Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke_720p(480P)

source: Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke

Okay, I had written an enormous blurb about how great the ending of this film was and how the ending is a film's most important part, but I think we all understand that well enough. I am going to talk about something else: George Kennedy's Oscar winning role. Wow, is he awesome! I, like I assume many people of my generation are, am only familiar with Kennedy through his role as the police Captain Ed from the Naked Gun series, in which he was hilarious, and his stint selling breath mints on infomercials. I never expected that he ever won an Oscar! And it was entirely deserved. He created a very complex character in this film. Bravo! I loved Paul Newman, too, of course. I just looked at who else was nominated that year, and I have not seen either the winner of that year's best actor Oscar (Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night) or one other nominee (Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), but of those I have seen (Warren Beatty, Bonnie and Clyde and Dustin Hoffman, The Graduate) I would personally have picked Warren Beatty, seeing as Bonnie and Clyde is one of my very favorite films, and I love Beatty in it. Anyway, Cool Hand Luke was a masterpiece itself, and I do give it a 10/10

'Cool Hand Luke' is the (long) story of a charismatic misfit in a Southern segregated convict road gang. There is an interesting turning point in the film where Luke (Paul Newman) refuses to shelter from a deadly(?) rainstorm with the rest of the gang, and defies God to do anything to him; his character is defined by this sort of bravado. In the next scene, he learns that his beloved mother has died and the famous 'Plastic Jesus' song scene follows. Luke then simply becomes reckless and hurtles towards his doom. The problem with the film is that this interesting pivotal moment - his mother's death and how Luke might feel he had provoked God - is all but obliterated in the corny dramatisation of the convicts' lives. Clichés abound; apart from the effective depiction of the back-breaking work of the gang, the compound seems to be more like a frat house. Perfect hairstyles, no fights except on Saturdays, plenty of food and booze, and basically everybody manages to keep their chins up, play poker and have a good laugh most of the time. Other reviewers have cited the 'Hogan's Heroes' and 'Bilko' similarities. They're right. So what could be a really affecting story just turns out to be a series of upbeat and downbeat setpieces, with a 'modern' nihilistic ending. Actually, there's a completely irrelevant bit tacked on after that where George Kennedy tells the gang what a 'world-shaker' Luke was. No he wasn't, he was possibly a complicated character but we learn nothing about what he really feels or why he did what he did. Whether that's Paul Newman's or the script's fault I can't tell, but Paul Newman does his overblown 'Hustler' performance, chewing more scenery than eggs in the process. A curate's egg, even - a few parts of this bad egg are excellent.

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. He is sentenced to two years on a prison farm in Florida run by a stern warden, the Captain (Strother Martin), and guarded by a stoic rifleman, Walking Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodward). Carr (Clifton James) the floorwalker, tells the rules to the new prisoners with violations resulting in spending the night in "the box," a small square room with limited air and little room to move. George Kennedy and Dennis Hopper are on hand as fellow prisoners, amongst many others. I was wondering about the totally stoo-pid reason Luke gets 2 years in prison at the beginning of the film. He likely got a ticket for a "violated" parking meter while in town. So he has a few beers, gets his mitts on a big pipe cutter, and thought, "I'm gonna show these jerks." "Cool Hand Luke" has a big reputation but, for me, it doesn't quite live up to it. The highlight is the iconic car wash sequence with Joy Harmon, as well as the ending when Luke talks with God about why He made him such a misfit. The rest is a decent prison drama about an eccentric individualist who inspires those around him stuck in the same pen. It's a character study of a likable, impressive, but unruly person who doesn't seem to grasp that getting sloshed and destroying public property has negative repercussions. Gee, maybe you shouldn't try to solve your problems by getting drunk and vandalizing. The movie is realistic and well-made, but generally tedious, although I'm sure that's the point – being confined on a prison farm WOULD be tedious. The Christ typology is interesting, however; and I can understand how some grade it higher. The movie runs 126 minutes and was shot Tavares & Jacksonville, Florida; and San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, California, with studio work done in Burbank. GRADE: C+ (5.5/10)

In Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman shows us what the underside of what life is like as a rebel. Picture James Dean doing this part had he lived to do films like these. Newman plays his usual non-conformist rebel type, but he's really a rebel without a cause. He's in his early forties, a Korean war veteran who just hasn't found his place in civilian life. He gets himself busted for no great cause, just on a drunken spree in some Southern town he decides to knock the heads off a bunch of parking meters. That lands him a stint in a county jail with a lot of outdoor work on a road gang. He fights with, but later wins the respect and becomes friends with George Kennedy the head honcho in his barracks. The real tragedy of Cool Hand Luke is that Newman is a failure in life, it's why he's in prison. He gains the respect of his fellow convicts for those ways, but that involves going against the penal system and in the end that gets you nothing. Can you picture James Dean as a forty something doing what Newman is doing? It would have been his kind of role for sure. Newman does a fine job playing the non-conformist Luke who seems to be just going on the path fate has decreed for him. George Kennedy got his Oscar winning career role as Dragline. Other men in Luke's barracks are Wayne Rogers, Robert Drivas, and J.D. Cannon and they fill their roles well. Strother Martin as the warden of the place is the guy with the film's favorite line, "what we've got is failure to communicate." Martin and his correction officers have many interesting ways of getting their point across. Cool Hand Luke may very well be the saddest role Newman ever undertook in his long career.

Amazing movie....watched it for the first time three or four years ago. Seen it plenty of times since......this, along with "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", is one of my favorite films of all-time. Luke is a truly memorable character; funny, tragic, inspirational.....a lot like Randle Patrick McMurphy. Paul Newman once again proved the Academy to be full of idiots, giving a great performance deserving of an Oscar. How he only won once, when Sally Field is the owner of two statuettes, is inexplicable. His run of classic films and touchstone characters from the 60s-70s (Luke, Fast Eddie, Butch, etc) is unparalleled. George Kennedy was good, too......I mightn't be good at critiquing, but I know what I like. And I like this.

This is one of those films I managed to not see for decades. When I finally saw it recently, I was left at quite a loss. What is it that draws people to watch bored characters make themselves into losers for no good reason? 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). For anyone with any shred of common sense, serving the short sentence would be enough. Get in, get out, lesson learned. But, to make the story interesting, Luke manages to create friction where there was none, for no good reason other than tendency to self-destruct. He is not an anti-conformist, not very smart, and not really having much of a goal. He is healthy, and perfectly capable of earning a living. But he decides to go down in flames, albeit with questionable style. I found it torturing to watch dumb character doing dumb things. In few instances we see Luke trying to talk to God, but the "conversation" is lacking, uninspiring and pointless. Those moments make Luke sound like a spoiled, self-absorbed, angry teen. Perhaps the book's author and filmmakers would like to believe that Cool Hand Luke is a story about someone who was wronged, or searching for God, or inspiring others to be different, but it is none of those. This film falls flat on its face in all departments, and earns only high marks for its shallowness and decent performances. For a truly great story about anti-conformism, one should watch One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest. Cool Hand Luke is nowhere near that. All in all, this depressing, pointless story is the best way to ruin your evening. I gave it 2 stars only for Paul Newman's performance, otherwise, it would be a firm zero.

Cool Hand Luke is perhaps Paul Newman's most memorable character. He was outstanding as Hud, but he seems to have topped that performance in this 1967 classic. Newman plays a man named Luke. After cutting the heads off some parking meters, he is thrown into a prison system where he's forced to do some hard time tending to country roads. This character has to be one of the biggest enigmas in film history. Luke is likable enough. His mother points out to him that he's even had some good jobs. The viewer is left to ponder why in the heck he can't stay out of trouble. Not much is told about his past. We know he fought WWII, and even won some medals. He has no wife or children to care for. He has a mother who appears to be dying of lung cancer or some such ailment. His other family members seem to hold a grudge against him. We never really learn why he feels the need to cut the heads off the parking meters, but he's caught red-handed. The prison he's sent to makes its inmates work their tails off, but it looks like they'll treat you fairly if you follow their rules. Luke has no intentions of following any rules laid down by the warden or the "bosses" that watch over the road work, though. After taking a tremendous beating from the toughest inmate (Kennedy), Luke quickly begins to win the admiration of his fellow prisoners. His spirit catches on with the others, and they begin to get their work done more quickly and effectively than ever before. Things begin to go downhill for Luke once he learns of his mother's passing. He repeatedly tries to escape, and soon the warden and his cronies are out to break his spirit and make him conform. The film becomes a test of wills, and a fascinating character study. The biggest question the viewer is left with is "why?". Luke could have simply served out his time and then gone on to a more normal existence. That seems to be out of the realm of possibilities for the character, however. He isn't simply out to impress the other prisoners. At one point he even demands they stop trying to feed off of him for all their strength. Luke seems like a man who simply cannot allow others to tell him how to live. There are a few moments where he openly questions the existence of God, but that angle doesn't go very far. It merely makes the guards want to abuse him even more, but that's about it. It becomes almost frustrating to see this man keep digging a bigger and bigger hole for himself. At one point Luke is forced to literally do just that. What exactly is the film trying to tell us? It doesn't seem to be advocating disobedience. We cheer for Luke when he's causing trouble for the guards, but we feel his pain when they punish him. The film's conclusion is more somber than inspiring. Rosenberg's direction is outstanding, and the supporting cast shines. George Kennedy earned an Oscar for his performance. Overall this is an excellent film not to be missed! 10 of 10 stars from The Hound.