Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American film starring
Paul Newman and directed by Stuart Rosenberg.
Quotations
What we've got here...is failure to communicate.
All right. Stand back you pedestrians, this ain't no automobile accident.
He was a cool customer. . .until the law made it hot for him!
I don't know whether to smile, spit, or swallow.
Just nine more between you and everlastin' glory...Just little ol' eggs. They pigeon eggs, that's all.
Move over. I'm gonna sit in here next to my boy - Cool Hand Luke.
More Quotes >>
Encyclopedia
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American film starring
Paul Newman and directed by Stuart Rosenberg.
Synopsis
Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a
Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system. His inability to conform drives the plot of the movie, in the same vein as characters such as
Winston from
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian [i] novel [i] written by the English [i] ...
or McMurphy from
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Luke is sent to the prison camp for cutting the heads off
parking meters one drunken night, and when asked what kind of thing that is for a man to do, his explanation is "Small town, not much to do in the evenin'. Mostly just settlin' up old scores." The character of Luke is often interpreted allegorically as a Christ figure, and the film plays on many aspects of the story of
Jesus.
Cast and Crew
The screenplay was adapted by Donn Pearce and
Frank Pierson from the novel by Pearce.
Other members of the cast include
George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio,
Robert Drivas, Strother Martin,
Jo Van Fleet, Morgan Woodward,
Wayne Rogers, Harry Dean Stanton,
Dennis Hopper, Richard Davalos, Ralph Waite and
Joe Don Baker. Also starring
Joy Harmon, best remembered for her sexy car wash scene.
It won an
Academy Award for
Best Actor in a Supporting Role , and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role , Best Music, Original Music Score and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
In 2005 it was added to the list of films preserved in the United States National Film Registry.
Quotations
- What we 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 anymore than you men.
The quotation is frequently read, "What we've got here is
a failure to communicate." Both are correct. This line is heard twice in the film, first in its entirety with no "a" by Warden Martin, and later on the first line with an "a" is said by Luke.
This quote is used in the opening to the
Guns N' Roses song "Civil War," and is also sampled in the
Guns N' Roses song "Madagascar" on the upcoming Chinese Democracy album. Part of the previous quote also made it onto the
American Film Institute's list of most memorable movie lines.
Another quote during a punishment scene is
- Boss Paul: That ditch is Boss Kean's ditch. And I told him that dirt in it's your dirt. What's your dirt doin' in his ditch?
- Luke: I don't know, Boss.
- Boss Paul: You better get in there and get it out, boy.
In the scene there was no ditch, and Luke was forced to dig one.
Cool Hand Luke obtained his nickname after winning a five-card stud pot on a stone-cold bluff:
- Luke: Yeah, well, sometimes nothing can be a real cool hand.
Trivia
- An edited version of the "Tar Sequence" cue from the musical score, by Lalo Schifrin, has been used for many years as the news music package on several television stations' news programs and was first used in 1968 on WABC-TV in New York for their Eyewitness News is a local television newscast format, widely used in different markets across the United States [i] ...
newscast. Nine Network's National Nine News is the name of Nine Network [i]'s news service....
in Australia currently still uses a modified version of the music. To this day many people do not know the origin of the music, which has become more associated with television news than the film itself.
- Donn Pearce, the screenwriter, had a bit role in the movie. On the set, he punched out one of the other actors on the last day of filming. Pearce received $80,000 for selling the book rights to Warner Bros. and another $15,000 for writing a draft.
- In the pilot episode of Cheers was a long-running American [i] situation comedy [i] produced ...
, this is named the "Sweatiest Movie Ever" by general consensus of the denizens of the bar.
- The Flaming Lips do a cover of the "Plastic Jesus" song on their 1993 album Transmissions from the Satellite Heart.
...
, chief character Jonathan names
Cool Hand Luke his favorite Movie.
"Plastic Jesus" song
When Luke finds out his mother has died, he sings the
Plastic Jesus song
:
Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes,
long as I got my plastic Jesus,
sittin' on the dashboard of my car.
Comes in colors, pink and pleasant,
glows in the dark 'cause it's iridescent,
take it with you when you travel far.
Get yourself a sweet Madonna,
dressed in rhinestones sittin' on a
pedestal of abalone shell.
Goin' ninety, I ain't scary,
'cause I've got the Virgin Mary,
assurin' me that I won't go to Hell.
Notes
External links
- - Critique from a Christian point of view
- - Listing of American stations that have used the score from the "Tar Sequence" as their news theme music
- - Real Life Chain Gang Documentary
- - Hear some samples of some of Lalo Schifrin's greatest work for television stations
- from filmsite.org
