Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke

In Cool Hand Luke, the movie begins with the word, VIOLATION, across the screen. The word is from a parking meter and sets the tone for the entire movie. Luke Jackson, the title character, is arrested for cutting off the heads of the town's parking meters while drunk, or in legal terms, for destroying municipal property while under the influence of alcohol. When asked why he cut the heads off the parking meters, Luke answers, "You could say I was settling an old score." While it leaves the viewers believing that he probably received a parking ticket at some time in the past, no clues are given to what the old score may have been. He is sentenced to two years in a road prison, in a chain gang. His punishment did not fit the crime, and today, such an act would probably result in time spent in community service rather than a hard labor prison gang. To further accentuate that his sentence is worse than his crime, Luke Jackson dies at the end of his story.

Luke is a decorated veteran, yet left the military service just as he went in, as a Private. This indicates that he had authority problems while there. He received the Silver Star, Bronze Star and a couple of Purple Hearts and that indicates that he is brave and probably humanitarian, because the Silver Star is usually given in recognition of a life-saving deed of valor. That he was never promoted, or else promoted and consequently demoted, (the story does not elaborate on the details) indicates that his superio...

Cool Hand Luke

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