Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison
drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and
featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman
stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp
who refuses to submit to the system. Set in the early 1950s, it is based on
Donn Pearce's 1965 book, COOL HAND LUKE.
Cool Hand Luke received favorable reviews and was a box-office success upon its release. It cemented Newman's status as one of the era's top actors, and was called the "touchstone of an era". Newman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, Kennedy won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, considering it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
An added note:
Paul Newman's character,
Luke, is a decorated war veteran who is sentenced to serve two years in a Florida
rural prison. He constantly defies the prison authorities, becoming a leader
among the prisoners, as well as escaping multiple times. While
the script was being developed, the leading role was initially considered for
Jack Lemmon or Telly Savalas. Newman asked to play the leading role after
hearing about the project. To develop his character, he traveled to West
Virginia where he recorded local accents and surveyed people's behavior.
