Cool Hand Luke

Oh Luke you wild beautiful thing!

Luke (Paul Newman) lands himself in a Deep South prison farm for drunkenly cutting the heads off of parking meters. Once at the farm Luke refuses to be ground down by the system and its grinning warden (a brilliant Strother Martin). As things role by Luke becomes something of a hero to his fellow inmates and this is not lost on the authority in charge of the farm. Things are sure to come to a head as Luke rebels to the point of no return...

Division of Corrections. Road Prison 36.

The close examination of Cool Hand Luke over the years has rightly thrown up the fact that it's a Christ allegory. Which is just fine given that Stuart Rosenberg's film is one of the finest films that the 60s had to offer. It also boasts, arguably of course, the Paul Newman signature role (yes even better than The Hustler). As the title suggests, Cool Hand Luke, both the film and character, there is a great deal of cool here, in fact for a great deal of the first half of movie it's laced with comic touches as we warm easily to the "rebel against the system" machismo and charm that Newman provides as Lukas Jackson. Yet the film then shifts considerably at the mid-point to give us something far more potent and dramatic to alter any preconceptions the audience had of this just being a movie about a macho loner earning our sympathy.

Calling it your job don't make it right Boss.

Much in the film has been firmly ensconced in the memorable moments department, 50 eggs, tar that road quickly, the "Kick a Buck" poker game, "still shaking boss", a mountain of rice to be eaten, sneezing bloodhounds, the boxing match and one of the greatest and most iconic of tag-lines ever, "what we got here is a failure to communicate", all forming part of a truly great whole. However, revisiting the picture often brings the realisation that so much more is on offer than at first thought. Luke is a real war hero (this has been missed by both pro and amateur critics) whose crime is pretty tame for the sentence he finds himself faced with. The Dragline (George Kennedy kicking up a storm of acting quality) and Luke friendship that builds with grace and thunder, sexual frustration of the incarcerated male and a mother and son arc that attacks the soul and lets Newman show many of his acting peers just how grief should be acted out on screen...

"Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes, Long as I have my plastic Jesus, Riding on the dashboard of my car. Through all trials and tribulations, We will travel every nation, With my plastic Jesus I'll go far"

With Newman, Kennedy and Martin holding court with every scene they are in, it would be easy at first glance to ignore the supporting roles, but Rosenberg ensures that supporting players make telling marks. It's a roll call of sweaty and twitchy character actors that features the likes of Anthony Zerbe, Joe Don Baker, Clifton James, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Morgan Woodward, Wayne Rogers and J.D. Cannon. Filmed in Technicolor and Panavision, Rosenberg and cinematographer Conrad Hall do an amazing job of making Stockton, California feel like the actual Deep South. Film unfolds to the backdrop of a sun drenched land inhabited by life's unfortunates and the supposed upstanding face of American officialdom...

Iconography and martyrdom unbound, Cool Hand Luke is a slow-burn classic of deep thematic worth. 10/10

Celebrate rebellion at a time when everything deserved to be questioned.

The late sixties marked the rise of a culture of rebellion and challenge to the established order. Young people, university students, minorities, suddenly society goes into upheaval and begins to question and make demands. In a very specific way, I think this film fits very well into this movement, giving us the story of a man who made mistakes and paid – that's for sure – and who, between hits and misses, wanted to find his own space in the world and live life on his terms.

Luke Jackson is truly a non-conformist man and the face of a generation of people increasingly dissatisfied with the society in which they live. The film makes clear that he had everything in his hands to have other destiny, a stable and comfortable life, but that his own actions ruined everything. Why? Because that wasn't enough, and he wanted something different. Maybe he didn't know exactly what he wanted, but he knew exactly what he didn't want: to feel subjugated. This expresses what American society, particularly young people, had been feeling: no more meaningless rules, absolute dogmas, ostracism and sacred cows. In that prison where even to urinate or drink water they have to ask permission, Luke questioned all.

A good story, very well written and with magnificent dialogues, is accompanied by a good work of cinematography, sets and costumes, and an effective direction guaranteed by Stuart Rosenberg. It is in the editing work that I felt the biggest mistakes were made, giving the film an uneven rhythm, as the film was composed of a collage of episodes from Luke's time in that work camp. That is, it lacks the idea and feeling of unity and fluidity, with several situations similar to each other and a certain absence of dramatic tension, more palpable in the final half.

Paul Newman provides a strong and charismatic lead and was a safe bet to play the rebel hero. Fortunately for us, the film has the support of several other great actors in supporting roles, preventing it from being a one-man effort. George Kennedy, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor thanks to this film, stands out from the crowd thanks to a careful performance, the best of this actor's career. Worthy of mention are also the efforts of J. D. Cannon, Jo Van Fleet, Lou Antonio and Strother Martin.