One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is out now on 4K Steelbook, and it’s 50 years old this year, which can’t be right, because like me, it should only be 29 years of age…
Anyhoo, with one of Jack Nicholson‘s (About Schmidt) best performances – and equally matched by Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched, when they inadvertently go toe-to-toe, verbally – his inmate character, Randle McMurphy, thinks it’ll be a walk in the partk to spend him here, rather than at a conventional prison.
However, in my view, such a place must be horrendous to live in, if you have no idea what’s going on, and are just existing from day to day. I’ve visited the psychiatric unit of a hospital, and they’re no picnic.
All that said, while Randle having been convicted of sexual assault, claiming the girl told him she was 18, even though she was only 15, he’s sent to be evaluated to decide whether or not he’s got any mentality issues so he stays there, or goes back to chokey.
Everyone is perfectly on their mettle in this movie, with the film giving the perfect interplay between the actors, including Danny DeVito (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Vincent Shiavelli (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension), and a much younger Christopher Lloyd (Nobody 2), in his first ever movie role.
Plus, while this film was released in November 1975, it was just 10 months before actor William Redfield, as inmate Harding, passed away from leukemia and respiratory issues. As for his character, amongst all the group therapy sessions they have, he forever claims his wife is the problem in their relationship, when quite frankly, he’s gay but won’t own up.
Amongst the hijinks Randle gets them up to, in trying to change ward policy so they can watch a baseball game on TV, he struggles to win the vote when more patients in the ward have a say than he gathers, because not everyone takes part in the sessions… it’s basically Nurse Ratched playing extreme hardball, and clearly relishing in being an absolutely evil youknowwhat.
Still, if that doesn’t go his way, maybe going downtown will be a goer if he can lift the water dispenser off from the floor and shove it through the window…
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and is in 2160p high definition. It’s a gorgeous master of the movie, and if there are any slight soft parts to the image at times, it’s down to the way it was filmed, but for a someone like me who’s a fussy Freddy when it comes to getting the perfect image, I have zero complaints, here.
There’s both a 5.1 multichannel and basic 2.0 surround soundtrack options to the audio, but there’s nothing particularly to get excited about in the former, given that this is a dialogue-led piece, but then you’re aware this isn’t a sci-fi movie!
Still, one thing that DID give a pleasant surprise is that for the first time in as long as I can remember, we finally have a great wealth of chapters from which to choose! Instead of the bog-standard 12, there’s 33!
For the extras, although it looks like there’s just a handful, some are longer than you’d expect:
- Conversations on Cuckoo: Group Therapy (13:07): A zoom chat hosted by Christopher Lloyd, Danny De Vito, Brad Dourif and Michael Douglas, they tell us how the the initial improv auditions were done as a group therapy session, since Jack Nicholson couldn’t shoot on the film initially, because he was busy with another film.
Plus, I learned that Mr De Vito started doing the role of Martini when performing Off-Broadway, and the fact this was Mr Lloyd’s first ever film!
- Conversations on Cuckoo: Moviemaking Memories (10:34): This follows the exact same format and participants, with Mr Douglas also confirming that their art director turned out to be an arsonist!
It’s a shame that Jack Nicholson wasn’t involved, but then as well as being largely retired, we also have some great cream of acting talent here.
- Completely Cuckoo (1:26:17): An almost feature-length supplemental with plenty to get stuck into, and spread out over 8 chapters, including writer Ken Kesey and his experiences of visiting a mental hospital, and how horrible it was to the patients.
- Deleted Scenes (9:25): Five scenes here: Pecking Party, Mr McMurphy Where Are Your Clothes?, McMurphy meets Nurse Ratched, First Group Therapy Session, and Shaving Chief. Pecking Party refers to the process of lobotomisation. As the kids say, “IYKYK”…
They’re mostly not necessarily ones that need to be put back in, but they’re certainly well worth a watch. However, Shaving Chief is certainly interesting, since it’s brief and shows how maniacal the orderlies are… and they fact that they’re not very orderly!
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is out now on 4K Blu-ray Steelbook, 4K Blu-ray, as well as earlier releases on Blu-ray, and DVD.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
10 10 8 6 |
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OVERALL |
8.5 |
Cert: 
Running time: 102 minutes
Year: 1975
Chapters: 33
Cat.No: 5000317392
Distributor: Warner Bros
Released: November 10th 2025
Picture: 2160p High Definition
Language: English
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English 2.0; Dolby Digital 5.1: Parisian French, Italian, Castillian Spanish, Latin Spanish
Widescreen: 1.85:1 (35mm)
Subtitles (4K Blu-ray): English SDH, French, Italian, Castillian Spanish, Latin Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Czech, Polish
Disc Format: BD100, BD50
Director: Milos Forman
Producers: Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz
Screenplay: Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman
Novel: Ken Kesey
Play: Dale Wasserman
Music: Jack Nitzsche
Cast:
R.P. McMurphy: Jack Nicholson
Nurse Ratched: Louise Fletcher
Ellis: Michael Berryman
Taber: Christopher Lloyd
Warren: Mwako Cumbuka
Martini: Danny DeVito
Cheswick: Sydney Lassick
Sefelt: William Duell
Bancini: Josip Elic
Harding: William Redfield
Fredrickson: Vincent Schiavelli
Nurse Pilbow: Mimi Sarkisian
Nurse Itsu: Lan Fendors
Dr. Spivey: Dean R Brooks
Col. Matterson: Peter Brocco
Miller: Alonzo Brown
Turkle: Scatman Crothers
Washington: Nathan George
Beans Garfield: Ken Kenny
Harbor Master: Mel Lambert
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.