I’d like to get through this long-standing goal of watching all the Best Picture winners sooner than later. This weekend I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976). I don’t know what I was expecting from this one, but it was more low-key than I expected, despite the last third being one over-the-top people-in-the-nuthouse spectacle. Having heard the Nurse Ratchet references in cinema studies and pop culture for years, I thought her character would’ve been a lot more vindictive or evil than she ended up. I guess one could say the role was played in an understated way to contrast the mental patients, but I was just underwhelmed by the role and the character.
While he tends to play the same guy and is more annoying as an older actor, I thought Jack Nicholson was great in this movie and I enjoyed him as the main character. The end was shocking.
Personally, I think I was distracted by all the actors who weren’t very known when the movie was made who went on to be more famous (Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd) or who became character actors that I’ve seen in a lot of shows. Brad Dourif was especially distracting, having been in both an episode of the X-Files and in the LOTR movies.
Posted in Movies |
September 5th, 2006 at 11:21 am
I like this idea of watching all the winners. I have seen most of the 90s and 00s too, but not American Beauty (just parts when I worked in a movie theatre and I was kinda grossed out by what I saw. I don’t like Mena Suvari either) or Shindler’s List…
I might just have to do this. :)