Adan Reviews Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American drama film which stars Paul Newman as Luke Jackson, a war veteran who is arrested for cutting the heads off parking meters and given a two year sentence in a Georgia prison camp. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg and based on the novel of the same name by Donn Pearce, Cool Hand Luke is an excellent movie and an inspiring ride. The film portrays the harshness which seems to pervade prisons in America and carries an interesting message.
Life in the prison camp is hard; the prisoners are forced to work in chain gangs for hours in the Georgia heat under the guns of the guards and The Man With No Eyes( the head guard who is never without his sunglasses). The head of the camp, or Captain as he insists on being called, runs the facility under the guise of kindness while all the time beating the prisoners down and subjugating them. When Luke arrives at the camp he is first berated and ridiculed by the prisoners and their de facto leader Dragline (George Kennedy). However after a fight with Dragline, which Luke wins only because dragline refuses to beat on him anymore, and a poker game, where Newman has a no good cards yet wins by bluffing, Luke wins the respect of the prisoners and the nickname “Cool Hand Luke”( Newman explains that sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand). Later, after Luke devours fifty eggs in an hour he is immortalized in prison legend and everyone in the camp, especially Dragline, begins to idolize him.
After Luke gets a message informing him of his mother’s death he begins to rebel against the rules of the prison camp and several times escapes, but is each time captured. The guards, seeing the effect which Luke has had on the rest of the camp, put all of their effort into breaking him. The Man with No Eyes forces Cool Hand Luke to repeatedly dig a grave and fill it in again and soon Luke is begging not to be struck, sobbing, and beaten. The other prisoners turn their backs on him, but Luke never stops fighting and escapes again (this time with dragline in tow). However Luke is soon cornered by the police and, knowing that there is no way out, mocks The Man With No Eyes one more time before he is shot down.
The theme of the movie is to never give up fighting the system no matter what the odds. The viewer can see the parallels between the films story and the anti government movement that was going on at the time. Luke is the rebel who plays by his own rules, one man against unbeatable odds, but like he says sometimes nothing is a real cool hand. And, although Luke is broken, beaten and eventually killed he never stops smiling. Dragline noticed that himself at the films end. In many ways Luke’s story was like that of Jesus Christ. They were both one man, whom everyone admired, struggling against impossible odds. Both were betrayed (Newman accidentally by Dragline) and crucified for their perceived sins.
Cool Hand Luke is an excellent film with great symbolism and an enduring message which is still relevant today. The performances by Newman, Kennedy, The Man With No Eyes and The Captain are fantastic, emotional and real. The viewer is left in suspense for the entire film, they want to see Luke escape to see him beat the system because we all want to achieve the impossible and overcome those unbeatable odds, but deep down we know that he can’t win that we are all just subjects of the system. But, this move offers a message, one that says just because we are slaves that doesn’t mean we cannot strive to be better, that doesn’t mean we can just give up. Cool Hand Luke says that giving up isn’t an option, that you have to use the cards your dealt to their fullest and remember that sometimes nothing is a real cool hand.
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