Here’s a fact that might surprise even the most informed film buffs: in nearly a century of the Academy Awards, only three films have managed to win all the “Big Five” Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. The movies are Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” (1934), Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991), and the Milos Forman/Michael Douglas masterful adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975). After 50 years, this beloved movie still provokes audiences with its themes of personal dignity, anti-authoritarianism and sacrificial love. 

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” garnered not only a Best Picture Oscar for Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, but also awards for Best Actor (Jack Nicholson, in a career-defining performance), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Screenplay (Lawrence Hausen and Bo Goldman), and Best Director (Milos Forman). The film holds a deserved spot on the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry and is one of Roger Ebert’s Great Films. 

Actor Jack Nicholson, star of the 1975 movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” is pictured in a 2007 photo in Hollywood. OSV News photo/Fred Prouser, Reuters

It may also surprise viewers that all three of these movies were conceived and adapted by people of strong faith. Frank Capra was a Sicilian immigrant to the United States, and a devout Catholic. Jonathan Demme was an Episcopal pacifist. Ken Kesey was raised Catholic and adhered to Christianity as well as principles of Zen Buddhism his entire life. Michael Douglas is a practicing Jew. And Milos Forman was a Protestant Christian of Jewish heritage from Czechoslovakia, whose mother and father were both killed in Nazi concentration camps. 

Of all three films, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” remains the most compelling in its complex treatment of illness and redemption. 

Ken Kesey published the novel in 1962. Based in large part upon his own experience with government LSD experiments and work in mental hospitals, the book resonated with young people in the early 1960s who were just beginning to question rigid social and political structures in the Civil Rights and Vietnam era. Kirk Douglas wanted to adapt the novel into film almost as soon as the book was published, but it would take 13 years until his son Michael would finally be able to make the film. 

The film adheres closely to Kesey’s plot structure, except for the decision to present the film not from Chief Bromden’s point of view, but more from the perspective of Randle Patrick McMurphy, or Mac. R.P. McMurphy is a habitual criminal who is currently serving a sentence at a work farm. To get out of hard labor, Mac tries to fake insanity. He is sent to a mental hospital for observation. While there, he is thrust into a bitter rivalry with a head nurse named Ratched. As they struggle for control of a male ward that houses both voluntary and committed patients, Mac serves as a redeemer for the men even as his conflict with Ratched deepens. Ratched subjects Mac to electroshock therapy and following a raucous and tragic night on the ward, she is complicit in having him lobotomized. Chief Bromden, however, takes Mac’s spirit from his wracked body and escapes, using a seemingly immovable water fixture to break triumphantly out of the asylum. 

Throughout the development process (the film was preceded by a stage adaptation), numerous directors and actors were considered for the project. Yet the movie’s direction ultimately was given to the Czech filmmaker Milos Forman. Had the film not been assigned to the political exile Forman, the movie would not be what it became, nor would its legacy endure for more than half a century. 

To fully understand the adaptation from novel into film, one must know the context of the Czech New Wave in filmmaking, a short-lived movement from roughly 1963-1968. Its end came following the famous “Prague Spring” of 1968, when political reformers in Czechoslovakia were misled into believing they could have a peaceful transformation of government. Instead, in August of 1968, the Soviet military intervened, and the film movement ended as many of its directors were forced into exile or prevented from working. 

The Czech New Wave is unique among the political cinemas of the 1960s because of its style, a style that is marked by humor, satire, and innuendo to subvert the aims of those in power. Though the films were often made by highly trained and skilled directors, they were small in scale. They feature on-location shooting and amateur actors and frequently use absurdity to subvert power and make political figures look foolish. In their attitude, “if you can’t outsmart them, outdumb them,” the Czech directors brilliantly undermined the oppressive establishment. Among these talented young directors was Milos Forman, who was adamant that “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was indeed a “Czech film.” 

Because of his background in a subversive cinema, Forman was able to translate Kesey’s novel into a film that remains striking in both form and content. Kesey’s style is marked by highly realistic settings and a sacramental sensibility that formed a Catholic imagination not unlike that of Flannery O’Connor. 

The realism in the film was achieved largely through on-location shooting in the Oregon State Hospital for the mentally ill. So realistic is the film that the actual hospital director convincingly plays the role of Dr. Spivey. Archaic treatments such as electroshock therapy and lobotomy further add to hyper-realism.   

A film of constant movement 

The sacramental and spiritual aspects are handled both explicitly and symbolically. It’s impossible to miss, for example, the link between medication time and the Eucharist that Forman depicts early in the film. The water tank and the tub room are associated with Baptism and healing waters not unlike the Pool of Siloam or Lourdes. The sacrament of penance, or confession, is frequently referenced. The comedic fishing trip depicts the essential humanity of the patients while also revealing them as symbolic apostles and McMurphy as a Messianic figure. 

Throughout, the film vacillates between shock and calm, chaos and control and movement and sedation. Extreme close-ups frame the characters as unique individuals even in an environment that tries to stifle their personal dignity and identity. These shots are also agonizing to watch, as they depict human beings at their most vulnerable. When Forman frames his wide shots, there is always action in the foreground and background. The film has a sense of constant movement, almost anervous quality, that perfectly suits its setting. 

As the film progresses, the characters develop into ever more realized and compelling people. Cheswick begins learning how to assert himself. Harding develops greater self-esteem. Billy seems to be maturing into a young man. The Chief reveals his great secret, that he is not deaf and mute, but has succeeded in fooling the entire hospital establishment. And McMurphy, who initially cared only about himself, finds that he is a natural leader, teacher and motivator. He even has empathy. Hediscovers that he is also able to give and receive love. 

That the development of all these men is tragically crushed by the institution is the horrible reality the film can’t ignore. That during their destruction is also a hope for redemptive grace is the larger truth Kesey, Douglas and Forman all believe. 

When Nurse Ratched forbids the men to watch the 1963 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees, McMurphy brilliantly uses his imagination to conjure the games so that the men on the ward believe. This device serves to underscore the film’s belief that there is a presence in absence, that what we don’t see is often more compelling than what we do. It also legitimizes the most important moment in the film. 

Following his lobotomy, Mac is essentially dead. His mind is gone. He will never really experience life again. When Chief Bromden, who has been planning an escape with Mac, says “I’m not going without you Mac. I wouldn’t leave you this way. You’re coming with me,” he literally believes that he is freeing Mac’s soul, that he is taking Mac’s spirit on the next phase of their journey toward freedom. 

As a Native American, Chief Bromden’s spirituality is deeply connected to the concept of the soul. This is why his suffocation of Mac should not be seen as a mercy killing; rather, in the Chief’s perspective, it is his obligation to care for his friend’s soul. 

In short, the Chief believes he is a participant in the action of Grace. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a film that recognizes the mystery of Grace, though like O’Connor’s Grace it comes in startling and even shocking ways.  

The movie also affirms that in the chaos and lunacy of the modern world, there is always hope for insight and deliverance. In a dehumanizing and authoritarian society, the individual always matters, and his service to the greater good is essential. We are here to recognize not only our baseness, but our potential. These are grand themes for a Hollywood movie, but they work in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” because they are articulated by artists who understand the importance of belief.