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Cool Hand Luke Overview:

Cool Hand Luke (1967) was a Crime - Drama Film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and produced by Gordon Carroll and Carter De Haven Jr..

The film was based on the novel of the same name written by Donn Pearce published in 1965.

SYNOPSIS

"What we have here is a failure to communicate." Newman wakes up on a Southern chain gang after a destructive drunken spree. Stuck in a stink hole of a prison, he refuses to give up his dignity or humor to abusive authorities.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Cool Hand Luke was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2005.

Academy Awards 1967 --- Ceremony Number 40 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorPaul NewmanNominated
Best Supporting ActorGeorge KennedyWon
Best Music - ScoringLalo SchifrinNominated
Best WritingDonn Pearce, Frank R. PiersonNominated
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Cool Hand Luke BlogHub Articles:

Cool Hand Luke (1967, Stuart Rosenberg)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Jul 2, 2020 From The Stop Button

Maybe a third of the way into Cool Hand Luke, the film all of a sudden starts getting really good. It’s when Jo Van Fleet makes her appearance, which provides the film both its single best acting—Newman and Van Fleet are exquisite in the scene—and also director Rosenberg showing he’s actuall... Read full article

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

By Beatrice on Jul 6, 2019 From Flickers in Time

Cool Hand Luke Directed by Stuart Rosenberg Written by Don Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce’s novel 1967/USA Jalem Productions Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die The Christ symbolism and anti-establishment message haven’t aged all that well. ... Read full article

Review: Cool Hand Luke (1967)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Apr 15, 2019 From 4 Star Films

While I might not consider it one of the finest films ever produced, Cool Hand Luke features one of the most mythic characters ever conceived for the movies. He’s one of those figures who can seemingly only exist on celluloid. Luke Jackson comes out of a certain turbulent period in American hi... Read full article

Cool Hand Luke: Newman’s Double?

By Judy on Jun 21, 2014 From Cary Grant Won't Eat You

This post is part of Silver Screenings‘ and The Rosebud Cinema’s 1967 in Film Blogathon. Check out the other entries on their sites! It’s not surprising, given the film’s condemnation of authority and celebration of rebellion, that Cool Hand Luke came out in 1967 in the midst of Vie... Read full article

Cool Hand Luke: Newman’s Double?

By Judy on Jun 21, 2014 From Cary Grant Won't Eat You

This post is part of Silver Screenings‘ and The Rosebud Cinema’s 1967 in Film Blogathon. Check out the other entries on their sites! It’s not surprising, given the film’s condemnation of authority and celebration of rebellion, that Cool Hand Luke came out in 1967 in the midst of Vie... Read full article

See More Cool Hand Luke Articles

Cool Hand Luke Quotes:

Arletta: Ya know, sometimes I wished people was like dogs, Luke.
Captain, Road Prison 36: You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains. You run twice you got yourself two sets. You ain't gonna need no third set, 'cause you gonna get your mind right.
[Discussing God and the rain]
Luke: Let him go. Bam, Bam.
Dragline: Knock it off, Luke. You can't talk about Him that way.
Luke: Are you still believin' in that big bearded Boss up there? You think he's watchin' us?
Dragline: Get in here. Ain't ya scared? Ain't ya scared of dyin'?
Luke: Dyin'? Boy, he can have this little life any time he wants to. Do ya hear that? Are ya hearin' it? Come on. You're welcome to it, ol' timer. Let me know you're up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it.
[He looks around]
Luke: I'm just standin' in the rain talkin' to myself.
[Luke won a game of poker on a bluff]
Dragline: Nothin'. A handful of nothin'. You stupid mullet head. He beat you with nothin'. Just like today when he kept comin' back at me - with nothin'.
Luke: Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Dragline: He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.
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Cool Hand Luke Facts
The opening scene, where Luke is cutting off the heads of parking meters, was filmed in Lodi, California. After the filming, the city did not replace the meters, and for many years afterward, you could go there and see a block long row of metal posts, sans meters.
According to Jack Lemmon's son, Chris, in an Icons Radio Interview Lemmon was originally selected to play the part of Luke, but Lemmon, reading the script, saw that Paul Newman would be better. So Lemmon decided to produce it.
While passing by the prison camp set, a San Joaquin County building inspector thought it was a recently constructed migrant worker's complex, and posted "condemned" notices on the buildings for not being up to code.
The lines "What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men." can be heard in the intro of the song "Civil War" by Guns N' Roses. They would use audio of the first line again during the song "Madagascar" on the 2008 album "Chinese Democracy."
The music cue where Luke gets the men to work faster on the road was used later for many years by many ABC television stations as their "Eyewitness News" theme.
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