Cool Hand Luke: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio, Robert Drivas, Jo Van Fleet, Clifton James, Morgan Woodward, Luke Askew, Marc Cavell, Richard Davalos, Conrad L. Hall, Stuart Rosenberg, Sam O'Steen, Carter De Haven Jr., Gordon Carroll, Donn Pearce, Frank Pierson: Amazon.ca: Video

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Amazon.com Essential Video

Paul Newman gives one of the defining performances of his career, and cemented his place as a beautiful-rebel screen icon playing the stubbornly tough and independent title character in Cool Hand Luke. And before he became familiar as a sidekick in 1970s disaster movies (Earthquake and the Airport movies), George Kennedy won an Oscar for playing Dragline, the brutal chain-gang boss who tries to beat loner Luke's cool out of him. It's a classic rebel-against-the-repressive-institution story in the line of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest or The Shawshank Redemption. Certain moments have become classics--particularly the hardboiled egg-eating contest, and the immortal line (drooled by Strother Martin, as a sadistic redneck prison officer), "What we have here is a failure to communicate." And don't forget, Luke is also the source of the oft-quoted driving ditty, "I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I have my plastic Jesus, right here on the dashboard of my car..." He is cool, all right. --Jim Emerson

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Customer Reviews

68 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (68 customer reviews)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential 60s movie - a touchstone for many, Jun 5 2004

By

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cool Hand Luke (Widescreen/Full Screen) (DVD)

This is the perfect '60s movie. It is anti-authoritarian without being strident, a serious drama with whimsy, gritty and violent with a sexy side (who can forget the car wash scene?). Newman plays the "christ" figure and his prisoners as his disciples and believers (after he wins them over). The guards and the warden are the high priests and the Romans. And of course, they kill him in the end.

But we have some great fun along the way. Luke strips the heads off of a street of parking meters and gets a sentence far out of proportion to such a silly crime. To say that Luke chooses not to fit in is an understatement. It isn't that he takes on the system. Rather, his mere presence and indifference to the system causes it to change or to try and eliminate him as if he were some invading virus.

There are some wonderful and indelible scenes such as the egg eating, the fight with Dragline (George Kennedy), the race to the end of the road, the failure to communicate scene and the severe punishment Luke receives. It seems like you can sit around talking about scenes from this movie longer than the movie itself.

Paul Newman made Luke immortal, but George Kennedy as Dragline and Strother Martin as Captain are also essential to this movie's character and permanence.

Today's viewers might fine the pacing of the movie a bit slow and see some seams that those of us who love it might ignore, but so what? It is a classic and enjoyable film that is a touchstone for many who were young when they first saw it in 1967.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Classic and classically boring, Oct 21 2003

By

Gadgester "No Time, No Money" (Mother Earth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cool Hand Luke (Widescreen/Full Screen) (DVD)

I have to admit Newman puts up excellent performance in Cool Hand Luke. But the film is really quite boring and Luke just gets annoying after a while. He annoys because he doesn't really want to escape prison and just wants to get caught. Of course this just serves to emphasize his existentialist nature, but it ends up being silly to a skeptic like myself.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This film does NOT fail to communicate, Jun 4 2004

By

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cool Hand Luke (Widescreen/Full Screen) (DVD)

This is the perfect '60s movie. It is anti-authoritarian without being strident, a serious drama with whimsy. It is gritty and violent and at the same time it has a sexy side (who can forget the car wash scene?). Newman plays the "christ" figure and his prisoners as his disciples and believers (after he wins them over). The guards and the warden are the high priests and the Romans. And of course, they kill him in the end.

But we have some great fun along the way. Luke strips the heads off of a street of parking meters and gets a sentence far out of proportion to such a silly crime. To say that Luke chooses not to fit in is an understatement. It isn't that he takes on the system. Rather, his mere presence and indifference to the system causes it to change or to try and eliminate him as if he were some invading virus.

There are some wonderful and indelible scenes such as the egg eating, the fight with Dragline (George Kennedy), the race to the end of the road, the failure to communicate scene and the severe punishment Luke receives. It seems like you can sit around talking about scenes from this movie longer than the movie itself.

Paul Newman made Luke immortal, but George Kennedy as Dragline and Strother Martin as Captain are also essential to this movie's character and permanence.

Today's viewers might fine the pacing of the movie a bit slow and see some seams that those of us who love it might ignore, but so what? It is a classic and enjoyable film that is a touchstone for many who were young when they first saw it in 1967.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Paul NewMan as Cool Hand Luke what a classic
newman (old blue eyes) stars as cool hand luke jackson, a war hero, who gets himself in trouble with the law, and is repeatedly beaten both mentally and physically savagely by the... Read more

Published on April 6 2004 by CHRIS PACHECO DooyooCrownReviewer

5.0 out of 5 stars A Natural-Born World-Shaker
I personally loved this movie. The story is interesting, with a minimum of twists and turns. This movie is entertainment at its best. Read more

Published on Feb 29 2004 by Hsoj Yensid