Christopher SoallCool Hand Luke: A Review
March 29th 2010 18:21
"Sometimes nothin's a pretty cool hand..."
A characteristically nonchalant utterance from Paul Newman's now famously characteristically nonchalant character, perhaps is a perfect way to describe the film as a whole.
Incarcerated in the sweltering camp of a chain gang after defacing municipal parking meters, Luke is introduced to the rules and regulations of such a camp life, not only in terms of the guards and the fences, but of the other inmates. Conflicts naturally arise, but the main problem as far as Luke is concerned, is the routine that is forced upon him, day and night.
This routine is excellently captured in the editing of the film, which, although at times has an almost unbearably slow pace, continues to recycle itself, be it through the constant "I'm taking it off boss" when the sheer heat is too much for the inmates to continue to work with a shirt , to the individual lights being switched off by the house guard at the end of each gruelling day.
The breaks in this routine are wonderful, if seemingly isolated and directionless, most notably the inmates' fixation on a young lady who washes her car suggestively while they work. It lends humour to the situation ("My Lord, whatever I done, don't strike me blind for another couple of minutes.")
It is this isolation of scenes not associated with the routine that, to me, make the film as great and as unsatisfactory as it is.
After another session on the road, it starts to rain, and the inmates hurry to take shelter in the truck. Luke however, stays outside, and implores God to strike him down, or give him some sign of his existence. This is mirrored later in the film when he has escaped, and prays to God in the manner that only someone who truly doesn't believe in God's existence does. The only existence that he receives is a confirmation of the routine that he just can't escape, and imminent capture lies ahead of him.
There is, however, no structure or causality to many of these events; or to why the character of 'Cool Hand Luke' is so instantly likeable. All of his actions are borne not out of a desire to improve himself, or win the heart of a fair maiden; they are all done to achieve nothing more than to use up the time.
His emotional reticence, followed by the dramatic and somewhat paradoxical volte-face about his mother's terminal illness seem to be quite disorientating, and when the system finally breaks his nonchalant spirit, he becomes a changed man (a superb performance from Newman, who makes the fairly quick transaction believable and harrowing). This changes again all too quickly when opportunity knocks in the final act; but I, like many of the readers who are familiar with the film, will always forgive that because of Luke's likeability.
The stern visage of the guard with the reflective glasses stays constant, as does the behaviour of the measured, but always slightly sinister, Captain. However, Luke's foil Dragliner seems to change a little unconvincingly towards the end of the film; although that could conceivably be the result of being thrust suddenly out of his secure, institutionalised world (a solid precursor to 'The Shawhsank Redemption's Brookes Hadland).
Even the magazine image that Luke sends his friends in the camp seems to be an allegory for the rather hopeless nature of it all; that a picture that will line the waste paper baskets after the next issue's release is so revered by these inmates. It will quickly be forgotten, along with all of their menial exploits.
'Cool Hand Luke' is a masterpiece that really shouldn't be. There is a lack of a causal structure, or any convinving character arcs, but it is still absorbing, humourous and depressing all at the same time. You start to care about these people, even though they are criminals, and nothing that they do really matters.
It would be an insult to say that the film has nothing, but even if it has, sometimes nothing is a pretty cool hand.
I loved it.
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