One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Based on the beloved 1962 Ken Kesey novel, a kind of thesis statement for counterculture rebellion, the second Jack Nicholson film on our list finds Jack playing Randle McMurphy, a con who poses as mentally ill so he can be sent to a mental institution instead of prison. He soon wishes he’d chosen prison.
The film was one of only three — along with It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs — to win all five major Oscars: for Best Picture, Best Actor for Nicholson, Best Actress for Louise Fletcher (above) as the powerful Nurse Ratched, best director for Milos Foreman, and best screenplay for Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman.
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