CoolHandLuke-connect.bcp.org.docVIP

Click here to go back to the Cool Hand Luke Worksheet This document is produced by the generosity of Mr. Elliott “Good as Gould” Shuffle, Bellarmine ’04. Cool Hand Luke (1967) is the moving character study of a non-conformist; anti-hero loner who bull headedly resists authority and the Establishment. One of the films posters carried the tagline: The man...and the motion picture that simply do not conform. With this vivid film, director Stuart Rosenberg made one of the key films of the 1960s, a decade in which protest against established powers was a key theme. One line of the films dialogue is often quoted: What we have here is...failure to communicate. This superb film was based upon a screenplay by Donn Pearce (and Frank R. Pierson), from Pearces own novel of the same name. The chain-gang prison film (e.g., I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)) has a long history in American films, and this one also provided entertaining performances, especially with Paul Newman in one of his best roles. One of the most memorable scenes is the egg-eating contest. Rich religious symbolism, references and imagery are deeply embedded within the narrative, with some critics arguing that Luke represents a modern-day, messianic Christ figure who ministers to a group of disciples and refuses to give up under oppression. The films theme - of an outsider-protagonist who transforms the occupants of a Southern chain gang institution and tragically sacrifices himself at the end - resembles the hero in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975). The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Actor (Paul Newman), Best Supporting Actor (George Kennedy), Best Adapted Screenplay (Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson), and Best Original Music Score (Lalo Schifrin) and won only for Best Supporting Actor. In the opening scene, set in the South in 1948, Lucas Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is arrested for the minor offenses of being drunk and destroying two long rows of parking meters in a defiant a