2B - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 21, 2006
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"Cool Hand Luke" (1967)
Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: Paul Newman
By Kristin MacDonald
Daily Film Editor
James Dean may have forever
defined the iconic pose of rebel-
cool with a disgruntled slouch
and a leather jacket, but Paul
Newman's "Cool Hand Luke"
musses that '50s brilliantine
with equal smatterings of mud
and sweat. As an aimless drifter
and chain-gang escapee, New-
man's Luke becomes the very
embodiment of antihero as he
struggles against the oppression
of a rural prison.
It's a classic story of man ver-
sus The Man. From "I Am a Fugi-
tive from a Chain Gang" (1932)
to "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's
Nest" (1975), the looming threat
of institutionalized coercion has
prodded many a screenwriter
to fight for the little guy. Add
a Southern villain, and "Cool
Hand Luke" fits perfectly with
the turbulence of the '60s. After
all, "Easy Rider" was only two
years away.
The role of social outsider
wasn't exactly new to Newman,
either. He'd already roamed the
pool-hall circuit in "The Hus-
tler" and started fights as a rest-
less ranchhand in "Hud." But
Luke achieves a special sort of
senseless doom in sticking so
resolutely to his own code. He's
stubborn with his principles,
yes, but really still searching for
them.
Arrested for destroying some
parking meters while on a drunk-
en spree, Luke gets sentenced to
two years on a chain gang in the
barren, rural South. His welcome
to prison is predictably harsh
- everyone from the Captain on
down to the fellow inmates seems
determined to break in his proud
bearing, of willful defiance. But
even mid-fistfight, Luke remains
utterly cool. Put him in a poker
match or solitary confinement,
and he dependably reacts the
same way.
Newman in almost any case
is a magnetic screen presence,
with searing eyes that burn their
scorching blue even through
black and white. Handsome
and quiet, he has that certain
air of the wise rascal about him
- always thinking about the
next step, always confident he
can handle it. In modern terms,
George Clooney is perhaps our
equivalent, although it's hard
to picture him sweating over a
shovel on a shadowless dirt road.
Newman doesn't boast the same
suave charms of high style or
class. He's a working man, just
a wily one.
And the film lets him have a
little fun. For all its hard-to-take
cruelty and beautifully stark
black-and-white imagery (cour-
tesy of famed cinematographer
Conrad L. Hall, "American
Beauty"), "Cool Hand Luke"
certainly lets loose. Take the
young beauty who suggestively
soaps up her car for, a wash in
full sight of all the sex-starved
prisoners - locker-room talk at
its most comically pained. And
it's hard to forget the famous
hard-boiled egg-eating bet,
when Luke calmly claims he
can down 50 in an hour. He's
primed for the event like a pedi-
gree heavyweight; in the fight
against monotony, the inmates
have finally found their savior.
Such Christ imagery is often
associated with the tragedy of the
non-conforming Luke, although
more essential to the film is the
hard-nosed Captain's immortal
observation: "What we have here
is ... failure to communicate."
He picks his words carefully, but
they're still not accurate. What
Luke has is a failure to capitu-
late, and cinematic history would
never want him to do so.
Film
Rumor has it that Ethan Hunt might get
a new face, and not just one of those
freaky tear-off masks. Paramount is
supposedly talking to Brad Pitt about
filling the "Mission Impossible" role
left vacant by the clinically insane Tom
Cruise. In an apparent gesture to try to
wash some of the crazy stink off the role,
Paramount will reportedly offer Pitt an
amount that will make him the highest
paid actor in Hollywood history. Still no
word on who's slated to fill Maverick's
empty flight suit in the long awaited
"Top Gun 2: Dangerous and Foolish."
Cameron Diaz has filed a police report
against a photographer alleging that
he tried to run her over along with her
future/sexy/love/boy Justin Timberlake.
After chasing the photographer out
of the bushes, Diaz says he jumped
in his car and sped toward them,
forcing her to jump out of the way.
No arrests have been made and the
police have no suspects, but they are
looking for someone who really, really
doesn't want to see "Shrek 3."
George Lucas recently donated the
enormous sum of $175 million to
his alma mater, University Southern
California. In a gesture that trumps
even Stephen Ross's donation to the
University's business school, George
Lucas now ensures that the USC
campus might become home to such
landmarks as the Darth Vader School
of Public Policy, the Boba Fett Center
for the Performing Arts, and the Lando
Calrissian School of Dentistry.
Angelina Jolie is rumored to have
spent $400,000 on three pieces
of controversial art by notorious
British artist Bansky. One of the
paintings, which had a price tag of
about $226,000, depicts a happy
white family eating a picnic lunch
on a blanket while surrounded by a
dozen starving Africans. The elusive
star also spent $150,000 on a bust
of a man with a bullet wound on
his head and a portrait of a man
being hit in the face with a pie.
t ...
Television
BBC's "The Office" has generated
two more copycats in Germany and
France after the stirring success of the
American transplant. Already winning
critical acclaim, each series has a new
take on the clueless boss character
invented by David Brent. The German
version is a high-strung alcoholic. No
word on the French boss's demeanor, but
he's assumedly a proud patriot who never
backs down from a fight. How ridiculous.
4
"Don't worry! I will use my super Scientology powers to save you!"
Corteyof NBC
"You do realize that you're going to be just like us In five years, right?"
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A study of one hundred universities Who says you
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and Sperling's Best Places ranked Take Pride Pr
the University of Michigan as the No. com) is a col
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came in dead last at No. 100.
The Daily Arts
SURVIVOR CARGO
RACI5T-O-METER Continued from page 1B
It would be a waste of time
Last week's rating: to try and list them all, and
I'm sure no one gives a fuck
that I hate U2 and Aerosmith.
In my opinion, The Doors are
the worst band of all time and
The debut show had the stereotypes I have no respect for anyone
everyone expected and secretly thirst- that likes them. So for me,
ed for (if not, why are you watching it The Doors are a lot like Taco
this season but not last?). There was Bell. If I eat that disgusting shit
a subplot involving a lazy black man. - oh lord, you do not want to
The Latino tribe led the challenge know what happens. But other
for the stage that involved building people like Taco Bell, and I
an impromptu raft and rowing to an guess that's cool, as long as
island but fell behind the Asian-Ameri- they don't eat it around me. But
can tribe in a puzzle-solving segment. I digress.
Still, no all-out race war. A "Lord of It's way more impressive
the Flies" twinkle iniJeff Probst's eyes, when someone is passionate
though, assured viewers that tonight's about the music they love than
show could really give Coca-Cola a when someone can rattle off a
reason pull out their ads. thousand and one bands and
can't support the troops
at the same time? The
oject (www.takepride.
lective of concerned
nts and design majors
me up with a line of
s inspired by the men
erving in the Middle East.
hich are quickly taking
bout $20 each, and at
the groups proceeds
Not all of the tees are
arged - you don't have
ace of a GI emblazoned
t if you don't want to.
n has an excerpt from
urnal printed on it.
- Compiled by Paul
Tassi and Daily Arts editor
Caitlin Cowan.
their influences without hav-
ing any significant attachment
to the music they're talking
about. You can't justlike
albums because some dumb
dick music critic told you to.
I'm also pretty impressed when
someone can muster a little
vitriol to argue about the rela-
tive merits of say, Death Cab
For Cutie, when I start ripping
on them in public. So while it's
undeniable that the more music
you love, the more music you'll
hate, that's not necessarily a
bad thing. What fun would the
world be if there was an object
tive standard for music? How
would I make myself feel better
than everyone else? (That's a
rhetorical question, by the way)
-The Doors : Taco Bell::
The Beatles : ? E-mail lhcargo@
umich.edu with answers.
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