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1975 Best Picture:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
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Competition:
Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville
Other Winners:
Best Actor: Jack
Nicholson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Best Actress: Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Best Supporting Actor: George Burns, The Sunshine
Boys
Best Supporting Actress: Lee Grant, Shampoo
Best Director: Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
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Cast:
Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Michael Berryman, Peter
Brocco, Dean R. Brooks, Alonzo Brown, Scatman Crothers, Mwako Cumbuka,
Danny DeVito Storyline:
Arrested for statutory rape, Randall McMurphy is sent to a psychiatric
hospital for observation. While there, his over-the-top behavior has
an impact on the other patients, and clashes with the cold Nurse Ratched. Did it
deserve to win: Call
me crazy, but No! One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was certainly one
of the Best Pictures of the year, but in another year it might not have
garnered a quadruple win. Jaws
was the most popular film of the year, making its director, Steven
Spielberg, a household name, and terrifying beach-goers around the
world. Barry Lyndon was a lavish and beautiful attempt at costume
dramas by Stanley Kubrick. Dog Day Afternoon was a riveting bank
heist picture, with Al Pacino. The
most unusual, and perhaps biting, picture of 1975, had to be Robert
Altman's masterpiece, Nashville. All at once, a tribute to the
country music scene, a hilarious satire on American values, Nashville
centers around twenty four different characters over a period of three
days. The film is both tragic and funny! Critique:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a popular film, that remains a classic
to this day. It deserves high praise, but not necessarily all those
Oscar's. Jack
Nicholson did give a great performance, and I do believe he was
deserving. He already had four nominations by that point, with
performances in Chinatown, The Last Detail, Easy Rider and Five Easy
Pieces. Cuckoo's Nest marks an interesting point in his career, when
he went from being a great actor, to becoming legendary. Louise
Fletcher, on the other hand, won the Oscar in one of the weakest Oscar
races in history. Women's parts were hard to come by at that time,
and in 1975 there wasn't much to choose from. Ellen Burstyn even boycotted the ceremonies, claiming that parts for women were too sparse. Over
all, the film was a box office hit, but not too much of a hit to hurt
suffer a backlash. Jaws director, Spielberg, with the biggest hit of
all time on his hand, suffered that wrath, and would take another 19
years, and a string of classic films, to finally get his due.
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Behind
the Scenes:
One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won five
of them. It is the second film to sweep the major awards, including
Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director. Until that
time,
It Happened One Night
was the only film to achieve that feat.
Silence of the Lambs
would do it in 1991.
Michael
Douglas rose above his TV star status (he starred in The Streets of San
Francisco), and his Hollywood kid image, by winning the Best Picture, as
co-producer of Cuckoo's Nest. His father, Kirk Douglas, originally
owned the rights to the story, by Ken Kesey, but passed it on to his son,
when he was too old to star in the lead role.
When Jack
lost the previous year for Chinatown, he joked that he might get the
sentiment vote in '75. He got the vote, but not necessarily for
sentiment.
Louise
Fletcher signed her acceptance speech to her deaf parents, who were, of
course, watching.
Ken Kesey
refused to attend the ceremony, claiming breech of contract, regarding
script approval.
Lee Grant
became the first actress to win an Oscar after being blacklisted in the
1950's for refusing to testify against her husband.
George
Burns became the oldest actor to win the Oscar. At 75, he won for
The Sunshine Boys. He took on the role, only after an ailing Jack
Benny had to bow out.
The
legendary Mary Pickford had been living a life of seclusion for many
years, but came out of retirement to accept an honorary award from the
Academy which she helped to found. The presentation included a look
at Pickfair, the mythical mansion that she had resided in since her heyday
in the 20's.
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| Mary Pickford accepts
an honorary Oscar from her home, Pickfair. |
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