“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest' is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new 4K restoration and a theatrical re-release.
Clockmakers Rich Finn, left, and Tom Erb adjust the time zone controllers on a series of clocks that'll be installed at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., at the Electric Time Company, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Medfield, Mass.
Traffic on King Street to be reduced to 1 lane overnight as crews work on water main improvement project Read full article: Traffic on King Street to be reduced to 1 lane overnight as crews work on water main improvement projectThis Week in Jacksonville - Business Edition: Navigating the Florida real state market in transitionThis image released by Fathom Entertainment shows Jack Nicholson, seated left, and Danny DeVito, seated right, with supporting cast in a scene from"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." This image released by Fathom Entertainment shows promotional art for the film"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." This image released by Fathom Entertainment shows Jack Nicholson, seated left, and Danny DeVito, seated right, with supporting cast in a scene from"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Miloš Forman film, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a nationwide theatrical re-release on July 13 and July 16, had become a bit of a sensation — the second highest grossing picture of 1975, But Nicholson wasn’t feeling optimistic. In five years, he’d already been nominated five times. He’d also lost five times. And he told his producer,“I remember how hard I had to persuade Jack to come to the ceremony. He was so reluctant, but we got him there,” Douglas said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “And then of course we lost the first four awards. Jack was sitting right in front of me and sort of leaned back and said ’Oh, Mikey D, Mikey D, I told you, man.’ I just said, ‘Hang in there.’” Douglas, of course, was right. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” would go on to sweep the “big five” — screenplay, director, actor, actress and picture — the first film to do so in 41 years, which only “The Silence of the Lambs” has done since. That night was one of many vindicating moments for a film that no one wanted to make or distribute that has quite literally stood the test of time. “This is my first 50th anniversary,” Douglas said. “It’s the first movie I ever produced. To have a movie that’s so lasting, that people get a lot out of, it’s a wonderful feeling. It’s bringing back a lot of great memories.” The film adaption of Ken Kesey’s countercultural novel was a defining moment for Douglas, a son of Hollywood who was stuck in television and got a lifeline to film when his father, Kirk Douglas, gave him the rights to the book, and many of the then-unknown cast like DeVito was actually the first person officially cast. Douglas, who’d known him for nearly 10 years, brought Forman to see him play Martini on stage. “Miloš said, ‘Yes! Danny! Perfect! Cast!’ Douglas said in his best Czech accent. “It was a big moment for Danny. But I always knew how talented he was.”Though the film's themes are challenging, unlike many of its New Hollywood contemporaries it wasn’t a tortured shoot by any stretch. They had their annoyances and more serious trials , but for the most part it was fun. “We were very serious about the work, because Miloš was very serious. And we had the material, Kesey’s work, and the reverence for that. We were not frivolous about it. But we did have a ball doing it,” DeVito said, laughing. Part of that is because they filmed on location at a real state hospital in Salem, Oregon. Everyone stayed in the same motel and would board the same bus in the morning to get to set. It would have been hard not to bond and even harder if they hadn’t. “There was full commitment,” Douglas said. “That comes when you don’t go home at night to your own lives. We stopped for lunch on the first day and I saw Jack kind of push his tray away and go outside to get some air. I said, ‘Jack, you OK?’ He said, ’Who are these guys? Nobody breaks character! It’s lunch time and they’re all acting the same way!'” Not disproving Nicholson’s point, DeVito remembers he and the cast even asked if they could just sleep in the hospital. “They wouldn’t let us,” DeVito said. “The floor above us had some seriously disturbed people who had committed murder.”. It’s a new 4K restoration from the Academy Film Archive and Teatro Della Pace Films with an introduction by Leonard Maltin.DeVito thinks it, “holds up in a really big way, because Miloš really was paying attention to all great things in the screenplay and the story originally.” Besides the shock of “holy Toledo, am I that old?” DeVito said that it was a treasure to be part of — and he continues to see his old friends, including Douglas, Lloyd and, of course, Nicholson, who played the protagonist, R.P. McMurphy. One person Douglas thinks hasn’t gotten the proper attention for his contributions to “Cuckoo’s Nest” is producer Saul Zaentz, who died in 2014. His music company, Fantasy Records who had Creedence Clearwater Revival, funded the endeavor which started at a $1.6 million budget and ballooned to $4 million by the end. He was a gambler, Douglas said, and it paid off. And whatever sour grapes might have existed between Douglas and his father, who played R.P. McMurphy on Broadway and dreamt of doing so on film, were perhaps over-exaggerated. It was ultimately important for their relationship. “McMurphy is as good a part as any actor is going to get, and I’m now far enough in my career to understand maybe you have four, maybe five good parts, really great parts. I’m sure for dad that was one of them,” Douglas said. “To not be able to see it through was probably disappointing on one side. On the other, the fact that his son did it and the picture turned out so good? Thank God the picture turned out. It would have been a disaster if it hadn’t." Douglas added: “It was a fairy tale from beginning to end. I doubt anything else really came close to it. Even my Oscar for best actor years later didn’t really surpass that moment very early in my career.” Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Ken Kesey Milos Forman Saul Zaentz Michael Douglas Christopher Lloyd Jack Nicholson Entertainment Danny Devito Leonard Maltin William Redfield
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