Cool Hand Luke
Reviewed by: Frederick Jones
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Better than Average |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | 13 to Adult |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Length: | 2 hr. 6 min. |
| Year of Release: | 1967 |
| USA Release: |
| Featuring | Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet, Richard Davalos, Dennis Hopper, Anthony Zerbe |
| Director |
Stuart Rosenberg |
| Producer | |
| Distributor |
“Cool Hand Luke” is an excellent movie with deep philosophical underpinnings. The movie centers around a single man working his way through the ranks of a chain gang society in the south during the 1960s (before I was born). I have seen it six times in the past ten years and I can still watch it again.
Luke (Paul Newman) defies all authority during the movie. He starts with local authorities (cutting off the heads of parking meters), then the “alpha male” of the chain gain, then the bosses overseeing the men, then finally God.
His character is the incarnation of the hubris in the carnal mind—epitomizing the longing in the heart of every man since the Fall: to be a god. Nietzche’s ubermensch comes alive.
The amazing thing about this movie is that Luke constantly fails yet the men remain loyal to him through it all.
There is no nudity in the film. A pretty graphic fight scene with blood (nothing gratuitous though). One scene where a farm girl allures the men from afar—mild in comparison with Soap Operas. There is also a small amount of cursing involved.
