Additional information for Cool Hand Luke, which has a domestic theatrical release set for November 1, 1967. The film is being distributed by Warner Bros Pictures and has not yet been rated. Cool Hand Luke has a total running time of 126 minutes.
15
UK
PG
Singapore
PG
USA
16
Norway
A
Canada
M
Australia
7
Spain
M/12
Portugal
15
Sweden
-12
France
PG
New Zealand
K-16
Finland
15
Ireland
126min
La leyenda del indomable
Argentina
La leyenda del indomable
Mexico
La leyenda del indomable
Spain
La leyenda del indomable
Uruguay
Luke la main froide
Canada
Luke la main froide
France
Ο Μεγάλος Δραπέτης
Greece
Непокорният Люк
Bulgaria
Bilincs és mosoly
Hungary
Bouryoku datsugoku
Japan
Der Unbeugsame
West Germany
Ha-Morred
Israel
Hladnoruki kažnjenik
Serbia
Hladnoruki kaznjenik
Yugoslavia
La llegenda de l'indomable
Spain
Lannistumaton Luke
Finland
Leworeczny Luke
Poland
Luke Jackson: O megalos drapetis
Greece
Luke, Mana Rece
Romania
Nick mano fredda
Italy
Nieugiety Luke
Poland
O Presidiário
Portugal
O megalos drapetis
Greece
Parmakliklar ardinda
Turkey
Rebeldia Indomável
Brazil
Rebell i bojor
Sweden
Rebell i lenker
Norway
Skrappe Luke
Denmark
November 01, 1967
USA
December 01, 1967
France
December 01, 1967
West Germany
January 11, 1968
Norway
January 22, 1968
Sweden
February 23, 1968
Finland
August 09, 1968
Denmark
August 24, 1968
Japan
October 10, 1968
Hungary
December 05, 1968
Uruguay
January 20, 1969
Spain
May , 1969
Turkey
October 01, 2008
France
No taglines exist for this title.
A man refuses to conform to life in a rural prison.
As the film opens, Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) is using a pipe cutter to cut the tops off of parking meters. He is drinking, possibly drunk, but not violent. When the police arrive, he is peacefully arrested. Off-screen apparently he is tried, convicted of destroying public property, and sentenced to two years in prison.When he arrives at the prison, the warden reads through his record. He remarks that Luke had been in the Army, attained the rank of Sargeant, but was discharged as a private. Something he did got him busted back down to the same rank at which he entered the Army.Dragline (George Kennedy) is clearly the leader of the prisoners. He is smarter, stronger, bigger, and does not hesitate to exercise his power over them. Most of the prisoners willingly submit to Dragline, but Luke does not. There is no open opposition to Dragline, just a casual refusal to change his behavior in order to please others.After Luke says something that Dragline takes as a challenge to his authority, Dragline arranges for he and Luke to have a boxing match. Being much larger, Dragline simply pounds Luke into a pulp, but Luke will not give up, or stay down on the ground. What begins as a boxing match with enthusiastic prisoners and guards watching slowly turns into a sad spectacle. Prisoners begin to plead with Luke to lay down and refuse to get back up, and eventually Dragline himself pleads with Luke to simply stop fighting back, but Luke will not stop. The prisoners begin to walk away, unable to watch the sad scene any longer. Dragline himself wants the fight to end, and at one point has to catch the beaten and exhausted Luke from falling down, carrying him across his shoulder and gently setting him on the ground, only to have Luke use what little strength he has left to tap Dragline with one last punch. Finally, even Dragline cannot continue. The only men who are still entertained and watching are the guards and the warden.Luke becomes the prisoners' hero, and even Dragline is now respectful of Luke.On the chaingang, Luke encourages the other prisoners, by his own attitude and energy, to excel at their menial tasks. This not only encourages comraderie among the prisoners, it deprives the guards of a stick to hold over the prisoners' heads. The prisoners are forced to shovel sand over a freshly tarred road, and they perform the job so quickly and with such a sense of competition that they complete the job early, and thus by default earn a few hours of relaxation, because there is no more road on which to work.Then Luke's mother dies. She came to visit him earlier, visibly sick, and it is clear that Luke gets his independent streak from her. He admired her ability to live life on her own terms, and has tried to emulate that, but with much different results. When he learns of her death, he sheds a few tears while singing an irreverent gospel song.The warden uses the death of Luke's mother as an excuse to lock him in "the box," solitary confinement in a hot wooden shed. The warden claims that men will often run away when their relatives die, so he locks Luke up until after Luke's mother is buried. This has the opposite effect, and Luke promptly escapes after being released from solitary.Luke is later caught, after mailing a picture and magazine back to his former fellow prisoners. He is double-chained, but escapes a second time. Again, he is recaptured. While Luke is becoming the "hero" of his fellow prisoners, it is a role he does not want. He admonishes them to "stop feeding off me," to stop living life vicariously through his acts.The guards and warden determine to break Luke's will. They force him to dig and bury, then re-dig and re-bury, a ditch. He is beaten, and tormented, until he finally begs God to spare him from the warden and guards. They take this as a sign that he is finally a broken man, and Luke himself later admits that it did break him.Nonetheless, when he is later given an opportunity, he seizes it and escapes again, stealing one of the prison trucks to make his get-away. This time, Dragline decides to go with Luke. Only later, after their escape, does Dragline weigh out the consequences. He had only two years left on his sentence, but now - if caught - will probably have many more years in prison.Dragline wants to team up with Luke, but Luke tells him that he wants to go alone. Luke has always been an individual, not a conventional leader, and does not want to take on that role now. Luke goes into a church, after being completely irreverent to God through the entire film, and asks God to help him escape. But the warden and guards arrive, and when Luke mocks them from the church window, he is shot.The local police want to take Luke to the hospital, but the warden insists that they take him back to prison instead. It is clear that Luke will not make it that far, but the warden heads off with Luke in his car. The one guard who always wears sunglasses is attacked by Dragline, and though Dragline is subdued, he managed to take off the guard's mirror-like sunglasses (and the warden runs over them with his car).In the final scene, Dragline is regaling the prisoners with stories of Luke's final moments, and it is clear that Luke is dead. He is the true anti-hero, never wanting to be anybody's role model, just wanting to live life on his own terms. But like the guard's sunglasses, Luke managed to unmask the injustice and hypocricy of the system in which he was confined. Basically he gave up his life over a parking meter, but in the final analysis he could not be broken by the system.
Stuart Rosenberg
Director(s)
Donn Pearce
Frank Pierson
Donn Pearce
Writer(s)
Gordon Carroll
producer
Carter De Haven Jr.
associate producer
Producer(s)
Lalo Schifrin
Composer(s)
Luke
Paul Newman
Dragline
George Kennedy
Society Red
J.D. Cannon
Koko
Lou Antonio
Loudmouth Steve
Robert Drivas
Captain
Strother Martin
Arletta
Jo Van Fleet
Carr
Clifton James
Boss Godfrey
Morgan Woodward
Boss Paul
Luke Askew
Rabbitt
Marc Cavell
Blind Dick
Richard Davalos
Boss Shorty
Robert Donner
Tattoo
Warren Finnerty
Babalugats
Dennis Hopper
Boss Keen
John McLiam
Gambler
Wayne Rogers
Tramp (as Dean Stanton)
Harry Dean Stanton
Boss Higgins
Charles Tyner
Alibi
Ralph Waite
Dog Boy
Anthony Zerbe
Dynamite
Buck Kartalian
The Girl
Joy Harmon
Fixer (uncredited)
Joe Don Baker
(uncredited)
James Bradley
Sleepy (uncredited)
James Gammon
Stupid blonde (uncredited)
Norman Goodwins
Chief (uncredited)
Chuck Hicks
Sheriff (uncredited)
Rance Howard
Wickerman (uncredited)
James Jeter
Convict (uncredited)
Kim Kahana
Jabo (uncredited)
Robert Luster
Sailor (uncredited)
Donn Pearce
John (uncredited)
John Pearce
Ben (uncredited)
Cyril 'Chips' Robinson
Luke's Nephew (uncredited)
Eddie Rosson
Patrolman (uncredited)
Rush Williams
Director(s)
Frank Pierson
Donn Pearce
Writer(s)
producer
Carter De Haven Jr.
associate producer
Producer(s)
Composer(s)
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