Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Review: written Dec 2016

Sometimes Nothin’ Can be a Real Cool Hand

It’s been a long time since I saw this film, and my memories of it were of that smile of Paul Newman’s. Well, that and the egg eating sequence of course. I wish I had revisited it sooner, I had forgotten what a classic it is – and forgotten how bleak it is too.

It’s a character study. The first sequence encapsulates much of the themes of the movie, where Newman is drunk and vandalising parking meters. When the police come, he does not run, does not hide – but faces the punishment with both an air of inevitability, and a silly big grin, freeze framed as we go into the credits. We join him again as he emerges into a road chain gang, and the rest of the movie reiterates this first cycle to increasingly heightened effect. He is a quintessential rebel without a cause, and resists being any kind of figurehead.. “Stop feedin’ off me” he says at one point, as he pushes those away that are drawn to him by his spark of life they admire. And yet he continues to walk his own course, non aggressively defiant. It’s a testament to how nuanced the film is, that it lends itself to endless debate on how much of a rebel he is, and how responsible does he feel for the other prisoners.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else but Newman in the title role. Who else could be that convincing as someone who amounts to nothing in the eyes of establishment, yet represents everything to do with hope and the future to the rest of the prisoners, and best of all – do it with the smile that we see throughout the movie at key moments. It isn’t just Newman’s show though – George Kennedy shows what an actor he could be given the right material (i.e. not his usual 70’s disaster flick sidekick role), and you’ll recognise some other familiar faces in early roles.

The texture of the plot and characters is matched by some superb cinematography. The hazy sweaty heat of the South is compellingly portrayed (even if it was actually shot in California), and some images of the men swinging their blades against a backdrop of road and grass, with a haze of heat and cut grass hanging in the air are particularly memorable. Then there are the iconic images of the ‘Man with the eyes’, his mirrored sunglasses giving him a permanently ominous look that bodes poorly of things to come.

On a final note, there are a couple of songs sung by characters In the movie that struck me as being some of the best placed diegetic music I can remember.

George Kennedy’s character may describe Luke as a big beautiful bag of nothin’, but the movie goes to show – sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand. And perhaps that’s what the point is.. it’s not what life throws at you, it’s what you take from life, that matters.