Cool Hand Luke was not a movie that I personally enjoyed. I don’t know exactly it was about it, but it just did spark my interest. I found it to be quite boring and old-fashioned. I am not one to say that all old-fashioned movies are boring, but I did think this one was. There definitely were quite a few captivating scenes, but there were also many that I found to be drawn out, when they were not much more than dialogue. Maybe it was the way the characters spoke, or what they spoke about, but I was not entertained. It also seemed that the scenes became repetitive, for example the men working on the road. As this did kind of bore me, it gave me a good insight on how boring, and repetitive life was for the prisoners. It was not until the second half of the movie that I actually became interested in the film.
Once Luke’s mother died, I became interested in the film. All of the sudden it seemed the warden was especially harsh on Luke, and did not really have much of a reason. It made me feel bad for Luke, because he seemed to be a good guy. He did not deserve to be locked up in “the box” just because his mother died and he might run away. It made me happy when Luke started trying to escape, because he deserved a better life, and the wardens needed a run for their money. Each time he escaped I became happier, but I became sad each time he was caught and returned to the prison. As the movie went on, I really started to root for him. In the end when he was shot, I felt awful. I was not totally surprised because I had heard that it was a sad ending, but I was sad nonetheless, especially when he had just been asking God to help him.
Although I did not enjoy a majority of the film, I did appreciate the theme behind it. As hard as the prison guards tried, Luke’s spirit could not be broken. Even though the crime he committed was small, and he would not have been in prison more than two years, he was not going to give in to being treated unfairly. The prison was a poorly run system, and someone needed to expose it. He did what felt right to him, regardless of the consequences. This is a message that people follow in their everyday lives, just hopefully not to such extremes.
I agree with you on finding the second half of the film more entertaining than the first half. You started to feel sympathetic for Luke because of the way that the guards were treating him. As you said, they had no actual reason for treating him the way they did, although they claimed they did because his mother died and they thought that that was a good enough reason.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't as suprised when he died. I think it was because we were looking for religious symbolizim. As you pointed out he asked God for help right before he died and so did Christ. I just thought that was an interesting fact. =]
ReplyDeleteI agree, I didn't enjoy it either, especially the parts you are talking about.. the drawn out ones. There were quite a lot of those. I felt bad when the boss was being hard on Luke too, he was going through a loss and they should have gone a lot easier on him. I wanted him to escape and live at the end, too bad that didn't happen.
ReplyDeletei felt the same way. through out the entire film i wasn't sure exactly what it was about. i also appreciated the movies message, but couldnt get into the plot/
ReplyDelete