"Sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand." Cool Hand Luke
Actor Paul Newman was a non-conformist, along with Steve McQueen and James Dean. In "Cool Hand Luke" he topped them all.
"Luke Jackson" (Newman) was a war hero with medals to prove it from WWII, but it didn’t mean nothing to him. Promoted to sergeant, he was busted all the way back to buck private. He went out of the Army like he came in. Luke didn’t change for anybody. Convicted of destroying parking meters in the town square, Luke went to serve his two years of hard time on the chain gang in a southern prison camp run by the "Captain" (Strother Martin). The Captain runs his prison camp as a personal fiefdom. He is judge, jury, and executioner to the prisoners under his control.
Luke is a trouble maker, never fitting in wherever he goes. This includes prison. The prisoners are ruled by a big bully prisoner, "Dragline", played by George Kennedy in the performance of his career. Luke doesn’t give Dragline the respect he feels entitled to. To teach Luke who's boss, Dragline decides to beat him in the boxing ring because Luke cooly defied him concerning a scantily clad girl they saw washing her car earlier. Dragline beats Luke to a pulp, but Luke keeps coming back for more. Dragline is begging Luke to quit, but Luke says, "You’ll have to kill me." The exhausted Luke strikes Dragline with a final punch that can only be considered as soft as a marshmallow. The befuddled Dragline lets Luke fall to the ground. The camera fades on a punch drunk Luke, still swinging. Still, Luke has psychologically beat the bigger man. He begins to earn the grudging respect of the inmates. Later, he bluffs his way to victory in a poker game. On-looker Dragline grabs the cards and spouts out "he beat him with a hand full of nothin’." That’s when Luke retorts with the line I quoted earlier.
The movie goes on to show Luke’s continual escape attempts, with ever increasing punishment when he is inevitably caught. In the end, Dragline accompanies him on his fatal escape attempt. They are standing in a boarded up church with the police lights shining through the boards. Luke makes a mocking comment looking out the door. The words are barely out of his mouth when a high-powered rifle cracks out. Luke spins around with a grimace on his face and slumps to the ground. Dragline stares in disbelief. The "Man with No Eyes", the evil henchman of the "Captain" had coldly shot the grinning Luke to death.
The Captain had warned Luke earlier, "What we have here is failure to communicate."
Absolutely top-notch acting by all concerned, but Paul Newman dominates the screen, despite all the stellar performances. This is the ultimate prison movie. See it!
Other fine movies in the prison genre I recommend, include "Shawshank Redemption", "Papillon", "The Green Mile", and "White Heat".
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