5. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Next (1975)
Randle MacMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is a very stupid man. A petty thug, he winds up in a mental hospital due to his belief that doing time there would be better than jail or hard labour. There is nothing mentally wrong with him except cockiness, arrogance and a refusal to go by authority. Over the course of the film, he destroys himself by refusing to capitulate to the hospital regime. He rebels against it to his severe detriment. And he just cannot stop rebelling - even when he gets ECT, he swaggers about the place and whenever he finds out that he cannot possibly foil Nurse Ratched, he ends up lobotomised for his sins. All of the above is due to Randle's innate inability to conform to authority and this is the factor behind his self destruction. Of course, Jack Nicholson gives the performance of his career as Randle MacMurphy. He is a loveable rogue - very charismatic - and he brings optimism and hope to the inmates. You desperately want him to overthrow the hated Nurse Ratched's tyranny over the ward, but he is too volatile and shoots himself in the foot. The image of a lobotomised Randle is truly pathetic and hideous - a man with such fire in his belly snuffed out. Well at least he liberated the Chief.