Cool Hand Luke Essay On Conformity

1279 Words3 Pages

The movie, Cool Hand Luke, tells a story of a man named, Lucas Jackson, who is confronted with the challenges of authority after being wrongfully convicted of crime too petty and insignificant to equate to the large sentence he had received. Throughout the entire length of the film, Lucas is faced with tremendous physical and emotional torture in numerous and inhuman ways. Despite the astounding punishments Luke is able to endure throughout the film, he manages to gain the respect of the prisoners and guards’, as well as utilizing his tenacity, charisma, and wits to not only influence the prison chain-gang, but to gain the power in order to unmask and expose the authority around them. In the following essay, I will analyze and describe how What Luke had used is non-conformity in order to influence the prisoners and gain their respect. The way Luke managed to achieve this respect is by boxing the leader of the chain-gang named, Dragline. Luke claims that Dragline is working with the authority which fueled the invitation to a boxing match (Pierson et al., 1997). Though Dragline had the physical advantage, Luke persevered through the beatings and had even said that he would have to be killed to be stopped. Moreover, Dragline is unable to defeat Luke and he is not allowed to kill him either. Coincidently, Dragline leaves the ring in defeat thus showing the whole prison that Luke has the superior authority and influence and therefore becoming the new leader (Pierson et al., 1997). Luke attempts to show that if you endure the challenges of petty authority and power [representation of Dragline], you will come out victorious and that you don’t need anything more than ‘nothing’. One of the most crucial lines of the film, spoken by the Captain, was, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate’ (Pierson et al., 1997), and was said on behalf of the non-conformity Luke had portrayed by escaping prison. In addition, the Captain follows to beat Luke in front of the other prisoners. Now, by the Captain punishing Luke, he only places himself into a situation where Luke is able take advantage of him by gaining influence. This influence through non-conformity is achieved when Luke escapes twice after and is killed by the authority; what this does for the prisoners is instill an image of Luke as a martyr for goodness, perseverance, and courage, which they these traits they begin to adopt as well as showcasing the corruption of the authority around them. One might say that Luke becoming a martyr had freed his soul and cleared his name

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