For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking about the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Specifically I was wondering who played Harding, one of the patients in the ward. Thanks to imdb.com, I see it was William Redfield. I don't recognize the name, but I remember seeing him on The Odd Couple and in Fantastic Voyage.
It's weird to be thinking about Harding/Redfield of all the characters/performers when this is clearly Jack Nicholson's film--he is brilliant. I used to be a big fan and then got tired of him. It's arrogant of me to say that--maybe it's more accurate to say I'm tired that he seems to get major acting nominations for every film appearance. But there's no arguing that his work in this film wasn't great. His first Oscar win was for Cuckoo's Nest--after four nominations for Chinatown, The Last Detail, Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider.
Louise Fletcher also contributed an Oscar winning performance as a memorable villain (Nurse Ratched ranked number five on AFI's villain list.) I also appreciate Fletcher's portrayal on Deep Space Nine of Kai Wynn--a religious leader with her own agenda.
Lastly I want to mention Brad Dourif's haunting performance as Billy Bibbit. In his second film, he was nominated for an Oscar.
Somehow a stray memory or dream fragment got me thinking about a film that I haven't seen in years. It's time for me to add it to my Netflix queue so I can revisit it.
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