"What we've got here is failure to communicate. So you get what we had here last week - which is the way he (Luke) wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men." Spoken with a heavy Southern drawl, The Captain of Cool Hand Luke addresses Luke's defiant and impervious attitude toward imprisonment. It is this attitude that lays the foundation to the theme of the movie, which I believe can best be summarized as a man's unwillingness to abide by the rules of society. .
Cool Hand Luke provides a historical visual window into the operation of prisons prior to prison reform. Similarly, the movie presents a Christ-like character within a system that discourages leadership among inmates. Based on a screenplay written by ex-convict Don Pearce and Frank Pearson, who obtained their ideas from a novel depicting chain gang life, I found the historical representation of chain gang life intriguing. .
Paul Newman, as Cool Hand Luke, depicts an angry young man who is arrested for damaging public property; specifically cutting the heads off of several public parking meters. After his arrest, he is sent to Road Prison #36 work camp, which consists of a classic "chain gang" work force. He continues his nonconformity and is repeatedly sent to solitary confinement (also called a night in the box). After his third attempt to escape, Luke is finally assassinated by the Boss with No Eyes (played by Morgan Woodard). Luke's demise sends a strong message to the viewer - conform or you lose. .
I was very interested in the depiction of post World War II chain gang life and my supporting opinion that their needs to be a definite separation between the inmates and the guards, who are called "bosses" in the movie. Perhaps the best depiction of the boss's power is seen in the hole digging sequence where one boss tells Luke to dig a large, coffin-shaped hole, while the second boss tells Luke to get the dirt removed from the hole (ditch) out of his yard back into the hole.