Originally announced in 1962 withKirk Douglas starring, the film took 13 years to develop.[5] Filming finally began in January 1975 and lasted three months, on location inSalem, Oregon, and the surrounding area, and inDepoe Bay on the northOregon coast. The producers shot the film in theOregon State Hospital, an actual psychiatric hospital, which is also the novel's setting. The hospital is still in operation, though the original buildings in the film have been demolished. The film was released on November 19, 1975.
In 1963, Oregon,Randle McMurphy is incarcerated for thestatutory rape of a 15-year-old girl (which he claims he committed under the assumption that she was an 18-year-old), with five previous arrests for assault. He feigns mental illness so he can be moved to a mental institution and avoidhard labor at awork farm. The medical ward is dominated by the cold, passive-aggressiveNurse Ratched, who intimidates her patients and maintains control through fear.
The other patients include young, anxious, stuttering Billy Bibbit; Charlie Cheswick, who is prone to temper tantrums; delusional, child-like Martini; the articulate and repressed Dale Harding; belligerent and profane Max Taber;epileptics Jim Sefelt and Bruce Fredrickson; quiet but violent-minded Scanlon; tall,deaf-muteNative American Chief Bromden; and several others with chronic conditions.
Ratched sees McMurphy's lively, rebellious presence as a threat to her authority, to which she responds by confiscating and rationing the patients' cigarettes and suspending their card-playing privileges. McMurphy finds himself in a battle of wills against Ratched. One night, he makes a bet with the other inmates that he can escape by tearing a hydrotherapy fountain off its base and hurling it through a locked window, but is predictably unable to lift it. Shortly after, he hijacks a charter bus, picks up his girlfriend Candy, and escapes with several patients to steal a recreational fishing boat, exposing them to the outside world and encouraging them to discover their abilities and find self-confidence.
After anorderly tells him that his sentence term does not apply in the mental institution, and can become indefinite, McMurphy questions why no one had told him this before. He also learns that Chief, Taber, and he are the only nonchronic patients who have been involuntarily committed; the others have committed themselves voluntarily, but are too afraid to leave. After Cheswick bursts into a fit and demands his cigarettes from Ratched, McMurphy starts a fight with the orderlies, and Chief intervenes to help him.
McMurphy, Chief, and Cheswick are then sent to the disturbed ward, and Chief reveals to McMurphy that he can speak and hear normally, having faked deaf-muteness to avoid engaging with anyone. The two make plans to escape to Canada together. McMurphy is subjected toelectroconvulsive therapy and returns to the ward pretending to be brain-damaged before revealing that the treatment has made him even more determined to defeat Ratched. McMurphy and Chief plan to throw a secret Christmas party for their friends after Ratched and the orderlies leave for the night, before making their escape.
McMurphy sneaks Candy and her friend Rose into the ward, each bringing bottles of alcohol for the party, and he bribes the night orderly, Turkle, to allow it. McMurphy and Chief prepare to escape, inviting Billy to come with them. Billy refuses, but asks for a "date" with Candy; McMurphy arranges for him to spend a night with her. McMurphy and the others get drunk, and McMurphy falls asleep instead of escaping with Chief.
Ratched arrives in the morning to find the ward in disarray; most patients have passed out. She discovers Billy and Candy in bed together and aims to embarrass Billy in front of everyone. Billy manages to overcome his stutter and stands up to Ratched. When she threatens to tell his mother, Billy cracks under the pressure and reverts to stuttering, and Ratched orders him locked in a separate room as punishment. McMurphy punches an orderly when trying to escape out of a window with Chief, causing the other orderlies to intervene. Locked up alone, Billy kills himself by slitting his throat with a broken glass, causing a huge commotion. Ratched tries to control the situation by calling for the day's routine to continue as usual, but her nonchalant reaction enrages McMurphy, who begins strangling her. The orderlies violently subdue McMurphy, saving Ratched's life.
Sometime later, Ratched is wearing a neck brace and speaking weakly, although still sternly, and Harding leads the now unsuspended card-playing. McMurphy is nowhere to be found, leading to a rumor that he has escaped. Later that night, Chief sees McMurphy being returned to his bed. He is initially elated that McMurphy had kept his promise not to escape without him, until discovering that McMurphy has beenlobotomized. After tearfully embracing McMurphy, Chiefsmothers him to death with a pillow. He then rips the hydrotherapy fountain off its base and throws it through the window, as McMurphy had earlier attempted. Chief escapes, with Taber and the other inmates awakening to cheer him on as he runs into the surrounding countryside.
In 1962, Kirk Douglas's companyJoel Productions announced that it had acquired the rights to make Broadway stage and film adaptations ofOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Douglas starring as McMurphy in both the play and the film,Dale Wasserman writing the stageplay, andGeorge Roy Hill directing the film based on Wasserman's play.Jack Nicholson had also tried to buy the film rights to the novel, but was outbid by Douglas.[6] Wasserman's1963–1964 Broadway stage adaptation successfully opened, but Douglas was unable to find a studio willing to make the film with him.[5]
Kirk Douglas hiredMiloš Forman to direct after meeting him inPrague during a tour of theEastern Bloc.Avco-Embassy Pictures optioned the film in 1969, but Forman was prevented from directing the film by theWarsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and the beginning of the "normalization" period in which theSoviet Union forcedCzechoslovakia to reverse most of itsPrague Spring liberalization reforms. Forman and Douglas fell completely out of contact after the CzechoslovakStB put Forman under strict surveillance. It also intercepted a copy of the novel Douglas sent to his home in Prague, which meant he was unable to read the book.[5]
Wasserman subsequently sold his film rights to Douglas in 1970, but then delayed the film for several more years with lawsuits.[5] In 1971, Kirk Douglas's sonMichael Douglas convinced his father to allow him to produce the film, as he was drawn to the novel's "one man against the system" plot due to his involvement withstudent activism at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara.[2] Michael Douglas optioned the film to directorRichard Rush, but Rush was unable to secure financing from major studios.[7][8] In March 1973, Michael Douglas announced a new deal in which he would co-produce the film withSaul Zaentz as the first project ofFantasy Records' new film division.[2][5][7]
Zaentz, a voracious reader, felt an affinity with Kesey, so after Hauben's first attempt, he asked Kesey to write the screenplay.[2] Kesey participated in the early stages of script development, but withdrew after creative differences with the producers over casting and narrative point of view; ultimately, he filed suit against the production and won a settlement.[9] Although Kesey was paid for his work, his screenplay from the first-person point of view of Chief Bromden was not used. Instead,Lawrence Hauben andBo Goldman wrote a new screenplay from a third-person perspective.[5]
Hal Ashby was hired to replace Rush as director in 1973, but he was also replaced by Forman after Forman had successfully fled to the United States. Although Michael Douglas and Zaentz were unaware that Forman had been Kirk Douglas's first choice to direct, they began considering him after Hauben showed them Forman's 1967 Czechoslovak filmThe Firemen's Ball.[5][2] Michael Douglas later said that the film "had the sort of qualities we were looking for; it took place in one enclosed situation, with a plethora of unique characters he had the ability to juggle".[2]
Although Forman was suffering from amental health crisis and refused to leave hisHotel Chelsea room in New York City for months, Douglas and Zaentz sent him a copy of the novel. Although Forman was not aware that the novel was the one which Douglas's father had hired him to direct in the 1960s, he quickly decided that it was "the best material I’d come across in America" and flew to California to discuss the film further with Douglas and Zaentz.[6] They quickly hired Forman because, in Douglas's words, "Unlike the other directors we saw, who kept their cards close to their chest, he went through the script page by page and told us what he would do."[2] Forman wrote in 2012: "To me, [the story] was not just literature, but real life, the life I lived inCzechoslovakia from my birth in 1932 until 1968. TheCommunist Party was my Nurse Ratched, telling me what I could and could not do; what I was or was not allowed to say; where I was and was not allowed to go; even who I was and was not."[10]
Although Kirk Douglas allowed his son to produce the film, he remained interested in playing McMurphy. However, Ashby and Forman felt Kirk Douglas was too old for the role and decided to recast him. This decision would strain relations between Kirk and Michael Douglas for many years, although Michael Douglas claimed it had not been his decision to recast him.[11][12][13]Gene Hackman,[14][15]James Caan,[16]Marlon Brando,[14][15] andBurt Reynolds[17] were all considered for the role of McMurphy. Ashby wanted 37-year-old Jack Nicholson to play McMurphy, but Douglas was unsure if he was right for the role and Forman's first choice was Reynolds.[18] All four turned down the role, which ultimately went to Nicholson.[19][20] Nicholson had never played this type of role before. Production was delayed for about six months because of Nicholson's schedule. Douglas later stated in an interview, "[T]hat turned out to be a great blessing; it gave us the chance to get the ensemble right."[2] Nicholson did extensive research for the role and even met patients in a psychiatric ward to watch electroconvulsive shock therapy to prepare for the role.
Danny DeVito was the first to be cast, reprising his role as the patient Martini from the 1971 off-Broadway production. Chief Bromden (who turns out to be the title character), played byWill Sampson, was referred by Mel Lambert (who portrayed the harbormaster in the fishing scene), a used-car dealer Douglas met on an airplane flight when Douglas told him they wanted a "big guy" to play the part. Lambert's father often sold cars to Native American customers, and six months later, Lambert called Douglas to say: "the biggest sonofabitch Indian came in the other day!"[2] Sampson was so large that Nicholson sat in his lap on the small plane Michael Douglas and they flew on after their meeting; Douglas recalled Nicholson repeating, "It's the Chief, man, it's the Chief!"[20]
Jeanne Moreau,Angela Lansbury,Colleen Dewhurst,Geraldine Page,Ellen Burstyn,Anne Bancroft, andJane Fonda all were considered to portray Nurse Ratched beforeLily Tomlin was ultimately cast in the role.[5][6][13] However, Forman became interested in recasting Tomlin withLouise Fletcher, who had a supporting role in the film, after viewing her filmThieves Like Us (1974). A mutual acquaintance, casting directorFred Roos, had already mentioned Fletcher's name as a possibility. Even so, four or five meetings across one year were needed for Fletcher to secure the role of Nurse Ratched.[21][5] Her final audition was late in 1974, with Forman, Zaentz, and Douglas. The day after Christmas, her agent called to say she was expected at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem on January 4 to begin rehearsals.[22] Tomlin subsequently left the film to replace Fletcher inNashville (1975). In 2016, Fletcher recalled that Nicholson's salary was "enormous", while the rest of the cast worked at or close to scale. She put in 11 weeks, grossingUS$10,000 (equivalent to $58,000 in 2024).[22]
Forman also consideredShelley Duvall for the role of Candy; coincidentally, Nicholson,Scatman Crothers (who portrays Turkle), and she all later appeared as part of the main cast ofThe Shining.Bud Cort was considered for the role of Billy Bibbit beforeBrad Dourif was cast.[23] Michael Douglas said that he was too young to play McMurphy, but "It did cross my mind that maybe I could play Billy Bibbit. Then Brad Dourif came in for an audition, and I just said, 'Well, that's our Billy.'"[20]
Prior to commencement of filming, a week of rehearsals started on January 4, 1975, in Oregon shortly after Nicholson concluded his previous filmThe Fortune (1975).[5] The cast watched the patients in their daily routine and at group therapy. Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher also witnessedelectroconvulsive therapy being performed on a patient.[2]
Principal photography began on January 13, 1975, and concluded about three months later.[5] The film was shot on location in Salem, Oregon, the surrounding area, and the coastal town ofDepoe Bay, Oregon.[5][24][25]
The producers decided to shoot the film in the Oregon State Hospital, an actual mental hospital, as this is also the setting of the novel.[26] The hospital's director, Dean Brooks, was supportive of the filming and eventually ended up playing the character of Dr. John Spivey in the film. Brooks identified a patient for each of the actors to shadow, and some of the cast even slept on the wards at night. He also wanted to incorporate his patients into the crew, to which the producers agreed. Douglas recalls that he did not find out until later that many of them were criminally insane.[2]
For the group therapy scenes, Forman and his cinematographer Haskell Wexler used three cameras to record all shots for the scene simultaneously. Although this was unusual for the time and more expensive, it allowed Forman and Wexler to capture the actors' authentic reactions to each other.[2]
Forman's not allowing the actors to see the day's filming led to the cast losing confidence in him, while Nicholson also began to wonder about his performance. Douglas convinced Forman to show Nicholson something, which he did, and restored the actor's confidence.[2]
Haskell Wexler was fired as cinematographer and replaced byBill Butler. Wexler believed his dismissal was due to his concurrent work on the documentaryUnderground, in which the radical militant groupthe Weather Underground was being interviewed while hiding from the law. However, Forman said he had terminated Wexler's services over artistic differences. Douglas also claimed Wexler wanted to get Forman fired to direct the film himself and was fueling the cast's distrust of Forman and lack of confidence in their own performances. Both Wexler and Butler received Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography forOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, though Wexler said, "[O]nly about a minute or two minutes in that film I didn't shoot.".[27]
According to Butler, Nicholson refused to speak to Forman: "...[Jack] never talked to Miloš at all, he only talked to me".[28]
The production went over the initial budget of $2 million and over schedule, but Zaentz, who was personally financing the movie, was able to come up with the difference by borrowing against his company, Fantasy Records. The total production budget came to $4.4 million.[2]
After many other studios refused to distributeOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,United Artists—Douglas's last choice—agreed.[20] The film premiered at the Sutton and Paramount Theatres in New York City on November 19, 1975.[29] It was thesecond-highest-grossing film released in 1975 in the United States and Canada at $109 million,[1] one of theseven highest-grossing films of all time at the time.[29] As it was released toward the end of the year, most of its gross was in 1976 and was the highest grosser for calendar year 1976 with rentals of $56.5 million.[30]
Worldwide,One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest grossed $163,250,000. It was the highest-grossing film released by UA up to that time.[3][29]
Critics praised the film, sometimes with reservations.Roger Ebert said:
Miloš Forman'sOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a film so good in so many of its parts that there's a temptation to forgive it when it goes wrong. But it does go wrong, insisting on making larger points than its story really should carry, so that at the end, the human qualities of the characters get lost in the significance of it all. And yet, there are those moments of brilliance.[31]
A comedy that can't quite support its tragic conclusion, which is too schematic to be honestly moving, but it is acted with such a sense of life that one responds to its demonstration of humanity if not to its programmed metaphors.[34]
The edgy nature of the film extends into the score, giving it a profoundly disturbing feel at times—even when it appears to be relatively normal. The music has a tendency to always be a little off-kilter, and from time to time, it tilts completely over into a strange little world of its own.[35]
The film won the"Big Five" Academy Awards at the48th Oscar ceremony. These include the Best Actor for Jack Nicholson, Best Actress for Louise Fletcher, Best Director for Forman, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay forLawrence Hauben andBo Goldman. The film has a 93% rating atRotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 115 critics, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher are worthy adversaries inOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with Miloš Forman's more grounded and morally ambiguous approach to Ken Kesey's surrealistic novel yielding a film of outsized power."[36] The film has an 84 rating onMetacritic.
While Kesey claimed never to have seen the movie, he disliked what he knew of it,[9] which was confirmed by authorChuck Palahniuk, who wrote: "The first time I heard this story, it was through the movie starring Jack Nicholson. A movie that Kesey once told me he disliked."[37]
In 1993, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry.[38] Michael Douglas was gratified that his father praised the film and Nicholson's performance. He said in 2025 that[20]
The film is a star vehicle for Jack, but it's an ensemble film at its heart. What we're seeing on the screen is camaraderie, and I think that's why it stood the test of time. It's also a funny movie. Yes it gets sad, but when the Chief breaks out and Christopher Lloyd is triumphant, it ends on a very positive note. I think that's partly why it succeeded.
Japanese filmmakerAkira Kurosawa citedCuckoo's Nest as one of his 100 favorite films.[39]
In 2014,WhatCulture ranked Louise Fletcher's role second in its "Top 10 Most Convincing MoviePsychopath Performances".[40]
Pantera singerPhil Anselmo released a music video, "Choosing Mental Illness",[41] with his bandPhilip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. The music video pays tribute toOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and it shows scenes recreated from the film with Anselmo playing McMurphy and the rest of the band playing other characters from the film, and Nurse Ratched played by actor Michael St. Michaels.[42]
The film has been referenced several times onThe Simpsons, including anepisode whereHomer is committed to an insane asylum and meets a man who believes himself to beMichael Jackson. In an episode from thefourth season ofIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, titled "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack", Danny DeVito's character Frank Reynolds is part of a subplot that directly parodies the film.
Danny DeVito's role in the parody is significant since he was cast in the original film as the character Martini. In the episode ofIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a reference is made to DeVito's original role with a character in the parody named "Martini". Additionally, the 1975 film featuredWill Sampson as Chief Bromden. In the parody, Tim Sampson, son of Will Sampson, plays Chief in mirroring his father's role in the film.
The film is referenced in a song in the musicalNext to Normal, “Didn’t I See This Movie”, where the main character, Diana, fears going under electroconvulsive therapy because of this movie.
In 2006,Writers Guild of America West ranked its screenplay 45th in WGA’s list of 101 Greatest Screenplays.[55] In 2015, the film ranked 59th onBBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.[56]
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