4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A bastion of the counter culture movement, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a classic of american cinema that features an all time great performance from Jack Nicholson. Playing inmate Randle McMurphy, who is transferred to a mental institution in order for the authorities to evaluate his state of mind, Nicholson turns in arguably his best performance. The hospital he is sent to is run by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, who almost immediately runs afoul of McMurphy. Slowly, he instills a sense of rebellion in the other inmates, culminating in breaking them all out of the hospital to go on a fishing trip, leading to Ratched cracking down even harder. After several escape attempts, McMurphy is lobotomized, leaving him completely comatose. Unable to let him live like this, his best friend smothers him before making his own escape, with the final shot of the movie showing him running into the distance. Even though the main character is beaten and killed at the end of the movie, his delightful sense of rebelliousness leads to the other characters in the movie gradually coming out of their complacent shells and beginning to live again. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest shows the fight of the individual versus society, as well as the importance of living life to the fullest, resulting in an inspirational, if still slightly depressing, ending.