Cool Hand Luke

I've said it before when reviewing other movies of classic stature that, sometimes, one can recognize a movie's greatness and importance but not feel as connected to it as it others. Cool Hand Luke was not one of those cases for me. I get it and I love it. There are themes in Cool Hand Luke that I'm sure resonated like all hell when it came out in 1967. Luke is, at first, anti-authority by way of cleverness and subversion, growing more and more overt and obstinate as the movie goes on. When this movie came out, the Vietnam War was heating up, and sentiment against it was growing. There is a distinct parallel one can draw, that the movie has no love of institutions and authority, especially when blind obedience is the price of admission and disproportionate punishment is the penalty for stepping out of line. CHL doesn't get in your face with it, but it's there, and I'm good with it. Back in the day, though, I bet this hit like a freight train. Now, it's primarily just a really excellent, well-acted character study of a man who has no place in the world and won't stop fighting back until the world either accepts him or he dies swinging. If I need to convince you in 2024 of the excellence of Paul Newman, I honestly don't know how to do it. He's an actor whose body of work and reputation speak for themselves, and CHL is no exception to either of those. Luke's devil-may-care insolence, his determination to live life on his terms, his sorrow, and his pain, all feel as real as the sun and grass outside. If you love acting, this is a masterclass. Better still is that he isn't alone. George Kennedy won a supporting actor Oscar for this, and he damned well deserved it for his role as Dragline, the big man in jail who is at first an antagonist of Luke's, and then his best friend. Nobody here is sleeping on the job, but CHL revolves around these two men, and they are more than fit for the job. I really don't have much more else to say about the movie. Fantastic direction (the shots in the reflective lenses of one of the guards is awesome), amazing acting, a steady pace, and a wonderful character study of living life in spite of life trying not to let you. Sometimes, reputation speaks for itself. It's a classic for a reason, and if you haven't seen it yet, rectify that.