Cool Hand Luke
- Jun 7
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 7
The movie Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman, was released in 1967 and instantly became an iconic film of the era. The battle cry of the 1960s was non-conformity and rebelling against the establishment, and the movie hit those nerve endings like a lightning strike that excited and resonated with audiences.
Originally, Cool Hand Luke was a novel written by the author Donn Pearce, a World War II vet who ended up serving time on a Florida prison chain gang. And the cruel world that he lived through and evoked in his book is vividly brought to life in the film.
Paul Newman plays Luke Jackson, a decorated soldier who gets drunk and is arrested for a petty crime. Sentenced to two years on a chain gang, he soon finds himself at war with the prison camp’s sadistic warden, the brutal guards, and even the other prisoners.
It doesn’t matter how much he’s punished, Luke will not back down.
At every turn, Luke refuses to bend to the established order of things. It doesn’t matter how much he’s punished, Luke will not back down. When he runs afoul of Dragline, the prison tough guy, and finds himself in a boxing match against him, Luke refuses to quit, even when he’s battered and can hardly stand.
After he tries to escape the prison and is captured, Luke talks back to the warden, who beats him and delivers the famous line: “What we have here is…failure to communicate.” The warden then punishes Luke by putting him in a sweltering wooden box out in the prison yard. Yet when Luke emerges, his fighting spirit is undiminished. Even the ever-present threat of the walking boss—a menacing guard armed with a rifle and his eyes hidden behind mirror sunglasses--does not seem to scare Luke. Over and over, he is punished for holding onto his free spirit, but he does not break, does not cave in.
Defiant, funny, crafty and tenacious, Luke’s fighting spirit gradually earns the admiration of the other prisoners. They come to like and admire him, especially after the hilarious sequence when he wins a bet that he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour. And that admiration is what makes Luke such a threat to the ruling power of the camp.
As Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman has one of his greatest roles. And the rest of the cast is equally superb. From George Kennedy and Strother Martin to Harry Dean Stanton and Jo Van Fleet, who plays Luke’s dying mother, who pays him a painful visit.
What motivates Luke to endure such punishment? Why does he refuse to submit to the rules of system? There are plenty of clues to consider in this enduring four-star classic.
