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Reviews by Matt Heffernan <matt@filmhead.com>
This week my picks are
The Source
(1999 - 
) and
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975 - ).
The first film this week is a brilliant documentary about the
"beat" movement in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. The focus is
on the three founding members: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg,
and William S. Burroughs -- three men who helped define their
generation's artistic statement. Director Chuck Workman
uses mostly clips from various films and television programs
to tell their story, much in the same stream-of-consciousness
style used by the beat artists. Within the film are sequences
featuring Johnny Depp, John Turturro, and Dennis Hopper
reading exerpts from the writings of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and
Burroughs, respectively. Its theatrical release was extremely
limited, and it did not have the proper support to get
recognition from the Academy. Nonetheless, The Source
was still one of the best documentaries of 1999.
Full review from September 12, 1999
One of the biggest figures of the beat generation was Ken Kesey, whose most famous novel was made into the second film. Jack Nicholson stars as a criminal who plead insanity, and has now been committed to an asylum instead of serving a prison sentence. He witnesses first-hand the oppression that the mental patients face under the cruel hand of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Milos Forman masterfully brings this story of an unlikely Christ figure to the screen, creating one of the most compelling and entertaining films ever made. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest swept the Academy Awards in 1976, winning all five major awards, including Best Picture for first-time producers Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas.
For more information, visit the Internet Movie Database:
The Source (1999)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Here's some merchandise for sale at
| The Source (1999) | -- VHS |
| The Source (1999) | -- DVD |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | -- VHS |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | -- DVD |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey | -- Hardcover |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey | -- Paperback |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey | -- Audio Cassette (read by the author) |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Original Soundtrack | -- Compact Disc |
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