Cool Hand Luke

I enjoyed the film Cool Hand Luke; I thought the story was interesting and inspiring. While it took a while for the story to get going the boredom quickly shed when Luke began to push the authorities. Luke’s rebellion is inspiring because he really has nothing to fight for; no family and no apparent life outside of the penitentiary after his mother died. Luke is simply fighting for his freedom and for a chance to make people realize that they are capable of changing things. The religious correlations in this movie are endless. When the storm begins and Luke is standing alone in the rain he makes the first religious suggestion, the next is when we meet Luke’s mother, whose name is Arletta, which closely relates to, “our lady” who is the virgin Mary. The most obvious religious affiliation is the presents of Luke, he inspires and encourages his peers to react differently than the normally would. From the beginning of the story Luke holds a heavy presents, his smile is intense and he is often the only one smiling in the scene. In Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman creates one of his most memorable characters. The actor is simply great as the charismatic, yet detached, Luke, whose evident disdain for authority and ability to be entertaining make him a favorite of the other inmates. Luke’s defiance and open disobedience and disregard for others are more amiable in this film than the subdued inmates who continue with the day to day monotony of prison. I was impressed by the way the screen writers were able to create an amicable prisoner, in our society the imprisoned are viewed as hopeless people who have greatly offended society but Cool Hand Luke gives us insight to the people who are actually facilitated by prison and make us realize that they too have feelings and they are normal people who may not deserve to be there.