Cool Hand Luke

Perhaps Paul Newman's most iconic performance was as the title character in Cool Hand Luke, released in 1967, and directed by Stuart Rosenberg. This is one of those films that perfectly capture the zeitgeist of the moment, representing a rebellious prisoner as an avatar of a distressed generation.

Newman's Luke is a lost soul. A war hero, he is drunkenly decapitating parking meters, a particularly pointless crime because he isn't even stealing the coins. He is sentenced to two years on a prison road crew, presumably in the deep and dusty South. The place is run by the somewhat dandyish Captain (Strother Martin) and some sinister guards, particularly one who never speaks, wears dark glasses, and shoots with deadly accuracy. The prisoners all have colorful nicknames and follow the bear-like Dragline (George Kennedy), who is illiterate but wise to how to survive. Initially he resists Newman, and pummels him senseless in a boxing match. Newman is told repeatedly to stay down after each punch, but he will never give up, and that earns the large man's respect.

Prison movies have a long history in films, especially at Warner Brothers, which made this film. In many cases, the prisoners, despite their crimes, are depicted as free spirits who are being clamped by the establishment, which is represented by the unyielding authority of the guards. Each time period has its own take on this, from I Am a Fugitive on a Chain Gang to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which though made into a movie in 1975 was written in the early sixties). Newman's Luke is no hippie, but you can almost smell the patchouli and feel the flower power in his steadfast refusal to allow the Captain or the guards to "make his mind right" and conform to the system. Was there any line from a film more accurate about the sixties than Martin's declaration, "What we have here is failure to communicate."

This film is still a pleasure to watch, from the comedy of the egg-eating challenge to the tender way Newman sings a song and strums a banjo after learning of this mother's death. This was Rosenberg's first film, having come from TV, and he's quite good, especially since he had Conrad Hall to work with as cinematographer. Hall is claimed by some to be the best cinematographer in film history, and this film is a good example. The music is by Lalo Shifrin, and you may recognize one passage that scores a scene in which the prisoners lay sand over asphalt--it was used as the theme to Eyewitness News.

The cast is excellent, too. Kennedy won an Oscar, and there are plenty of faces that would become familiar--Ralph Waite (later Pa Walton), Wayne Rogers (Trapper John on M*A*S*H*), Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, and Joe Don Baker.