ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

While author Ken Kesey may not have been happy with this adaptation of his novel, that didn't stop the rest of the world from sitting back in awe at Milos Forman's film, one of three to have won all of the top five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Adapted Screenplay. A darkly comic and wrenching story about a man who feigns insanity to escape prison and ends up clashing with the head nurse of an asylum, there's no one single element of this film that can be credited fully for its success, as everyone from Forman to the cast (led by Jack Nicholson & Louise Fletcher) to the editors (Richard Chew, Lynzee Klingman, and Shelton Kahn) to the screenwriter (Bo Goldman) are working at their respective peaks. Simultaneously heartbreaking and totally triumphant, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is one of the great Milos Forman's humanist masterpieces that cemented his Hollywood career after 1971's brilliant but tragically under-seen TAKING OFF.

Richard Chew

Richard Chew, ACE is a film editor best known for cutting such classics as THE CONVERSATION, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (Oscar nom), STAR WARS (Oscar win), MY FAVORITE YEAR, RISKY BUSINESS, THE NEW WORLD, and many others. He also received ACE's Career Achievement Award in 2022.