Cool Hand Luke (film)
"Cool Hand Luke" is a 1967 film that centers on Luke Jackson, portrayed by Paul Newman, a war hero sentenced to a southern prison for a relatively minor crime. The story unfolds as Luke grapples with the harsh realities of prison life, where he must seek permission for even the simplest tasks. His defiance against authority is highlighted through various acts of rebellion, such as a legendary bet to eat fifty boiled eggs and several daring escape attempts. The film is rich in religious symbolism, portraying Luke as a reluctant savior figure who challenges both earthly and divine authority, all while exploring themes of individuality versus social responsibility.
Luke's character serves as a catalyst for the other prisoners, particularly through his friendship with Dragline, played by George Kennedy, who becomes an eager follower of Luke's rebellious spirit. Despite his eventual capture and demise, Luke's mythic status endures among fellow inmates, serving as a reflection on the human condition and the struggle against oppressive systems. The film resonates with broader cultural questions of the 1960s, such as the nature of freedom and the complex dynamics of leadership and rebellion, drawing parallels to other works of the era, like Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Overall, "Cool Hand Luke" remains a poignant exploration of resilience and the enduring spirit of rebellion in the face of authority.
Cool Hand Luke (film)
Released 1967
Director Stuart Rosenberg
A film encapsulating the attitudes and conflicts of 1960’s youth. The film used classic conventions: prison as microcosm and defiant existential prisoner.
Key Figures
Stuart Rosenberg (1927- ), film director
The Work
In Cool Hand Luke, war hero Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is on a 1940’s southern prison road gang for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. His dying mother’s visit reveals Luke’s lifelong clashes with authority. Luke adjusts to the brutal constrictions of prison, asking permission for every daily action. The warden (Strother Martin) looks askance at Luke, who particularly provokes “No-Eyes,” the silent guard in reflective sunglasses who is anxious to shoot an escaping prisoner. Luke’s refusal to stay down when he has clearly lost a fistfight charms prison boss Dragline (George Kennedy) as does his working double time while paving a road simply to irritate his keepers. On a bet, he eats fifty boiled eggs in one hour to show he can. However, Luke’s real rebellion comes after solitary confinement in “The Box” when his mother dies: The warden, in violation of his professed code of reacting only to prisoner behavior, had placed him there simply because he might escape. Luke subsequently escapes twice, making fools of his captors and sending the prisoners a picture of himself with two showgirls. Furious at the challenge, the guards make the recaptured Luke dig and fill ditches and endure beatings and solitary confinement. When Luke finally begs for mercy, they warn that another escape will be fatal. Yet Luke, accompanied by Dragline, steals a prison truck, only to be trapped in a church. After a one-way conversation with God, Luke surrenders but is shot down by “No-Eyes.” The last scene shows Dragline telling stories about Luke to the assembled prisoners: The myth of the unbreakable prisoner lives on, despite Luke’s admission of defeat.
Impact
While in the tradition of prison films highlighting the indomitable human spirit, Cool Hand Luke has larger ambitions. The religious theme is inescapable in Luke’s frequent challenges to the ultimate authority, God, daring him to show his power; in the repeated visual allusions to crosses and crucifixions; in Luke as reluctant savior of the prisoners’ spirits; and in Dragline’s enthusiastic performance as Luke’s apostle. These thematic threads comment on the human condition life is a prison camp, and just when we have mastered the rules, they are changed, and we are punished for no apparent reason. Yet Luke’s reluctant antiheroic leadership is entirely secular: How are free spirits compromised by even minimal roles of social responsibility? This prototypical 1960’s question was asked in communes, antiwar organizations, and counterculture groups as leadership pressures transformed individualistic rebels into their opposites. Though Luke never formalizes rebellion, Dragline clearly wants to. Finally, like the Steinbeck/Kazan film Viva Zapata! (1964), the film explores mythmaking. The skinny, directionless Luke, though he refutes Dragline’s claim that he tricked the bosses, is transformed into a heroic figure, cunning and undefeatable. This exploration reveals another of the decade’s concerns how we distinguish reality from illusion and truth from reality.
Related Works
Cool Hand Luke echoes Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). Luke, like Kesey’s central character, Randle P. McMurphy, is a Christ figure slaughtered by authority but inspiring a mythology of rebellion.
Additional Information
For a discussion of Luke as existentialist antihero, see Charles Champlin’s The Movies Grow Up (1940-1980), published in 1981.