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."1 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 recei

reinforce hope. Instead it leaves a defeatist attitude in the community if Cool Hand Luke couldn't beat the system, no one could. If Luke had survived, he would have been defeated, as he very much was defeated by the beatings after his second escape. He no longer would have been the the community hero, because as a beaten man, he'd have been like everyone else. While his death represented his personal freedom, it served as good to none, except for a good discussion here and there by the fellow prisoners. To that extent, the hero lived on, but his death did not encourage anyone else to follow in his shoes, nor did it make heroes of the authorities. Ultimately, his death reinforces the idea that you can't beat the system and that is a VIOLATION to the human spirit.

ved 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, indicates that his superiors, those who had the authority to promote him, did not react well to his achievements. For Luke, death represents ultimate freedom. There is no doubt that he believes in God, in that he talks to God several times throughout the movie, yet his conversations are always more like arguments than prayers. In one of the final scenes, the empty shell of a church represents Luke's relationship with God, and even the empti-ness in himself. Luke feels that G

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1027
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)