Cool Hand Luke

I thought Cool Hand Luke was a really good movie. I think the directors made a good choice in picking Paul Newman for the lead role. He's very attractive and pleasant to look at. But also, he has good acting skills and really captured the part well. He was very likable, and I found it very easy to sympathize with him. Throughout the whole movie, you find yourself cheering him on, even when he's doing something rebellious and against the rules. Not to mention, he has a killer smile too! I also thought the supporting roles did a very good job. Dragnet was also a very likable character; the first time I really appreciated him was the fight scene, and he let Luke win by just walking away. I think that at this point, he had realized how different Luke was from the rest of the guys, and earned a new respect for his persistence. All of the other prison mates secretly wished they were brave enough to stand up to the guards in the same way Luke did.

I thought there was a lot of good symbolism throughout the whole film. Things like the color red, the constant fan, Luke's smile, and the references to Jesus just make the film that much more interesting.

The ending of the movie was really good also. Although it was sad that Luke was shot and killed, I feel the movie wouldn't have been the same without such a dramatic ending. In the end, Luke still won the battle between prisoner and authority; they never succeeded in really breaking him. During the fight scene between him and Dragline, he says that the only time he would stop fighting was if he killed him. In the end, this is essentially what happened. He continued to fight the idea of conformity up until the last minute.