Noted for its anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian themes while the Vietnam War was raging on in the real world, Stuart Rosenberg directed 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke” was well respected by the critics upon its release, and it maintains the same respect even today.
Paul Newman plays Luke Jackson, a decorated veteran of the Korean War who, after a night of drunken excess gets sentenced to two years in prison. The prison is run by a sadistic warden called The Captain who enforces strict discipline upon his prisoners. Luke refuses to play by the prison rules, both written and written, infuriating both the official authorities and the prisoners’ inner hierarchy, particularly the prisoners unofficial leader Dragline. Dragline and Luke have themselves a boxing match in which much bigger Dragline dominates Luke, but the feisty prisoner refuses to let up even when he’s nearly mauled to death. This earns him the respect of his fellow inmates, and his continued shenanigans aimed towards the prison authorities raise his status even higher. All the while he is exposed to many cruel and unusual punishments from The Captain, but he perseveres. When he learns that his mother has died, Luke tries to escape the prison, which marks the first one of his many attempts. Even when he manages to escape, he always returns to the prison where with every new attempt the severity of his punishment increases until he is finally seemingly broken. He loses the respect of the other prisoners and becomes a lap dog for the prison guards, but his instincts eventually grab hold of him and he makes one last desperate attempt to flee.
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