Relevant elements: Depiction of a mental health facility, the steely Nurse Ratched, the gentle giant Chief
Why it resonated: It's hard for me to say, but I'd guess it was the combination of the existing popularity of Ken Kesey's novel and the 1970s-friendly anti-authoritarian theme, not to mention Jack Nicholson's usual aura of intensity
General comments on the film: I suppose it's a testament to the cultural relevance of this film that watching it for the first time yielded virtually no surprises. It went pretty much exactly as I thought it would, right down to the ending.
Having said that, it's a good example of early-to-mid-1970s filmmaking, with its shadowy cinematography, measured pacing, and focus on establishing character. Milos Forman's films have never really hit me where I live (since we seem to have somewhat different views of humanity), but the man has a type and he knows how to develop it. The use of overlapping dialogue, abrupt shifts in pitch and volume, and believable non-rational behavior creates a distinctive tone, and the very sparse use of music makes the final scene, with its swelling score, really pop.
There were some casting surprises, for me, I should add. I wasn't expecting Danny DeVito or Vincent Schiavelli. It would have been nice, though, to have seen this before 1989's The Dream Team, since Christopher Lloyd's presence as a patient in both films gave me the disturbing sense of this as a prequel to that much different movie....
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