If you feel compelled to remind me that this review is several decades too late, save your words; I already know. Cool Hand Luke is one of those classic films that a movie buff like me should feel ashamed to be watching only now. Well, my friends, it’s new to me. So if you want to hear what I have to say about one of the greatest films of all time, shut up and listen.

Cool Hand Luke stars Paul Newman as Luke, a war hero who is arrested for cutting the heads off of a row of parking meters. When asked why he committed this venomous act of victimless vandalism, Luke offers two reasons. The first is that “there ain’t much to do in a small town.” Luke’s personality has many layers, and this explanation gives us a glimpse at the outer skin of his personality. He’s a rebel, but peace-loving and harmless. He could have gotten drunk and smashed mailboxes with a two-by-four like a normal country boy, but he chose to methodically decapitate the parking meters with a pipe cutter. His mind and morality transcend the absurd laws of man, and it becomes abundantly clear that because of this man will not suffer his presence. Luke’s second explanation is that he cut the heads off of the meters to “settle old scores.” The movie doesn’t explain what he means, but there is some insight to be gained from this comment. Who owns a parking meter? No one person does, so Luke can’t be settling a score with any individual. Parking meters are controlled by and turn a profit for local governments; so seemingly Luke must be striking a blow, if only symbolically, at the government.

After being arrested with his famous grin upon his face, Luke is sentenced to two years in prison, a punishment that seems disproportional to his crime. At first Luke’s unwaveringly relaxed and upbeat attitude annoys the other inmates. He accepts his punishment with a Zen-like calm, yet at the same time refuses to let his captors see him suffer. However his attitude soon infects everyone and he becomes beloved by all, prisoners and guards alike.

That is, with the exception of the warden and his top men. The warden sees the way that Luke inspires the prisoners, and apparently realizes that their love and respect for Luke is quickly becoming greater than their fear of authority. The warden therefore determines that Luke must be broken, both to stifle Luke’s defiance as well as to send a message to the rest of the inmates. When word arrives that Luke’s mother has died, the warden takes advantage of the circumstance to begin chipping away at Luke’s spirit. He is locked in solitary confinement for three days, until his mother’s funeral is over and his chance to say a final goodbye has passed. This scene contains some of my favorite dialogue of all time. As the elderly prison guard is locking Luke away in “the hole,” he says “I’m just doing my job, Luke. Surely you got to appreciate that.” To which Luke replies, “Aww… calling it your job doesn’t make it right, boss.” Again, we have a clear indication that Luke’s morality transcends that of most men. He expresses an idea that we all innately know is true, but few have the strength of character to live by. Luke knows the atrocities that have been carried out in the name of doing one’s duty, and refuses to accept it as an excuse for the wrongs committed against him. The sneer in his voice as he utters the word boss is dripping with contempt for the morally vacant authority that has imprisoned him.

The warden not only fails to break Luke, but inadvertently fuels his defiance. With help from his friends Luke escapes through the floor of the prison. He runs for days on end, finding great pleasure in confusing the bloodhounds hot on his trail by swimming rivers, jumping from bridges, and zigzagging across barbed wire fences. Eventually Luke is caught, shackled, and beat by the warden. In another famous scene, the warden tells Luke, “What we have here is… failure to communicate.” He goes on to tell Luke that he doesn’t like treating the prisoners poorly, but must, for “their own good.” The infamously quick-witted Luke quips, “I wish you’d stop being so good to me warden.” This, of course, gets him beat even harder.

Luke once again escapes and gets caught. This time he is warned that if he runs again, the guards will kill him. He spends more time in solitary, and is separated from the other inmates. The guards put in motion their final plan to break Luke: work him to death. Eventually, after several days of shoveling “his dirt” in to and out of “the warden’s ditch,” Luke finally breaks. He cries, begs, and grovels to the guards, sobbing like a child as he pleads with them to stop beating him. The formerly loved and respected Luke becomes shunned by the other inmates, who depended on his strength as the source of their own. Since Luke is broken, so is everyone else.

However in an instant of inspiration, Luke commits one of his final acts of defiance against the warden and steals a truck while out on work duty. His best friend tags along, but Luke insists that they split up, more because of his own desire for solitude than out of mutual safety. Luke walks to a church and goes inside to have a conversation with a god whom he never felt existed. He asks God what to do next, and God’s reply is the sound of sirens, and the appearance of Luke’s fellow escapee who begs him to turn himself in. Luke’s last words to God are “looks like you’re a hard case too, boss.”

Luke’s final words before he is shot through the neck mock the warden; he uses his final breath to send a message to his captors: that he would rather die than be broken, that he would gladly take a bullet in the head than be treated as subhuman.

Cool Hand Luke has been said to parallel the story of Jesus Christ, and I can see why. What was Jesus at his very core? Jesus was a rebel. Jesus was a natural born world shaker, just like Luke. Jesus won over everyone he had contact with, yet was despised by those in power. Jesus, too, would die rather than be broken. But the parallels end, in my opinion, at the death of Jesus and Luke. Those in power through the centuries have distorted the historical image of Jesus. That natural born world shaker has been turned into a symbol of religious authority. His sacrifice means our salvation. Depending on the denomination either forgiveness is dangled like a carrot in front of us, or Jesus’ death is held far above our heads as blackmail to guarantee our obedience. Jesus is, today, a symbol of authority and power. Luke, on the other hand, used his final words to seal his fate as a legend among the prisoners: the sinners whom we come to realize are more innocent than those who imprison them. Luke is a symbol of morality, strength, and defiance against illegitimate authority.

What troubles me is Luke’s motives. What put Luke in prison? Obviously cutting the heads off of parking meters was the immediate cause, but why did he do it? Luke, as I previously said, tells another inmate that he did it to settle an old score. Who was he striking at? My theory is twofold. He’s a free spirit that, in my opinion, would frown on the idea of the government regulating where one can and cannot go, let alone charging one an hourly fee for the space one occupies. Luke may be “sticking it to the man” by hitting them where it hurts: in the pocket book. In addition, Luke gives many verbal and nonverbal hints throughout the movie that, despite being called a war hero, he isn’t particularly proud of the time he spent at war. I think Luke is angry about being forced to fight, and I think he resents the government for making him do things that are against his good nature.

Even if I never understand what motivated Luke to destroy those parking meters, the symbolism in that action will stay with me forever. Luke has become my new movie hero; my own personal savior, in a way. He shows us that compromise is a slippery slope. Your life may be easier and, in fact happier, if you throw away your beliefs to conform with society; but in doing so society will tear you apart. You’ll simply be another inmate shoveling your dirt out of the warden’s ditch until the day you die. Luke died with nothing but his integrity. But like he says, “a whole lot of nothing can be a pretty cool hand.”