I watched
Cool Hand Luke the other weekend in a "it's appeared on Lovefilm, it's Friday night, I'm bored so will watch an obscur(ish) film from the top whatever lists and see what all the fuss is about" way.
Paul Newman is fantastic, but I think he's a great actor so no surprise there :lol:
It's the tale of a drunk ex-soldier hero who is struggling to come to terms with something (it never really says). So the film starts with him using some kind of cutting tool to take the heads off parking meters while really drunk.
He ends up sent to a work gang for his punishment for a couple of years of hard labour.
Essentially, it's the film that spawned Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank redemption. You have the new guy who is intelligent and "cool" (that will be cool hand Luke then) who becomes best friends with "the guy" you need to know. Okay, it's actually really different, but you can see where the idea spawned in Stephen King's head.
The story is "bitter/sweet", constantly battering you down with the work crew, then showing the odd moments of joy they can clamour for themselves where they can grab it.
Don't expect the uplifting Shawshank though, this is a dark tale with lightness thrown in to stop you slitting your wrists and it gets constantly darker as the film progresses.
It's not a great film though. I can imagine at the time it made a huge impact, and it certainly has some very memorable scenes (I'll never eat another egg again
). The characters never seem to fully develop though, they don't have any obvious personality or motivation - they often just act randomly to fit the story, rather than having consistency. Maybe that's part of trying to show how such an environment can send a man mad and unstable though.
If you like Paul Newman, prison dramas or influential films of the sixties - it's well worth a watch, but I suspect most people would find it a little slow and tedious. No explosions, no tits or arse, requires concentration etc, etc, etc
Solid 8/10