Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system.

The film, set in the early 1950s, is based on Donn Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. Pearce sold the story to Warner Brothers, who then hired him to write the script. Due to Pearce's lack of film experience, the studio added Frank Pierson to rework the screenplay. Newman's biographer Marie Edelman Borden states that the "tough, honest" script drew together threads from earlier movies, especially Hombre, Newman's earlier film of 1967. The film has been cited by Roger Ebert as an anti-establishment film which was shot during the time of the Vietnam War, in which Newman's character endures "physical punishment, psychological cruelty, hopelessness and equal parts of sadism and masochism". His influence on his prison mates and the torture that he endures is compared to that of Jesus, and Christian symbolism is used throughout the film, culminating in a photograph superimposed over crossroads at the end of the film in comparison to the crucifixion. Filming took place on the San Joaquin River Delta, and the set, imitating a southern prison farm, was built in Stockton, California. The filmmakers sent a crew to Tavares Road Prison in Tavares, Florida, to take photographs and measurements.

Cool Hand Luke (novel)

Cool Hand Luke is a novel by Donn Pearce published in 1965. It was adapted into a film of the same name. The story is told in first-person narrative and is unusual in that although there is dialogue, and all quotes are indented paragraphs, they are not encased in quotation marks as in normal English-language literature. Many of the episodes found in the movie appear in the book as well, including the egg-eating contest, the "string" escape, and Boss Godfrey's shooting. Although the title character is prominent in the book, the novel deals more with the day-to-day harsh life of the prisoners than the lead character.

Cool Hand Luke (band)

Cool Hand Luke was a Nashville-based Christian band variously classified as alternative rock, progressive pop, indie, and emo and signed to Lujo Records on March 16, 2008.

History

Cool Hand Luke was initially formed by Brandon Morgan and Jason Hammil in 1998 while they attended Middle Tennessee State University. A punk rock-influence showed itself within the band's early music, although the range and scope of Cool Hand Luke's sound changed quickly after Mark Nicks joined the band. With Nicks on drums and lead vocals, Cool Hand Luke quickly became known for playing with their backs to the crowd, lengthy, emotively expressive songs, and deeply introspective lyrics. They were signed to Floodgate Records in 2002, releasing two full-length albums (2003's Wake Up, O Sleeper and 2004's The Fires of Life) through the label. After an extended hiatus (during which time Nicks spent time playing drums for Atlanta, Georgia's The Chariot), Cool Hand Luke released a "retrospective album" entitled The Balancing Act, thus fulfilling their contractual obligations to Floodgate Records. The Balancing Act contained songs from their earlier independent releases along with tracks from their Floodgate discography.