It's #33 in the top-100 list.
It's the 2nd of only 3 movies ever to win Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Screenplay.
It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
And I found it dull.
I don't understand all the praise. I just don't. :dunno:
The short of it: Jack Nicholson's character Randal McMurphy is serving a prison sentence for statutory rape. He was assigned to an unspecified inmate work farm but he refused to work. He acted insane enough at the work farm that the prison sent him to an insane asylum for clinical evaluation. The medical staff at the asylum quickly determine that he's not insane, but they unanimously deem him "dangerous" (but they don't say in what way he is dangerous) and decide to keep him indefinitely rather than "send their problems back to the jail." McMurphy doesn't like being locked up, and he does his best to take benevolent control of the mental hospital, or at least his immediate ward of eight or nine interactive guys living with him. (There are another 8 or so men in his ward too insane for any meaningful interaction. They mostly stand around in the background.)
Sure, Nicholson did a fine job. I don't deny that he deserved his award.
But best actress? The character of Nurse Ratched has as much range as Bella Swan in "Twilight," yet nobody would suggest that Kristen Stewart deserves as Oscar for brilliantly playing a moody teenager.
And best director? Really? I didn't see it. The emotional close-ups were forced. The camera switches were choppy. He didn't capture the room when he could and should have. He didn't make use of lighting to effect emotion. Therapy moments that should have been tense, or should have been elevated, weren't. (Granted, some therapy moments were very emotional and very tense.)
Best screenplay? How? We never learned what was driving McMurphy's personality. We don't know anything about his background or his motivation. He remained a 1-dimensional character the entire movie. Why didn't he try to escape to prove his sanity after learning that the doctors don't want to declare him sane? He seemed quite upset when he learned that they're keeping him there on purpose. We sort of understand that he stayed after the drunken party on account of his friendship with Billy, but until that party he didn't even have a relationship with Billy. He interacted far more with Chief and Martini, yet where were they during that party? That's a weakness in the script at a major turning point in the move.
Nurse Ratched aside, the movie is about McMurphy's relationship with the group, but that relationship never develops to the point of solid bonds. He was at the beginning, and still was at the end, just a sheep dog trying to herd stupid sheep ... with the possible exception of Chief, but Chief's final act pretty much came out of nowhere. There was, like, one very brief moment between him and McMurphy ("we'll go to Canada together") supporting what he did, and that's hardly satisfying.
Nurse Ratched's character overlays that sheep dog thing with a "people versus government" conflict, but we ask again, who was McMurphy? We're told early in the movie that he's 38 years old. What's he been doing for 38 years? Why does a 38-year-old have a problem with authority? Why was a 38-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old anyway? (Remember his conviction.) My point is that there is no a background story to set up why McMurphy and Ratched should be at odds -- beyond the mere fact that she runs the asylum.
Etc etc etc, I just don't see why this movie is hailed as such a masterpiece.
It's the 2nd of only 3 movies ever to win Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Screenplay.
It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
And I found it dull.
I don't understand all the praise. I just don't. :dunno:
The short of it: Jack Nicholson's character Randal McMurphy is serving a prison sentence for statutory rape. He was assigned to an unspecified inmate work farm but he refused to work. He acted insane enough at the work farm that the prison sent him to an insane asylum for clinical evaluation. The medical staff at the asylum quickly determine that he's not insane, but they unanimously deem him "dangerous" (but they don't say in what way he is dangerous) and decide to keep him indefinitely rather than "send their problems back to the jail." McMurphy doesn't like being locked up, and he does his best to take benevolent control of the mental hospital, or at least his immediate ward of eight or nine interactive guys living with him. (There are another 8 or so men in his ward too insane for any meaningful interaction. They mostly stand around in the background.)
Sure, Nicholson did a fine job. I don't deny that he deserved his award.
But best actress? The character of Nurse Ratched has as much range as Bella Swan in "Twilight," yet nobody would suggest that Kristen Stewart deserves as Oscar for brilliantly playing a moody teenager.
And best director? Really? I didn't see it. The emotional close-ups were forced. The camera switches were choppy. He didn't capture the room when he could and should have. He didn't make use of lighting to effect emotion. Therapy moments that should have been tense, or should have been elevated, weren't. (Granted, some therapy moments were very emotional and very tense.)
Best screenplay? How? We never learned what was driving McMurphy's personality. We don't know anything about his background or his motivation. He remained a 1-dimensional character the entire movie. Why didn't he try to escape to prove his sanity after learning that the doctors don't want to declare him sane? He seemed quite upset when he learned that they're keeping him there on purpose. We sort of understand that he stayed after the drunken party on account of his friendship with Billy, but until that party he didn't even have a relationship with Billy. He interacted far more with Chief and Martini, yet where were they during that party? That's a weakness in the script at a major turning point in the move.
Nurse Ratched aside, the movie is about McMurphy's relationship with the group, but that relationship never develops to the point of solid bonds. He was at the beginning, and still was at the end, just a sheep dog trying to herd stupid sheep ... with the possible exception of Chief, but Chief's final act pretty much came out of nowhere. There was, like, one very brief moment between him and McMurphy ("we'll go to Canada together") supporting what he did, and that's hardly satisfying.
Nurse Ratched's character overlays that sheep dog thing with a "people versus government" conflict, but we ask again, who was McMurphy? We're told early in the movie that he's 38 years old. What's he been doing for 38 years? Why does a 38-year-old have a problem with authority? Why was a 38-year-old having sex with a 15-year-old anyway? (Remember his conviction.) My point is that there is no a background story to set up why McMurphy and Ratched should be at odds -- beyond the mere fact that she runs the asylum.
Etc etc etc, I just don't see why this movie is hailed as such a masterpiece.
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