Brad Pitt is one of Hollywood’s heavyweights. Fight Club, Ocean’s Eleven, and Inglourious Basterds are just a few of the huge blockbuster hits he has starred in during his glittering career. There’s more to come from Pitt, 61, who stars in the new F1 movie, set for release next month, as veteran racer Sonny Hayes.
Pitt knows a thing or two about what makes a successful movie, and while the world of cinema has undergone rapid modernisation over the years, there’s one 1975 classic that remains Pitt’s favourite film ever. Back in 1998, Pitt appeared on TV with Oprah Winfrey. She asked him what his favourite film was.
Winfrey said: “Favourite movie? Could you possibly have a favourite movie?”
Pitt offered a simple reply: “Ah… favourite movie… Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Directed by Miloš Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was based on the 1962 novel by the post-Beat writer Ken Kesey.
In the film, a prisoner named Randle McMurphy fakes insanity in order to escape prison and move to a ward for the mentally unstable, where he must rise up against a cruel nurse called Ratched.
It won Best Picture at the 1976 Oscars, and Jack Nicholson also won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of McMurphy.
Pitt isn’t alone in his admiration of the movie.
Jack Black said of the film, “I always really loved One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Jack was just so darn good, plus the movie is moving.
“I guess I love this one so much because I’ve always had an obsession with people who are psychologically challenged. Wait… that doesn’t sound good the way it just came out. But I do love people who don’t think in the so-called normal way.
“I’ll take psychological problems any day in a movie over a car chase or a love story. I love to watch people who think way outside the box, and in Cuckoo’s Nest, it’s almost like they’re in a zoo.”