In Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman shows us what the underside of what life is like as a rebel. Picture James Dean doing this part had he lived to do films like these.
Newman plays his usual non-conformist rebel type, but he's really a rebel without a cause. He's in his early forties, a Korean war veteran who just hasn't found his place in civilian life. He gets himself busted for no great cause, just on a drunken spree in some Southern town he decides to knock the heads off a bunch of parking meters.
That lands him a stint in a county jail with a lot of outdoor work on a road gang. He fights with, but later wins the respect and becomes friends with George Kennedy the head honcho in his barracks.
The real tragedy of Cool Hand Luke is that Newman is a failure in life, it's why he's in prison. He gains the respect of his fellow convicts for those ways, but that involves going against the penal system and in the end that gets you nothing. Can you picture James Dean as a forty something doing what Newman is doing? It would have been his kind of role for sure.
Newman does a fine job playing the non-conformist Luke who seems to be just going on the path fate has decreed for him. George Kennedy got his Oscar winning career role as Dragline. Other men in Luke's barracks are Wayne Rogers, Robert Drivas, and J.D. Cannon and they fill their roles well.
Strother Martin as the warden of the place is the guy with the film's favorite line, "what we've got is failure to communicate." Martin and his correction officers have many interesting ways of getting their point across.
Cool Hand Luke may very well be the saddest role Newman ever undertook in his long career.
Newman plays his usual non-conformist rebel type, but he's really a rebel without a cause. He's in his early forties, a Korean war veteran who just hasn't found his place in civilian life. He gets himself busted for no great cause, just on a drunken spree in some Southern town he decides to knock the heads off a bunch of parking meters.
That lands him a stint in a county jail with a lot of outdoor work on a road gang. He fights with, but later wins the respect and becomes friends with George Kennedy the head honcho in his barracks.
The real tragedy of Cool Hand Luke is that Newman is a failure in life, it's why he's in prison. He gains the respect of his fellow convicts for those ways, but that involves going against the penal system and in the end that gets you nothing. Can you picture James Dean as a forty something doing what Newman is doing? It would have been his kind of role for sure.
Newman does a fine job playing the non-conformist Luke who seems to be just going on the path fate has decreed for him. George Kennedy got his Oscar winning career role as Dragline. Other men in Luke's barracks are Wayne Rogers, Robert Drivas, and J.D. Cannon and they fill their roles well.
Strother Martin as the warden of the place is the guy with the film's favorite line, "what we've got is failure to communicate." Martin and his correction officers have many interesting ways of getting their point across.
Cool Hand Luke may very well be the saddest role Newman ever undertook in his long career.