One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, released in 1975, was the first film to win all five major Oscars--Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched), Best Director (Milos Forman) Best Screenplay (Laurence Hauben and Bo Goldman). The film was based on Ken Kesey's brilliant 1962 novel of the same name.

Nicholson's performance in Cuckoo's Nest brought him his first of three best actor Academy Awards. He also won for Terms of Endearment, and As Good t Gets. He has received 12 Academy Award nominations, 8 for best actor and 4 for best supporting actor.

All of Nicholson's movies are memorable, but for me, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the greatest Nicholson performance of all.

The title is derived from an American children's folk rhyme. 

Wire, briar, limber-lock Three geese in a flock One flew east, one flew west And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

It loses a bit of the significance it has in the novel, where it is part of a rhyme Chief Bromden remembers from his childhood. This detail was not included in the film, but the line retains its relevance since the story ends with two patients dead from different causes and one who escapes from the hospital.