I chose the top 100 movie “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” directed by Miloš Forman in 1975. It is about Randle McMurphy who moved into a mental hospital for criminal and sexual reasons. Compared to others he wants to leave the ward as soon as possible. Therefore he tries to beat nurse Ratched many times and changes some ward rules. Together with all the other patients he goes through small adventures like a fishing trip and a illegal ward party. Finally he has to make some important decisions and his life shifts faster than expected. 

The movie starts with the sequence of a car slowly passing the road in front of the camera while we see the name of the director, producer and other important people. Generally are a lot of the scenes really slow and I feel like it would still be easy to watch, if they had made quicker cuts. Furthermore are the actors not really moving during a shot and besides that is kind of no single movement in the background, which made me losing the attention sometimes. Each cut stays for the transition between someone doing the action and others reacting to it. For example is McMurphy in one scene yelling at the nurse and during his “speech” we see cuts to other patients how they either agree with him or don’t understand what he is talking about at all. 

During a conversation they usually filmed the scene from four different perspectives. Each person is once filmed from a medium close-up and once with a close-up itself. They never used jump cuts but if you watch carefully you see, that the next time the person is talking, he is either closer or further away from the camera. Many of the scenes, where other directors would fulfill the rule of thirds completely (person in one third, looking to the side where the action is happening), did the director of One Flew over the cuckoo’s nest not do what the rule of thirds says. He put the person in the middle of the picture but let them still look to the side where the action happens. It’s an interesting way because we still get the idea of how things and people are located but not as exaggerated as with the normal rule of thirds. 

As far as I remember did the actors look pretty natural. They didn’t use any dramatic look or special effects on their faces. In the ward they mostly removed the shadow until it looks normal. I feel like they could just have filmed the day scenes without lights and use the sunlight for the same look instead. 

It’s Probably really difficult to act like someone who is obviously crazy and disturbed. Each face expression looks real. I believed their weirdness from the very first moment. Everything needs practice. From a simple smile to walking like an idiot. Each movement has to look the same and should represent the patients character. You really see their pain and craziness in each frame.

During the whole movie we hear just a few times background music. Once in the beginning, once in the end. While they are on the ward we hear the radio or TV music, which creates a little bit of the atmosphere but they never added music during fight scenes or other scenes for more tension. Only when the patients left the mental hospital for a fishing trip, we hear music. This music is definitely not fitting to the action that just happens but I think they needed it to cover the silence which is reasonable.

Overall, this movie deserved it to be on the TOP 100 list. I knew the novel before, but never watched the movie so I decided it would be nice to have also the comparison to the novel. I noticed that the movie tells us the story from a completely different perspective than the novel does. Many important scenes are canceled and besides that do things happen in a different order. The movie by itself still makes sense and is pretty funny to watch. 

I recommend it to everyone who wants to see some crazy men turning everything topsy-turvy on the ward.