Cool Hand Luke :: essays research papers

In Cool Hand Luke, the movie begins withthe word, VIOLATION, crosswise the screen. The word isfrom a parking meter and sets the t nonpareil for the entire movie.Luke Jackson, the human activity character, is arrested for cutting offthe heads of the towns parking meters slice drunk, or inlegal terms, for destroying municipal property while underthe allure of alcohol. When asked why he cut the headsoff the parking meters, Luke answers, You could say Iwas settling an old score. While it leaves the viewersbelieving that he credibly received a parking ticket at some succession in the past, no clues argon given to what the old scorewhitethorn have been. He is sentenced to two years in a courseprison house, in a chain gang. His punishment did not fit the crime,and today, such(prenominal) an act would probably result in time spentin community service rather than a hard labor prison gang.To further accentuate that his sentence is worse than hiscrime, Luke Jackson dies at the lay off of his story. Luke is adecorated veteran, yet left the military service on the nose as hewent in, as a Private. This indicates that he had authorityproblems while there. He received the Silver sense, BronzeStar and a bracing of Purple Hearts and that indicates thathe is brave and probably humanitarian, because the SilverStar is usually given in recognition of a life-saving deed ofvalor. That he was never promoted, or else promoted andconsequently demoted, (the story does not elaborate on thedetails) indicates that his superiors, those who had theauthority to promote him, did not react well to hisachievements. For Luke, death represents ultimatefreedom. There is no doubt that he believes in God, in thathe talks to God several times throughout the movie, yet hisconversations are always more like arguments than prayers.In one of the final scenes, the put down shell of a churchrepresents Lukes relationship with God, and even the emptiness in himself. Luke feels that God has never beent here for him. He tells God serious before the end of the storythat God hasnt ever dealt him a good hand. That militaryauthorities considered him a hero, decorating him withmedals, doesnt make him a hero in his own eyes. Luke is atortured soul, in that he tells God that he doesnt deserveany good liaison because he killed people in the war. Still,Luke is a free spirit, true to himself, with no regard for therules and regulations of other human beings. The crime he isarrested for is not one of violence toward any person, it is