Michael Douglas on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: ‘My half of the producing fee I gave to D…

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Michael Douglas on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: ‘My half of the producing fee I gave to Dad’

The actor looks back on his first foray as producer as the Oscar-winning drama reaches its 50th anniversary

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at 50: the spirit of rebellion lives on

His early career was defined by the Vietnam war with early roles in political films such as Hail, Hero! and Summertree. So it felt natural for Michael Douglas, just 31, to make his first foray into producing with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a tale of one man raging against the system.

Fifty years since its release, Douglas is struck how Cuckoo’s Nest resonates anew in today’s landscape. “It’s about as classic a story as we’ll ever have and it seems timeless now, with what’s going on in our country politically, about man versus the machine and individuality versus the corporate world,” the 81-year-old says via Zoom from Santa Barbara, California.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST

Co-writer and director of Train Dreams, Clint Bentley, celebrates an American New Wave movie that showcases a beautiful paradox and resonates through the decades.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the first film that really changed me. I probably saw it way too young – in seventh grade – about 12 years old – but that’s also part of why it was so impactful. I was having a terrible time in school: bullied, feeling out of place, learning for the first time that the world was not inherently fair. Then I saw Nicholson try to rip a sink out of the floor to throw it through a window and escape his confinement. And in that moment I was saved. I’ve carried that moment, along with the rest of this incredible film, with me ever since.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 4K UHD Review

Three Oscars were awarded to cast members of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, burying wider discussions of other performances, notably the simple presence of Nurse Pilbow (Mimi Sarkisian), her only credited screen role.

Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) is a commanding presence in a psychiatric ward, but before Ratched’s unwavering allegiance to unbending rules is clear, it’s Pilbow who suggests Ratched’s coldness. Sitting in a group next to Ratched, Pilbow looks down. She anxiously fiddles with her fingers. Soon we’ll know why. Nobody talks back to Nurse Ratched. Pilbow, without so much as saying a word, accentuates the fear. It’s understated, a small role with few lines, but Pilbow’s worried expressions say everything.

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