Warner did right by "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with its 2002 two-disc special edition, and now sweetens the pot with the Blu-ray version.
The "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Blu-ray
The images appear to hail from that edition's restoration, which looked outstanding considering the movie came from the mid-70s, that crappy era for film stock. The Blu-ray images seem smoother with better contrasts, more detail and perhaps less grain, but owners of the previous version could sit tight and not miss too much.
The audio isn't much of an issue -- dialogue is clear and the mix is front-centered.
The extra features are quite good, including eight extra scenes that could well have appeared in the movie. For fans, these are essential viewing. "There was never a bad take," producer Michael Douglas recalls. "It was all a matter of choices."
Unfortunately, star Jack Nicholson
The commentary comes from producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, as well as director Milos Forman, who broke into the big time with this project. They are recorded separately. The commentary track is on the dry side, more informative than entertaining. The decent making-of docu comes from 1997.
Kirk Douglas bought the rights to Ken Kesey's book in 1961 and played the anti-hero Randall P. McMurphy in a short-lived stage version of the tale about a fairly sane nar-do-well who finds himself in a mental institution. The elder Douglas actually met the young director Forman on a cultural ambassadors trip to Czechoslovakia and promised to send him the script, but it was seized by Polish censors.
A decade later, Douglas' actor son Michael talked his father out of selling the property and went looking for a "cheap director." In a coincidence, Douglas and fellow producer Zaentz approached Forman after seeing one of his early films.
Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando passed on the McMurphy role, so they turned to Nicholson despite reservations that he'd been marked as "the sensitive young man, or the intellectual badass." Douglas was convinced by an early look at Nicholson's work as a tough sailor in "The Last Detail."
The rest of the actors worked cheap, of necessity. The low-budget casting, of course, proved brilliant: the mental patients included Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli and Brad Dourif.
Louise Fletcher found her work-life's peak with the role of Nurse Rached, for which she quite rightly won an Oscar. (Turning down the part were Geraldine Page, Angela Lansbury and Anne Bankroft.) Fletcher recalls getting weary of playing the tight-ass authoritarian while the free-spirited male cast bounced around the location shoot. "Every day I was so jealous of them." At one point, she tore off her dress and pronounced to her co-workers that "there was a real woman in here." Crazy, man.
The mostly-indoors film was shot at the Oregon State Hospitals, where the administrators gave the filmmakers a wing to themselves. The actors mingled with the patients and engaged in preshoot therapy sessions. The real superintendent ended up playing himself, a great job.
Douglas recalls that Nicholson arrived late to the shoot and found himself having lunch with the cast. No one broke character, freaking out the unflappable star.
The 37-page digi-book comes glued to the case, as they all do, making it tough to view the pages. (After just reading Criterion's outstanding booklet for "Vampyr," I'm tough to please.) The "Cuckoo" booklet reads like a roadshow handout but adds nothing to the literature about this fine American classic.
* * * * *
Another double-disc Blu-ray (and DVD) of the week is "Bank Job," with Jason Statham. Critics hailed it as a return to the golden age of heist movies, but I wasn't buying it. The movie played flat and formulaic. Extras on the Lionsgate discs include a 15-minute look at the real early-'70s bank robbery in London. Disc 2' vault contains a digital copy.
Also circling the DVD blog's players this week are "Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain" a roadtrip TV series featuring the "Harry Potter" actor, from Acorn Media; Jacques Tati's "Trafic" from Criterion; and Brazil's "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation."
New and notable:
The Bank Job (Lionsgate)
Beau Brummell: This Charming Man (Acorn)
Insanitarium (Sony)
Reno 911! season 5 (Paramount)
Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain (Acorn)
Shutter (Fox)
Swamp Thing, Vol. 2 (Shout! Factory)
Trafic (The Criterion Collection)
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (City Lights Home Video)
Complete list of this week's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org
Related content:
7 easy pieces for Nicholson's birthday
"The Passenger" DVD review
"Chinatown" review
I wish stars would participate more in things like this. I'm sure Nicholson has plenty to do, but it would still be nice if he'd participate in this new edition of a film that helped make his career. I kind of felt the same way about Pierce Brosnan not doing any Remington Steele commentaries.
Posted by: Liz | July 18, 2008 at 05:52 PM
Nicholson does play ball sometimes -- he did his first full commentary for "The Passenger," a movie that he really loved. Then he rolled out for the making of on the "Chinatown" DVD. Maybe he has a beef with this film, or more likely didn't have the time when they needed him. His commentary on "Passenger" is outstanding. Thanks for checking in, Liz!
Posted by: Glenn | July 18, 2008 at 10:33 PM