Cuckoo's Nest plays Kresge on November 3 and 4
October 27, 2005
KOKOMO, Ind.—Before the 1975 movie
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jack Nicholson was Oscar®-nominated, but not yet a star. Danny DeVito, Brad Dourif, and Christopher Lloyd were Hollywood unknowns. And, it had been four decades since one film—1934's
It Happened One Night—swept the Academy Awards® for best picture, director, screenplay, actor, and actress.
Cuckoo's Nest's striking blend of rebellious comedy and touching drama comes to Indiana University Kokomo's Kresge Auditorium on Thursday and Friday, November 3 and 4. The 7 p.m. showings are free and open to the public. The R-rated movie is 133 minutes long.
Nicholson plays Randall Patrick McMurphy, a convicted felon who feigns mental problems, thinking a stay in a mental hospital beats jail time. The fun-loving McMurphy tries to rally the timid souls of the real patients he meets. The resulting chaos pits McMurphy against menacing ward supervisor Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Reviewer John Nesbit (CultureDose.net) describes Fletcher's supremely cool villain as a well-intentioned “control freak who transforms institutional rules into rigid dogma and squeezes the humanity out of subordinates.”
Director Milos Foreman pressed for realism, filming many scenes in a functioning Oregon mental institution, with staff and patients as bit players and extras. Pam Grady of Reel.com said the film's eye for detail, combined with an outstanding ensemble cast, makes One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest “a harrowing, blackly comic ride with a cynical attitude toward authority that remains fresh today.”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the third of six movies being presented on campus this academic year, in recognition of the campus' six decades of existence. To see the full schedule of films and learn about other activities celebrating IU Kokomo's 60th Anniversary, visit www.iuk.edu/events.
Persons without campus parking permits should follow signs to free visitor parking for this event.
