What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
-Captain of the many Bosses
Cool Hand Luke is the story of a chain gang and one man who keeps trying to escape. The barflies in Cheers noted that this is the sweatiest movie ever made and the tag line is right up there with We’ll always have Paris. This 1967 film is one of Paul Newman’s best. Cool Hand Luke is a fun movie, despite the fact that it is about a bunch of men tortured by an unjust legal system. Of course, it could be argued that life was a lot better in the 1960s when the bad guys were working on chain gangs instead of working on their biceps.
A few spoilers to follow.
Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy won one for his work in Cool Hand Luke. One of the great scene is George Kennedy’s Dragline almost beating Luke to death because Luke refuses to give up. This scene near the start of the film sets the tone for Cool Hand Luke-he will never give up-even it kills him. Luke smiles a lot in this film, even though there is damned little to smile about. Paul Newman’s subdued performance is perfect in this role-there is a lot of whispering and trying not to be oevrheard by the Bosses.
Cool Hand Luke escapes and is captured, escapes again and is captured again, and each time his legend grows among the other inmates. Dragline befriends him and they concoct an idea to get all the money in the work camp. In one of the film’s stranger scenes, Cool Hand Luke declares that he will eat fifty eggs. In one hour. We then have a series of little vignettes of Luke having boiled eggs shoved into his mouth and being yelled at to chew and swallow. Luke’s belly swells as he forces down egg after egg after egg, until the last minute of the challenge arrives and he swallows the last bite as the finial seconds are called out.
Luke escapes and is caught, and the punishment for each escape is more chains and more work of one kind or another. His finial punishment is to get his dirt out one of the Bosses ditch. Once he has all the dirt dug out, another Boss comes and tells him to get his dirt out of the Boss’s yard. Once the hole is filled in again, the first Boss returns and tells him to empty the hole again. This is the breaking point, Luke can take no more. He collapses and begs not to be beaten anymore-he will do anything, just don’t beat him anymore. His weakness makes the other inmates hate him and he has lost all their respect.
Then Luke escapes one last time, this time Dragline goes with him. It is hard for a man with leg irons to make an easy escape, as he tends to attract a bit of attention. It will come as no surpirse that Luke does not meet with a good end. But even as he is being driven off to certain death, he has a grin on his face. Cool Hand Luke’s legend only grows as Dragline, now wearing leg irons himself, relays the story of Luke’s last moments. Ah, rebels, you gotta love them.
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