Cool Hand Luke

Plot synopsis:
Decorated war veteran Lucas "Luke" Jackson (Paul Newman), is arrested for cutting the "heads" off parking meters (cutting the meters off their poles) one drunken night. He is sentenced to two years in prison and sent to a Florida chain gang prison run by a stern warden, the Captain (Strother Martin), and a stoic rifleman, Walking Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodward), whose eyes are always covered by a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Carr (Clifton James) the floorwalker, tells the rules to the new set of prisoners, with any violations resulting in spending the night in "the box," a small square room with limited air and very little room to move.
Luke refuses to observe the established pecking order among the prisoners and quickly runs afoul of the prisoners' leader, Dragline (George Kennedy). When the pair have a boxing match, the prisoners and guards watch with interest. Although Luke is severely outmatched by his larger opponent, he refuses to acquiesce. Eventually, Dragline refuses to continue the fight. Luke's tenacity earns the prisoners' respect and draws the attention of the guards. Later, Luke wins a poker game by bluffing with a hand worth nothing. Luke comments that "sometimes, nothing can be a real cool hand", prompting Dragline to nickname him "Cool Hand Luke".
After a visit from his sick mother, Arletta (Jo Van Fleet), Luke becomes more optimistic about his situation. He continually confronts the Captain and the guards, and his sense of humor and independence prove to be both contagious and inspiring to the other prisoners. Luke's struggle for supremacy peaks when he leads a work crew in a seemingly impossible but successful effort to complete a road-paving job in less than one day. The other prisoners start to idolize him after he makes and wins a spur-of-the moment bet that he can eat fifty hard-boiled eggs in one hour.
One day, Luke picks up a deadly rattlesnake from the grassy ditch and holds it up for Boss Godfrey to shoot with his rifle. Luke tosses the snake to the boss as a joke, before he hands him his walking cane. Dragline advises Luke to be more careful about his actions pertaining to the "man with no eyes." A rainstorm causes everyone to prematurely end their work. Before he joins the other prisoners in the truck, Luke shouts to God, testing him. On that same evening, Luke receives a letter stating that his mother has died.
After news of his mother's death reaches Luke, the Captain, anticipating that Luke might attempt to escape in order to attend his mother's funeral, has him locked in the prison punishment box. After being released from the box, receiving word that his mother's burial is completed and being told to forget about her, Luke is determined to escape. Under the cover of a Fourth of July celebration, he makes his initial escape attempt. He is later recaptured by local police and returned to the chain gang, but not before one of the bloodhounds sent after him dies from strain caused by struggling through barbed-wire fences. After his capture and return, the Captain has Luke fitted with leg-irons and delivers a warning speech to the other inmates, explaining, "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
A short time later, Luke escapes again by using string to shake a bush and distract the guards, visiting a nearby house where he uses an axe to remove his shackles. To keep the guard dogs from following his scent, he spreads curry powder and chili powder across the ground to send them into sneezing fits and overload their sensitive sense of smell. While free, Luke mails Dragline a magazine that includes a photograph of him with two beautiful women. He is soon recaptured, beaten, returned to the prison camp, and fitted with two sets of leg irons. Luke is warned by the Captain that if he ever attempts to escape again, he will be killed on the spot. Luke is now annoyed by the other prisoners fawning over the magazine photo and reveals it to be a fake. At first, the other prisoners are angry, but after a long stay in the box, when Luke is forced to eat a huge serving of rice, they come to help him finish it.
As punishment for his escape, he is forced to repeatedly dig a grave-sized hole in the prison camp yard, fill it back in, and then be beaten. The prisoners observe his persecution, singing spirituals. Finally, as the other prisoners watch from the windows of the bunkhouse, an exhausted Luke collapses in the hole, begging God for mercy and pleads with the bosses not to hit him again. Believing Luke is finally broken, the Captain stops the punishment. Boss Paul warns Luke that he will be killed if ever he runs away again, which Luke promises in tears not to do. The prisoners begin to lose their idealized image of Luke, and one tears up the photograph of Luke with the women.
Seemingly broken, and again working on the chain gang, Luke stops working to give water to a prisoner. Watched by the disappointed prisoners, he runs to one of the trucks to take Boss Godfrey's rifle to him. After Boss Godfrey shoots a snapping turtle, Luke retrieves it from a slough for him, complimenting the boss for his shot. Luke takes one last stab at freedom when he is ordered to take the turtle to the truck. He steals the dump truck, as well as the keys to the other trucks. In the excitement of the moment, Dragline jumps in the dump truck and joins Luke in his escape. Later, after abandoning the truck, Luke tells Dragline that they should part ways. Dragline agrees and leaves. Luke enters a church, where he talks to God and blames Him for sabotaging him so he cannot win in life. Moments later, police cars arrive. Dragline walks in and tells Luke that the police and bosses have promised not to hurt Luke if he surrenders peacefully. But Luke, feeling that his life is no longer worth living, walks to a window facing the police and mocks the Captain by repeating the first part of his speech ("What we've got here is a failure to communicate."). He is immediately shot in the neck by Boss Godfrey. Dragline carries Luke outside, then charges at Boss Godfrey and attempts to strangle him until he is beaten and subdued by the other guards. In tears, Dragline implores Luke to live. The local police want to take Luke to a nearby hospital, but the Captain tells them to take him to the prison hospital instead, a long enough distance that Luke's chances of survival are slim. As the captain's car drives away, it crushes Boss Godfrey's glasses. After Luke's implied death, Dragline and the other prisoners reminisce about him. In the final scene, the prison crew is seen working near a rural intersection close to where Luke was shot. Dragline is now wearing leg irons, and there is a new Walking Boss. As the camera zooms out, the torn photograph of Luke grinning with the two women is superimposed on a bird's eye view of the cross-shaped road junction.

Tags: dramatic, atmospheric, humor, realism, sadist

Review:
At one point in the film when they are putting Luke in the box under less than reasonable circumstances, he tells the boss, "calling it your job don't make it right, Boss."  In a visit from his mother Arletta(Jo Van Fleet), Luke says plenty about his own character by telling her, "A man's got to go his own way" or as he also puts it, "I tried to live always free and above board like you but I can't seem to find no elbow room".
I can't remember a role that George Kennedy has ever been better in, and he deservedly won the best supporting actor award.Cool Hand Luke is not without it's humorous moments especially in the  early going.
This is an absolute perfect movie in every way.Storyline,acting,settings---everything is perfect.Hollywood used to make great movies like this before it became the special effects driven computer generated movie making schlock capitol of the world.The great Paul Newman plays a prisoner locked up in a Southern jail after a night of petty crimes.His constant struggle to be free even while locked up makes this one of the greatest roles ever seen in a movie.Newman is at his absolute peak playing the cool Lucas Jackson.I was so struck by Newman's performance in this movie I was determined to name my son Lucas Jackson,but alas,I only had daughters and my wife wasn't too thrilled about naming either of them Lucas.Oh well.George Kennedy plays Jackson's enemy turned buddy and he is absolutely perfect also.His portrayal of Dragline is Kennedy at his finest.The sublime Strother Martin plays the prison captain and damn is he ever good.He was always so underrated as is Kennedy too,I think.In fact this whole movie is full of familiar faces that would go on to other big time roles in TV and movies.In this movie everyone meshes perfectly to create an unforgettable movie that will stay with you long after many other movies you've seen fade from memory.You must see this movie..
Now that it has become sort of fashionable to speak or write badly about the films of the 60s and 70s, saying that people stopped going to the movie theatres during that fruitful period (which is not true), we must -more than ever-rate a flick as "Cool Hand Luke" as it really deserves.
The rebel spirit of the lead character (played to perfection by the excellent Paul Newman) against that brutal and -most of the times- unfair "establishment" represented by the prison guards is a subject that remains as topical as ever.
But there is so much more to this movie and it holds up beautifully 45 years later.Based on the novel by Donn Pearce, who spent two years on a chain-gang, this is the story of Luke (Paul Newman) who just can't bring himself to conform to the rules, regardless whether those be the rules of the military, society, prison, or those self-imposed by the convicts.
Starring Newman's Butch Cassidy co-star Robert Redford, the film was a decent prison drama, but not at the level of Cool Hand Luke ...
Though on the other hand, this dynamic from Newman, amid a very good prison movie, still makes Cool Hand Luke quite memorable for its ways of bucking the system.It's also by turns an often funny movie, with the centerpiece of the 50 egg bet being one that is just sheerly, unabashedly entertaining.
This side ends up becoming a little preachy, even if its meant to be subtle, which I don't think it is, and it detracts from the greater pleasures of watching a picture like this.Because really, aside from the allegory, this is just good old prison picture, and one that pushes the boundaries of the prisoner-escape angle, such as that Newman's Luke escapes for the whole second half of the movie!
Even if you're not too much into prison movies- and this one does have in it the kind of spirit that speaks back to the films of the 30s (in a good way for the old-school fans)- it's worth it just to see what Newman does, alongside the other actors.
In Cool Hand Luke, the main character, Luke, played by Paul Newman, ends up in prison for a short sentence he earned by destroying public property (parking meters).
Released in 1967 and directed by Stuart Rosenberg based on Donn Pearce' novel, "Cool Hand Luke" is a prison drama starring Paul Newman in the eponymous role as a loner who disdains rules in the early 50s.
There's plenty to savour, particularly in the acting stakes but I was ultimately confused and disappointed by the resolution to the various themes at play here.The enigmatic opening, with Newman's Luke character casually vandalising the state's parking meters amusingly recalled to me the famous tag-line from Bob Dylan's near contemporaneous song "Subterraneaen Homesick Blues" - "Don't follow leaders and watch the parking meters", (both parts of the line are relevant - at one point he screams "Stop feeding off me" to his "follower" inmates) as Luke gets incarcerated in a brutally-run Southern prison work-house and becomes the unlikely and from his point of view, at times unwelcome talismanic figure representing to his fellow inmates a focal point of resistance to authority and in a wider sense, general conformity.And yet this self-effacing persona which Luke adopts more than once however doesn't square, with me, to the self-publicising acts he does elsewhere, most famously the fight scene with the prison's "Big Daddy" inmate, Dragline, played by Arthur Kennedy and of course the egg-scoffing scene, where he deliberately draws attention to himself.
Add to that an admittedly revisionist minor revulsion at the blatantly sexist soft-porn episode of the tongues-out chain gang ogling a scantily-clad nymphet foaming up a car and you can tell I had some issues with the movie, although a minor counter-case against the latter could be made for the insertion of the very mild homo-erotic and played for laughs sub "Jailhouse Rock" scene of the prisoners dancing with each other, dressed only in their shorts, on the 4th of July.The ambiguities in the narrative however threw me off-kilter and while I can see that I was expected to cut Newman's character a lot of slack as a societal misfit whose "different-ness" is accentuated further after his beloved mother dies, ultimately, again to paraphrase Dylan, nothing has been proved.
Amongst the inmates, by the way, it's interesting to note emerging actors of the television screen like Wayne Rogers ("M.A.S.H."), Ralph Waite ("The Waltons", "Mississipi") and Anthony Zerbe (everything else...) plus the young (Harry) Dean Stanton and Dennis Hopper.Grandstanding scenes notwithstanding, by the conclusion, the film hadn't held me as it should have done and further weakened its case as an expose of the working methods of jail-masters of the recent past with a sentimental collage of Newman's smiling image set before us with all the integrity of an episode of the afore-mentioned "The Waltons"..
Paul Newman (Old Blue Eyes) stars as Cool Hand Luke Jackson, a war hero, who gets himself in trouble with the law, and is repeatedly beaten both mentally and physically savagely by the main boss of the prison he is in.The main boss hates Luke for several reasons: Everyone likes Luke.
Even the people working in the prison like Luke.The boss also hates Luke, because he keeps escaping out of prison, which makes the prison's security and himself look bad.The movie from beginning to end, is one of the entertaining and powerful movies by Newman.Throughout the movie, we see Luke's exploits including his status as "Cool Hand" which basically says that he can do anything.There is no better scene that shows this that Luke's bet that can he eat 50 eggs in one hour.
Whenever, Luke is beaten severely for trying to escape the prison, Dragline is one of the first friends that is there to pick him up and attend to him.Then of course, this Oscar worthy film has the memorable tunes and lines that all audiences all familiar with:"What We Got Here is a familiar to Communicate" is Paul Newman, legendary and household line that critics and audiences remember.
The line is a piece of cult phenomena and America which symobolizes a bad situation.Paul Newman was nominated for Best Actor for this film, but didn't win.Newman over his career has been nominated over 10 times for this award: "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" , "Malice", "Nobody's Fool", are several of the great movies that NewMan has been nominated for."Cool Hand Luke" stands as one of the American movies ever made.
Paul Newman plays the "cool" Luke who's sent to a prison to serve time for a night of drunken mayhem.
Awarding an Oscar for such a histrionic performance is something I can't possibly fathom -- perhaps, as sometimes happens with Oscars, it was awarded to Kennedy as a summary appreciation for all of his work in all his other previous movies.There is no doubt that _Cool Hand Luke_ features lots of great actors -- so the blame for the movie's failure to impress must be assigned to the director.
Cool Hand Luke (1967)A movie famous as an anti-establishment send-up and for the charming, smiling Paul Newman.
Sentenced to a stint on a chain gang for a minor offence, a disillusioned former soldier becomes an unexpected role model for his fellow inmates due to his unwillingness to conform in this iconic prison movie starring Paul Newman.
"Cool Hand Luke" is a crime movie in which we watch a man who is a cool and gutsy prisoner in a Southern chain gang.
Another great interpretation that has to be mentioned is George Kennedy's who played as Dragline and he was simply outstanding on it (won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role).Finally I want to say that "Cool Hand Luke" shows us the truth behind the rural prisons on that times and how this influence all of the people who are getting involved with it.
This movie had to inspire One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and it is one of the best films I have ever seen, though after he gets caught the second time, you begin to sense there is no hope or direction left in him as his attempts always get destroyed but yet he still remains a hero to his peers who view him as a person who won't give in to the system..
Without Newman this film would have gone nowhere, not even with the brilliant performances of the rest of the cast, especially those of Strother Martin, George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, and Jo Van Fleet.Though Strother Martin is most remembered for what became a catchphrase in the counterculture movement, "What we have here is a failure to communicate," I like the line he throws at Luke when they first encounter each other, "Cuttin' heads off parking meters!
Paul Newman may have one of the silver screen's richest careers, but it's hard picking a single film of his that shows off his star power in better light than "Cool Hand Luke." Co-star George Kennedy got the Oscar and Strother Martin delivered its most famous line, but this is a Newman film through and through, maybe his best one, and along with "Lawrence Of Arabia" maybe the most perfect movie of the 1960s.Newman plays Lucas Jackson, a decorated war veteran who has a hard time adjusting once back at home.
In its latter stages, the overlong film appears to aspire to loftier meanings, but for the most part it's Chain-Gang 101--though well-played by Paul Newman, Oscar winner George Kennedy, and a solid, sometimes funny and colorful supporting cast.
Newman is sentenced to two years on a chain gang for screwing the heads of parking metres, in itself something of a motiveless crime; he claims he was just settling old scores and you know from the second you see him he isn't going to stay put so it's a movie about a man who becomes a hero to his fellow prisoners for continually running away and for being continually brought back and it's full of classic scenes; the car-washing scene, the egg eating competition, the tar- rolling scene, the boxing match between Newman and George Kennedy.The casting, of course, was crucial.
Along with stellar performances by Newman, Kennedy, and Martin, Cool Hand Luke features a superb supporting cast, including Ralph Waite, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, and Joe Don Baker as members of the chain gang..
Coming to the performances, Paul Newman delivers another stellar input in the leading role and he is excellently supported by George Kennedy who contributes with an impressive performance of his own, while Morgan Woodward steals his scenes without ever uttering a single word.On an overall scale, Cool Hand Luke is a fascinating study of a rebellious character who refuses to conform to the norm and, in his attempt to upset the established order, is idolised by his inmates and ultimately becomes a sort of messiah to them.
Whether you feel like you fit in or not, "Cool Hand Luke" tells a great story with fine performances from its cast..
(93%) One of the finest films ever made about the rebellious spirit of man, which is perfectly cast by both super cool Paul Newman and George Kennedy in the lead roles.
"Cool Hand Luke" simply has the distinction of being first.Paul Newman's Oscar-nominated performance is one of his very best, or at least one of my favorites to this point.
Sometimes scenes are designed that way, but even when the focus is elsewhere, the extras and supporting actors are enhancing the environment, creating a mood for the film, one that expresses how caught in a bubble they are and gives you the sense of how prisoners will insist on life even in rough conditions."Cool Hand Luke" eventually evolves into a story of leadership, the qualities that make a man great, or "an original" as Dragline says.
In Cool Hand Luke..Newman gives an outstanding performance as the laconic "anti hero" who really doesn't like anyone ....particularly those in Authority.
It is because of this and his persuasive charm that the other prisoners (played remarkably well by Kennedy and a host of others to include Wayne Rogers, Ralph Waite, Dennis Hopper and one of the actors who played a crewmember on 'Alien') live vicariously through him.Filled with memorable scenes (the boxing match, 50 eggs, the fealty of his fellow prisoners who help him finish his food after his stomach is shrunk in solitary confinement, 'shakin' it here boss', the sneezing dogs, and of course the carwash part) and outstanding character development (created by what is said and what is not said, i.e. the visiting brother), one of screen history's most repeated lines and the great acting of Newman, this movie deserves to be called a classic.
It is because of this and his persuasive charm that the other prisoners (played remarkably well by Kennedy and a host of others to include Wayne Rogers, Ralph Waite, Dennis Hopper and one of the actors who played a crewmember on 'Alien') live vicariously through him.Filled with memorable scenes (the boxing match, 50 eggs, the fealty of his fellow prisoners who help him finish his food after his stomach is shrunk in solitary confinement, 'shakin' it here boss', the sneezing dogs, and of course the carwash part) and outstanding character development (created by what is said and what is not said, i.e. the visiting brother), one of screen history's most repeated lines and the great acting of Newman, this movie deserves to be called a classic.
Lucas tells Dragline that he's nothing but a cool hand kind of guy in which everybody gives Lucas the nickname of "Cool Hand Luke." Figuring he's got to be in prison, why not make the best of it by pissing off the guards by doing things his way from working fast in tasks to even escaping the prisons where all the bosses want him dead.I was first introduced to this movie in my high school class about cinema where I never thought i would fall in love with Paul Newman's portrayal of the rebel.
And that's what makes COOL HAND Luke such a powerful movie."You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains.
"Cool Hand Luke" lives up to its name.This ultra-cool anti-establishment film stars Paul Newman, perfectly cast as a cocky hot-shot prisoner who refuses to accept the servile conformity demanded from him on a chain gang.
One night he gets drunk and he destroys some road signs and gets imprisoned in a hard labour Texan jail."Cool hand Luke" is one of the most popular movies about convicted, and maybe idealizes a little what it means to be in jail.Paul Newman's work is just awesome (as usual), he was the perfect actor to play a rebel-charismatic-stubborn hero.
Paul Newman plays one of his best-loved roles as Cool Hand Luke, the loner who won't  or can't  conform to the arbitrary rules of his captivity.
"Luke is detached and indifferent, but he can't beat the system he scoffs at." There's good reason for the scripts authenticity: co-author Donn Pearce spent two years of his own life on a chain gang.A cast of fine character actors, including George Kennedy in his Academy®-Award winning role of Dragline, gives Newman solid support as fellow prisoners.
Paul Newman plays Lucas Jackson, also known as Cool Hand Luke, a man who just couldn't live by the rules or actually didn't give a damn about them.
paul newman delivers a flawless performance and is supported by some of the greats, such as george kennedy (naked gun trilogy), dennis hopper (speed).it tells the story of a man who is committed to two years prison service with a chain gang for cutting the heads off of parking meters.
Cool Hand Luke has got to be one of the best movies I've seen.
Paul Newman will always be a real Cool Hand Luke to me.