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This blog will be all about film reviews. I'm going to be watching a lot of movies, writing reviews, and hopefully not spoiling any movies you plan to watch.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Verdict: Thumbs Up The prison thriller Cool Hand Luke is a brilliant display of plot construction and acting, leading to a film that leaves its viewer with long lasting set of emotions. These were carefully crafted and impressed upon the audience through a deliberately slow plot and a brilliant performance by Paul Newman and George Kennedy. The plot of Cool Hand Luke revolves around Luke Jackson, a war veteran who has let his life slowly drift apart. He is arrested for “destroying municipal proper”, which he constantly reminds the viewer of, and is sent to a prison farm. Here he challenges the status quo and gradually gains the respect of the other prisoners earning him the nickname Cool Hand Luke. However, following the death of his mother and the subsequent poor treatment he receives, he repeatedly attempts to escape from the camp, with both of his first two attempts ending in recapture and increasing punishment. After he is captured the second time, the guards break him and tell him if he escapes again, they’ll kill him. He appears to have been completely broken and submissive and the fellow prisoners lose respect for him. However, he once again escapes, this time Dragline, the de facto lead prisoner, joins him. However, that night they are tracked. In a church, Luke prays to God and asks why he has tried to make his life so difficult. When Dragline comes in and tries to get Luke to surrender peacefully, Luke walks to the window and taunts the police, only to be shot in the neck by Boss Godfrey, the imposing prison guard. Luke dies on the way to the hospital but Dragline continues to tell his story. What truly makes the film work is the pacing of the plot and the mood. It is intentionally very slow, almost to the point where one wonders whether they are watching a life unfold in real time. However, it is this effect that makes the movie as a whole work. It envelops the viewer into the world of Cool Hand Luke, you and transferred from the real world into the world Rosenberg created. The film is purposely disambiguous as to what the year is and what war Luke took part in. Rosenberg does all these little things to totally remove you from your world and into the lives of Luke and Dragline and the others. The mood also lends itself to the pacing. During Luke’s first two escape attempts, the mood is able help control the pacing and plot, making sure that, even there is no plot based evidence Luke will be recaptured, the audience is always aware he will. However when it comes to the final escape, this is thrown out the window. Rosenberg leaves the viewer confused as to what will happen to Luke and Dragline, will they be caught or not, and if so what will happen? It is this clever pacing and mood that continually pulls the viewer in more and more, becoming more emotionally invested as to the fate of Luke. The acting, especially of Paul Newman as Luke, and George Kennedy as Dragline, are one of the greatest assets to the film. Paul Newman is able to emotionally engage the audience in his plight and pull them into his world. His reaction to seeing his mother, hearing the news of her death, and his interactions with his fellow prisoners makes him a genuinely likeable character. You find yourself rooting for him and hoping he escapes, hoping he survives the prison camp. His infectious smile, his never give up attitude, and his good humor not only affect those at the camp but also those watching. He becomes so much of a guy that you couldn’t imagine anything truly bad happening to that when the end comes, it leaves you with a long lasting sense of sadness that you can never really understand. George Kennedy for his part is incredibly personable and engaging and a character you can feel transform over the course of the movie. However his transformation isn’t outright and very obvious. It’s little bits and pieces here there that all lend themselves to his character. By the end of the movie, it’s almost impossible to believe that he could live with himself after Luke’s death. It almost felt as though he would perish as well, although there is always that sense that he wasn’t meant to die, that he was meant to share Luke’s story, continue his legacy. It could almost be argued that if two were to be chosen to die at the end, it would be hard for you to decide which you would rather die. Kennedy, from being the hard, dominating figure in the prison, respected by all, transforms into a kinder, gentler soul from his time with Luke. He becomes that guy you could never hurt. In not such an obvious way, Boss Godfrey adds an element the movie would be hard pressed to replace. He has an almost god like presence about him, that he will strike down all that oppose him, that defy him. He is cold and distant and the movie would lose a large part of its emotion without him. Cool Hand Luke is a brilliant demonstration of how pacing and mood can almost drive the plot in the viewers minds. Strong performance lend themselves to the film in an incredible way and help cement the emotions created by Rosenberg with the audience in an infinitely intimate way.
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June 2018
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