Cool Hand Luke
| Cool Hand Luke | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold | |
| Directed by | Stuart Rosenberg |
| Screenplay by | Donn Pearce Frank Pierson |
| Produced by | Gordon Carroll |
| Starring | Paul Newman George Kennedy Strother Martin |
| Cinematography | Conrad Hall |
| Edited by | Sam O'Steen |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros.-Seven Arts |
Release date |
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Running time | 126 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $16,217,773 (Domestic) ($111,243,078.07 2012$)[1] |
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system.
The film is based on Donn Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. Pearce sold the story to Warner Brothers, who then hired him to write the script. Due to Pearce's lack of film experience, the studio added Frank Pierson to rework the screenplay.
Upon its release, "Cool Hand Luke" received favorable reviews and became a box-office success. The film cemented Newman's status as one of the era's top box-office actors, while the film was described as the "touchstone of an era". In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, considering it to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In the 1940s, Lucas "Luke" Jackson is arrested for cutting the "heads" off parking meters one drunken night. He is sentenced to two years in prison and sent to a Florida chain gang prison run by a sadistic warden, the Captain. Luke turns out to be a decorated war veteran.
Luke fails to observe the established pecking order among the prisoners and quickly runs afoul of the prisoners' leader, Dragline. When the pair have a boxing match, the prisoners and guards watch with interest. Although Luke is severely outmatched by his larger opponent, he won't stay down. Eventually, Dragline refuses to continue the fight. Luke's tenacity earns the prisoners' respect. Later, Luke wins a poker game by bluffing with a hand worth nothing. Luke comments that "sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand," and Dragline nicknames him “Cool Hand Luke.”
After a visit from his sick mother Arletta, Luke becomes more optimistic about his situation. He continually confronts the Captain and the guards, and his sense of humor and independence prove to be both contagious and inspiring to the other prisoners. Luke's struggle for supremacy peaks when he leads a work crew in a seemingly impossible but successful effort to complete a road-paving job in less than one day. The other prisoners start to idolize him after he makes and wins a spur-of-the moment bet that he can eat fifty hard-boiled eggs in one hour.
After news of his mother's death reaches Luke, the Captain, anticipating that Luke might attempt to escape in order to attend his mother's funeral, has him locked in the prison punishment box by one of the bosses who recognizes the injustice and says, "Sorry Luke. I'm just doing my job. You gotta appreciate that," to which Luke replies, "Nah, calling it your job don't make it right, Boss." After this, Luke is determined to escape. After an initial escape attempt under the cover of a Fourth of July celebration, he is recaptured by local police and fitted with leg irons. Upon his return, the Captain delivers a warning speech to the other inmates, beginning with the famous line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men."
Some time later, Luke escapes again, first visiting a nearby house where he uses an axe to remove his shackles and spreads curry powder to confuse the prison's tracking bloodhounds. While free, Luke mails the prisoners a magazine that includes a photograph of him with two beautiful women. He is soon recaptured, beaten, returned to the prison camp and fitted with two sets of leg irons. Luke is now annoyed by the other prisoners' fawning and reveals that the picture in the magazine is a fake. At first, the other prisoners are angry, but after a long stay in the box, when Luke is being forced to eat a huge serving of rice, the other prisoners help him to finish it.
As punishment for his escape, he is forced to repeatedly dig a grave-sized hole in the prison camp yard, fill it back in, then be beaten. The prisoners observe his persecution, singing spirituals. Finally, as the other prisoners watch from the windows of the bunkhouse, an exhausted Luke collapses in the hole, begging God for mercy and pleads with the bosses not to hit him again. Believing Luke is finally broken, the Captain stops the punishment. The prisoners begin to lose their idealized image of Luke. A fellow prisoner tears up the photograph of Luke with the women.
Seemingly broken, Luke takes one last stab at freedom when he gets the chance to steal a prison dump truck. Dragline impulsively jumps into the truck with Luke and they drive off. They travel until, at night, near a church, Luke tells Dragline that they should split up. After they part, Luke enters the church. Here, he talks to God, whom he believes made him the way he is but is sabotaging him so he cannot win in life. Luke prays, asking God what he should do but gets no reply. Moments later, police cars arrive. Dragline enters the church and tells Luke that he made a deal with the bosses and that they won't hurt them if they surrender peacefully. Luke, knowing better, moves to an open window and mimics the Captain's famous line, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate." Luke is immediately shot in the neck by Boss Godfrey. Distraught, Dragline carries Luke outside and then attacks Boss Godfrey, but is stopped by the other guards. When the sheriff says he's called ahead to the local hospital, the Captain insists upon taking Luke to the prison hospital. When the sheriff says that it's an hour's drive away and that Luke would never survive, the Captain says "He's ours."
After his death, Dragline and the other prisoners reminisce about Luke. Dragline describes Luke's unique smile as scenes play, showing Luke's escapades, with a final image of a now-repaired picture of Luke and the two women, superimposed on an aerial view of a cross-shaped road junction.
Cast
- Paul Newman as Luke. A decorated war veteran who is sentenced to serve two years in a Florida rural prison, Luke constantly defies the authorities of the facility, becoming a leader role among the prisoners, as well as escaping multiple times.[2] While the script was being developed, the leading role was initially considered for Jack Lemmon or Telly Savalas. Newman asked to play the leading role after hearing about the project. In order to develop his character, he traveled to West Virginia, where he recorded local accents and learned the behaviour.[3]
- George Kennedy as Dragline. The leader of the prisoners, he fights Luke, and comes to respect him.[4] Kennedy's performance earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. During the nomination process, worried about the box office success of Camelot and Bonnie and Clyde, Kennedy invested US$5,000 in trade advertising to promote himself. Kennedy later stated that thanks to the award his salary was "multiplied by ten the minute (he) won", also adding "the happiest part was that I didn't have to play only villains anymore".[5]
- Strother Martin as the Captain. The prison warden, he is depicted as a cruel and insensitive leader, who severely punishes Luke for his escapes.[6] Previous to his portrayal of the captain, Martin was known for appearances in western films.[7]
- Jo Van Fleet as Arletta, Luke's dying mother, who visits him in prison. The role was passed to Van Fleet after it was rejected by Bette Davis.[8]
- Morgan Woodward as Boss Godfrey. Dubbed "the man with no eyes" by the inmates for his mirrored glasses, the character does not speak. [9] Depicted as cruel and remorseless,[10] the character was described by Woodward as a "walking Mephistopheles".[11]
- Joy Harmon as The Girl (Lucille). Harmon auditioned for the scene where she teases the prisoners after her manager, Leon Lance contacted the producers. She auditioned in front of Rosenberg and Newman wearing a bikini, without speaking.[12] Rosenberg wanted the cast to internalize life on a chain gang and banned the presence of wives on set. After Harmon arrived on location, she remained for two days in her hotel room. She was first seen by the rest of the cast while shooting.[13] Despite the directors' intentions, the scene was ultimately filmed separately.[14] Rosenberg instructed an unaware Harmon of the different movements and expressions he wanted.[13] Originally planned to be shot in half a day, Harmon's scene took three. For the part of the scene featuring the chain gang, Rosenberg substituted a teenage cheerleader, who wore an overcoat.[14]
Inmates and guards
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Production
Pearce, a merchant seaman who later became a counterfeiter and safecracker, wrote the novel Cool Hand Luke, about his experiences working on a chain gang while serving in a Florida prison. He sold the story to Warner Brothers for US$80,000 and received another US$15,000 to write the screenplay.[15] After working in television for over a decade, Rosenberg chose it to make it his directorial debut in cinema. He took the idea to Jalem Productions, owned by Jack Lemmon.[16] Since Pearce had no experience writing screenplays, his draft was reworked by Frank Pierson. Conrad Hall was hired as the cinematographer,[3] while Paul Newman's brother, Arthur, was hired as the unit production manager.[14]
Filming took place on the San Joaquin River Delta.[14] The set, imitating a southern prison farm, was built in Stockton, California.[3] The filmmakers sent a crew to Tavares Road Prison in Tavares, Florida to take photographs and measurements, where Pearce had served his time.[17] The structures that were built in Stockton included barracks, a mess hall, the warden's quarters, a guard shack and dog kennels. The trees on the set were decorated with spanish moss that the producers took to the area.[14] The construction soon attracted the attention of a county building inspector who confused it with migrant worker housing and ordered it "condemned for code violations".[3] The opening scene where Newman cuts the parking meters was filmed in Lodi, California.[14] Meanwhile, the scene in which Luke is chased by bloodhounds and other exteriors were shot in Jacksonville, Florida, at Callahan Road Prison. Luke was played by a stunt actor, using dogs from the Florida Department of Corrections.[17]
"Failure to communicate"
- What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week. Which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don't like it any more than you men.[18]
After writing the line, Pierson worried that the phrase was too complex for the warden. To explain its origin, he created a backstory that was included in the stage directions. Pierson explained that in order to advance in the Florida prison system, officers had to take criminology and penology courses at the state university, showing how the warden might know such words.[19] Strother Martin later clarified that he felt the line was the kind that his character would very likely have heard or read from some "pointy-headed intellectuals" who had begun to infiltrate his character's world under the general rubric of a new, enlightened, approach to incarceration.[20]
The quote was listed at #11 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 most memorable movie lines.[21] An audio sample of the line is included in the Guns n' Roses songs "Civil War" and "Madagascar".[22]
Christian imagery
Pierson included in his draft explicit religious symbolism.[15] The film contains several elements based on Christian themes, including the concept of Luke as a Saint who wins over the crowds and is ultimately sacrificed.[23]
After winning the egg-eating bet, Luke lies exhausted on the table in the position of Jesus as depicted on his crucifixion. After learning about the death of his mother, Luke sings "Plastic Jesus".[24] While he is digging and filling trenches and confronted by the guards, an inmate performs the spiritual "No Grave Gonna Keep my Body Down".[25] Towards the end of the movie, Luke speaks to God, evoking the conversation between God and Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, depicted in the Gospel of Luke.[25] Following Luke's talk, the film depicts Dragline as a Judas, who delivers Luke to the authorities, trying to convince him to surrender.[26] In the final scene, Dragline eulogizes Luke. He explains that despite Luke's death, his actions succeeded in changing the system.[23] The closing shot shows inmates working on crossroads with the repaired photo of Luke and the two women superimposed.[24][27]
Soundtrack
The original score was composed by Lalo Schifrin, who created tunes with a background in popular music and jazz.[28] While some of the tracks include the use of guitars, banjos and harmonicas, others include trumpets, violins, flutes and piano.[29]
An edited version of the musical cue from the Tar Sequence (where the inmates are paving the road) has been used for years as the music package on television stations' news programs around the world, mostly those owned and operated by ABC in the United States. Although the music was written for the film, it became more familiar for its association with television news, in part because its melody resembles the sound of a telegraph.[30]
Release and Reception
Cool Hand Luke opened on November 1, 1967 at Loew's State Theatre in New York City. The proceeds of the premiere went to charities.[31]. The film became a box-office success,[32] grossing US$16,217,773 in domestic screenings.[33] Kennedy won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Newman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, while Pearce and Pierson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Schiffrin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.[34]
In a review entitled "Sheer Beauty in the Wrong Place", Life praised the film's photography, while it criticized the influence of the visual styles in the depictions of the prison camp. The magazine declared that the landscapes turned it into "a rest camp (in which) the men are getting plenty of sleep, food and healthy outdoor exersice", that despite the presence of the guards showed that there were "worse ways to pay one's debt with society".[35] Meanwhile Variety described Newman's performance as "excellent", noting the supporting cast as "versatile and competent".[36] The New York Times praised the film, remarking that Pearce and Pierson's "sharp script", Rosenberg's "ruthlessly realistic and plausible" staging and direction and Newman's "splendid" performance with an "unfaultable" cast, "elevates" it among other prison films.[37]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall 100% "Certified Fresh" approval rating based on 45 reviews, with an average of 8.8 out of 10. The site's consensus is that "Though hampered by Stuart Rosenberg's direction, Cool Hand Luke is held aloft by a stellar script and one of Paul Newman's most indelible performances".[38] Critic Roger Ebert included the film in his review collection The Great Movies, rating it four stars out of four.[9] Empire rated it five stars out of five, declaring the movie one of Newman's best performances.[39] Slant rated the film three stars out of four. It described Newman's role as "iconic", also praising its cinematography and sound score.[40] Allmovie praised Newman's performance as "one of the most indelible anti-authoritarian heroes in movie history".[41]
In 2003, AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains rated Luke Jackson as the number 30 greatest hero in American cinema,[42] and three years later, AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies rated Cool Hand Luke number 71.[43] Cool Hand Luke was included in the United States National Film Registry in 2005. In 2006, Luke was ranked 53rd in Empire magazine's "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters".[44] The movie solidified Newman's status as a box-office star, while the film is considered a touchstone of the era.[45] In 2005, the United States Library of Congress deemed Cool Hand Luke to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.[46]
Adaptations
The book was adapted into a West End play by Emma Reeves. It opened at London's Aldwych Theatre starring Marc Warren, but closed after less than two months, following poor reviews.[47] The show was chosen by The Times both as "Critic's Choice" and "What the Critics Would Pay To See".[48]
Footnotes
- ^ "Cool Hand Luke, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
- ^ Dimare, Phillip 2011, p. Cool Hand Luke, p. 106, at Google Books, Cool Hand Luke, p. 107, at Google Books.
- ^ a b c d e f Levy, Shawn 2009, p. 204.
- ^ Debolt, Abbe; Baugess, James 2011, p. 152.
- ^ Brown, Peter 1981, p. 190.
- ^ Langman, Larry; Ebner, David 2001, p. 177.
- ^ McKay, James 2010, p. 178.
- ^ Reed, John Shelton 2003, p. 196.
- ^ a b Ebert, Roger 2010, p. 102.
- ^ McClure, Arthur 1971, p. 283.
- ^ Burr, Sherri 2007, p. 19.
- ^ Lisanti, Tom 2000, p. 114.
- ^ a b Lisanti, Tom 2000, p. 115, 116.
- ^ a b c d e f Nixon, Rob 2010.
- ^ a b Eagan, Daniel 2010, p. 628.
- ^ Levy, Shawn 2009, p. 203.
- ^ a b Florida Department of Corrections 2010.
- ^ "listen". Retrieved 2012-05-01.
- ^ Charlotte, Susan 1993, p. 308.
- ^ Brode, Douglas 1990, p. 195.
- ^ AFI 2005.
- ^ Rasmussen, Eric 1991, p. 74.
- ^ a b Reinhartz, Adele 2012, p. 69 - 72.
- ^ a b Fairbanks, Brian 2005, p. 95.
- ^ a b Garrett, Gregg 2007, p. 36 - 40.
- ^ May, John 2001, p. 57.
- ^ Hook, Sue Vander 2010, p. 56.
- ^ MacDonald, Laurence 2013, p. 228.
- ^ MacDonald, Laurence 2013, p. 230.
- ^ Allora, Jennifer; Ruf, Beatrix; Calzadilla, Guillermo 2009, p. 142.
- ^ Film Daily staff 1967, p. 195.
- ^ Magill, Frank 1983, p. 755.
- ^ Nash Information Services staff 2009.
- ^ Nixon, Rob 2013.
- ^ Schick, Richard 1967, p. Cool Hand Luke, p. 10, at Google Books.
- ^ Variety staff 1966.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley 1967.
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes staff 2013.
- ^ Empire Magazine staff 2005.
- ^ Weber, Bill 2008.
- ^ Doberman, Matthew 2009.
- ^ AFI 2003.
- ^ AFI 2007.
- ^ Empire Magazine staff 2 2005.
- ^ DiLeo, John 2010, p. 73.
- ^ Dewitt, Joanne 2011, p. 9.
- ^ Trueman, Matt 2011.
- ^ Purves, Libby 2011.
References
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External links
- 1967 films
- 1960s drama films
- American films
- American drama films
- English-language films
- Films based on novels
- Films directed by Stuart Rosenberg
- Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning performance
- Films set in Florida
- Films set in the 1940s
- Films shot in Jacksonville, Florida
- Prison films
- United States National Film Registry films
- Warner Bros. films