One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Under the skillful direction of Milos Forman, and with Jack Nicholson in the "heroic" lead, "Cuckoo's Nest" attains its greatest power in the medium of film.

Kesey's story was hardly designed to be naturalistic, and Forman's streamlining isn't the way to make it work (there may not be any way). As it stands, Forman has merely reduced the story without successfully revising it.

It is Jack Nicholson, an actor continually producing profound and stunning performances, who fires a life in McMurphy different from, but not lesser than, Kesey's character. This is a milestone performance.

I found the ending, with its heavily rigged tragedy and trite metaphors, neither believable nor very moving... [But] in its better moments, [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest] is hilariously and potently effective.

The problem with stripping away the dramatics is, as I see it, that Forman was not able to replace them with the ingredients of a more truly thoughtful film.