Cool Hand Luke

As I scroll through the massive amounts of movies I can watch on my PC thanks to Netflix, I have seen several movies I have heard about or saw as a child and think I should really watch them since they are virtually free. I think for me to pay $9 a month is like back in the day when I used to pay $3 for a cup at a house party -the house always lost money thanks to my large liver. I find Netflix to be a similar situation, just without the detrimental health issues associated with addiction.

Anyway, after watching the 1951 version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" Sunday evening, I came across the 1967 classic "Cool Hand Luke" with Paul Newman, George Kennedy and a slew of then no-names, such as Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean Stanton.

I remember bits and pieces of this film from my childhood, mostly the intrigue of road gangs and the care free attitude of the lead character, Luke. However, I must admit, I remembered very little, and perhaps understood even less than I thought as a young lad.

While this is supposed to be a prison film, and I am sure this is more indicative of the time period, I felt a bit as though it was a federal prison - fairly lax. After working in residential treatment centers with emotionally handicapped adolescents, I dealt with fifteen years olds who were more dangerous than the men in the film! But, I tried to remind myself this was thirty years prior to my experiences, so my clients were in a sense social descendants of these "bad boys" in the film.

That being said, it was a good film. The plot wasn't the strongest, but the performances were great. As the film starts off with Luke (Paul Newman) using a pipe cutter to cut the heads off of parking meters, while intoxicated, of course. We then quickly arrive in a prison camp, where we get a brief insight into Luke's past, as well as his character. Calm, cool, ready with an answer or cynical remark, he is one who seems to go with the flow no matter the situation. And the rest of the movie plays out in that manner; well, with the exception of his "breaking" scene. I still think he didn't, but that is up for debate.

While this is not a film for all, it is a great film, well done and quite honestly well worth the two quick hours.