Cool Hand Luke
I had never seen Cool Hand Luke all the way through until this week. I had seen snippets, but I had never sat down and actually watched the entire movie. Sooooo glad I did.
Paul Newman is gorgeous and amazing as Luke, a charming convict on a Southern road gang. Luke is quiet, and he has an uncanny way of asserting his own indomitable will even though he's in jail. This leads the other convicts to lionize and look up to him. (There are also alot of Luke-as-Christ images/ideas in the film.) A loner and a non-conformist, Luke chafes under the restriction of prison, and he makes several unsuccessful escape attempts (which only serve to make the convicts think more of him).
Newman was wonderful. He had an inscrutable quality about him in this film that was really integral to Luke's character. Plus, it didn't hurt that his face was so perfect that it looked sculpted out of marble. ~Sigh.~
Ever since watching the film, I've had the song "Plastic Jesus," the tune Luke sings when he discovers that his mother has died, stuck in my head. It led me to the Web to find out more about the song. Turns out it's an American folk song that has been attributed to a few different writers since the late 1950s. The version Newman sings in Cool Hand Luke is slightly different from the lyrics one can find online. At any rate, I've had trouble getting it out of my head. Now it's your turn.
Paul Newman is gorgeous and amazing as Luke, a charming convict on a Southern road gang. Luke is quiet, and he has an uncanny way of asserting his own indomitable will even though he's in jail. This leads the other convicts to lionize and look up to him. (There are also alot of Luke-as-Christ images/ideas in the film.) A loner and a non-conformist, Luke chafes under the restriction of prison, and he makes several unsuccessful escape attempts (which only serve to make the convicts think more of him).
Newman was wonderful. He had an inscrutable quality about him in this film that was really integral to Luke's character. Plus, it didn't hurt that his face was so perfect that it looked sculpted out of marble. ~Sigh.~
Ever since watching the film, I've had the song "Plastic Jesus," the tune Luke sings when he discovers that his mother has died, stuck in my head. It led me to the Web to find out more about the song. Turns out it's an American folk song that has been attributed to a few different writers since the late 1950s. The version Newman sings in Cool Hand Luke is slightly different from the lyrics one can find online. At any rate, I've had trouble getting it out of my head. Now it's your turn.
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