One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Fifty years on, Milos Forman’s anti-establishment firecracker, which took aim at U.S. intervention policy during the Vietnam War, turns out to acutely reflect what’s happening in America under the Trump presidency. One of just three films ever to sweep the ‘Big 5’ of the Academy Awards, this parable about rebellion – the subversive convict McMurphy walks into a mental hospital challenging the patients’ passive existence, and leads a revolt against the spirit-crushing Nurse Ratched regime – resonates just as strongly with those who staged ‘No Kings’ protests nationwide. At a time when conformity is the new creed, Forman’s sacrificial holy fool, though crushed by the enforcement, remains the free spirit that comes along now and again to renew us.

Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay