2B - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 21, 2006 the b-side} 4 "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?" Local Fashion Study Participants Wanted Tho-vr c fWrirm,. n'.- 5- 4: 3 2 1 A study of one hundred universities Who says you performed by Trojan brand condoms and be chic and Sperling's Best Places ranked Take Pride Pr the University of Michigan as the No. com) is a col 3 safest university on their Sexual college stude Health Report Card. The criteria for who have cor scoring universities included the ease stylish t-shirt of access to sexual health resources, and women s the amount of information available The shirts, w on the university's web site and the off, sell for at availability of condoms to compute least 20% of a school's score. Yale University go to charity. received a perfect score and the politically ch, University of Illinois ranked No. 2. to have the f, Some of the school at the bottom of on your ches the list are Oklahoma State University One shirt eve at No. 97, the University of Utah at a soldier's jo No. 98 and the University of Notre Dame (!) came in at No. 99. Those Catholics never want to talk about sex, do they? Brigham Young University 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. Io 1AVMY JOfV~ {o~' r $1 W L'GE CDEVERY SUBS SO FAST ,p YOU'LL FREAK! 929 E. ANN ST.-~ 913.9200 600 PACKARD - 741.9200 1207 S. UNIVERSITY - 827.2600 342 S. STATE ST. - 222.7000 2615 PLYMOUTH RD. ~ 930.2000 JIMMY JOHNS 10M I I!. '