One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Lots of things about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest have aged well. It’s anti-authoritarian streak is universal.

But one thing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would never fly in the post #MeToo era: Protagonist Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is the statutory rapist of a 15-year-old victim. (He pretends to be insane because he thinks it will be easier to serve his time in a mental hospital.)

When you consider McMurphy’s criminally bad judgment when it comes to sexual boundaries, the fact that the movie’s main antagonist is a strong woman — Nurse Ratched — takes on a strange subtext.

It’s notable that when Hollywood returned to the Cuckooverse a few years ago with the Netflix series Ratched, she was the protagonist (or at least antihero) rather than the villain.