Cool Hand Luke :: essays research papers

In Cool Hand Luke, the movie begins withthe word, VIOLATION, across the screen. The word isfrom a pose meter and sets the tone for the entire movie.Luke Jackson, the title character, is arrested for cutting offthe heads of the towns parking meters while drunk, or inlegal terms, for destroying municipal position while underthe influence of alcohol. When asked why he cut the headsoff the parking meters, Luke answers, You could say Iwas settling an old distinguish. While it leaves the viewersbelieve that he probably received a parking ticket at sometime in the past, no clues are given to what the old scoremay have been. He is sentenced to two years in a roadprison, in a chain gang. His punishment did not fit the crime,and today, such an act would probably result in time spentin community service rather than a hard labor prison gang.To farther accentuate that his sentence is worse than hiscrime, Luke Jackson dies at the end of his invention. Luke is adecorated veteran, yet left the military service erect as hewent in, as a Private. This indicates that he had authorityproblems while there. He received the Silver Star, BronzeStar and a couple of Purple Hearts and that indicates thathe is brave and probably humanitarian, because the SilverStar is usually given in recognition of a life-saving deed ofvalor. That he was never promoted, or else promoted andconsequently demoted, (the story does not elaborate on thedetails) indicates that his superiors, those who had theauthority to promote him, did not react well to hisachievements. For Luke, death represents ultimatefreedom. There is no doubt that he believes in God, in thathe talks to God several times throughout the movie, yet hisconversations are always more like arguments than prayers.In one of the closing scenes, the empty shell of a churchrepresents Lukes relationship with God, and even theemptiness in himself. Luke feels that God has never beenthere for him. He tells God just before the end of the storythat God hasnt ever dealt him a good hand. That militaryauthorities considered him a fighter, decorating him withmedals, doesnt make him a hero in his own eyes. Luke is atortured soul, in that he tells God that he doesnt deserveany good thing because he killed quite a little in the war. Still,Luke is a free spirit, true to himself, with no regard for therules and regulations of other human beings. The crime he isarrested for is not one of violence toward any person, it is