous laserdisc documentary,but unlike the Jaws release which the whole documentary should've been present, this version is very good despite it's shorter state and not that short at 47 minutes. There are 8 additional scenes and though they provide an interesting look, it's understandable to see why they were not included in the finished film. Plus, we finally have the theatrical trailer of the piece.

All in all, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest provides a welcome addition into Warner's 2 Disc Special Editions and more than worthy of a purchase.