A caustically witty look at the American South and its still-surviving chain gangs, with Newman in fine sardonic form as the boss-baiter who refuses to submit and becomes a hero to his fellow-prisoners.
Comment
02/09/06
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
100
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:43
Fresh:43
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8.7/10
Consensus: Though hampered by Stuart Rosenberg's direction, Cool Hand Luke is held aloft by a stellar script and one of Paul Newman's most indelible performances.
Runtime: 2 hrs 7 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In this classic Southern prison drama, social misfit Lucas "Luke" Jackson (Paul Newman) is incarcerated for a petty crime and sentenced to a chain gang. Luke is a sullen and laconic young man whose... [More]
Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Reviews for Cool Hand Luke
Top CriticOne of those movies you remember Great Moments from.
08/22/08
Top CriticPaul Newman in his blue-eyed prime.
08/22/08
Top Critic
Cool Hand Luke now seems more like a well-made entertainment than any kind of American masterpiece.
09/04/08
gorgeous looking and terrifically acted
08/20/06
One of the sharpest prison dramas ever, although it's graced with some very humorous portions as well.
03/10/03
It's as fresh and effective in 2004 as it was in 1967.
04/15/04
The lines and the character have survived the film's oft-forgotten actual message.
09/05/08
Preserves a time when one could not only get away with making an allegory with an existential hero, but stock it with an ensemble from the Actors Studio. [Blu-Ray]
08/21/08
That traditional object of sorrow and compassion in American folk song and lore, the chain-gang prisoner, is given as strong a presentation as ever he has had on the screen.
05/20/03
Top CriticThematic ambivalence and episodic structure start to feel like major virtues: Cool Hand Luke is one of our most lived-in and pleasurably paced odes to nonconformity.
10/15/06
Cool Hand Luke (1967) is the moving character study of a non-conformist, anti-hero loner who bullheadedly resists authority and the Establishment.
01/01/00
A tough, honest film with backbone.
10/23/04
Top CriticStuart Rosenberg's direction is a horror, but the cast teems with so many familiar faces that this 1967 film can't help but entertain.
04/23/09
All in all, Cool Hand Luke is a damn fine picture that'll stick with you.
09/10/02
An amazing accomplishment by Newman as the best fight man has left in him.
12/06/05
Paul Newman and George Kennedy are at their best at this popular prison drama, which drew on the Depression era film, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Quote to remember: "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."
04/04/07
Anchored by Paul Newman's thoroughly magnetic performance...
11/16/08
...most viewers will have little failure understanding the movie and its motives. They communicate brilliantly.
08/26/08
Latest News for Cool Hand Luke
September 27, 2008:
Paul Newman Dies at 83
Academy award winner Paul Newman, one of American cinema's most iconic actors, died Friday at his home in Westport, Conn. after a long battle with cancer. He was 83. More...
November 16, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Casino Royale" Fresh, Certified Fresh; "Happy Feet" Shows Fancy Footwork; Guess The Tomatometer for "Prison"
This week at the movies prompts several questions. Will the latest Bond movie ("Casino Royale," starring Daniel Craig) leave pundits shaken and stirred? Can penguins... More...
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