A to Z Blogging Challenge: Movie Memories
Blogging about the movies that made an impact on my life
"What we've got here is... failure to communicate." My mother would quote this line from Cool Hand Luke (1967) when my brother and I were driving her crazy. And she said it exactly like Strother Martin, twang and all.
When I got older and actually saw the movie, I absolutely fell in love with Paul Newman and Cool Hand Luke was my favorite of all his films. Strangely enough, when I got married and had a son, we named him Luke (Lucas). My hubby loved the name and had no idea I was thinking of a Paul Newman character.
George Kennedy played Dragline and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The story is about a prisoner on a chain gang who tries to escape but keeps getting caught. The guards can't break his spirit no matter how hard they try. Luke becomes a "savior" to the other prisoners and represents their desire for freedom.
23 comments:
Oh, I LOVE Paul Newman!! Just *swoon* '-)
I've heard this movie is a classic, though I've never seen it. I'm grateful for your summary of it. It sounds a little like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," where one person gives hope to everyone else.
Talei and Angela: Thanks for posting. Interesting comparison with Cuckoo's Nest. I guess the warden would be like Nurse Ratched...trying to break Luke's spirit. At least Luke doesn't end up with a lobotomy.
I saw Luke and Citizen Kane within a few weeks of each other. They were the first films that made me see cinema as art.
Thanks for bringing Luke to the fore!
Best,
Joe
Dead Reckoning
I've never seen the movie. I might now.
Hi, Joe: I saw Kane for the first time in an Intro to Film class...we analyzed it to death and it was fascinating. Great movie.
Marjorie: Let me know what you think. I like to hear what people think about films.
Great film :O)
Hi, Madeleine: Thanks for visiting today. Yes...a great film!
I think I liked Paul Newman in all his movies.
Thanks for your visit and comment on my blog today.
I had a boss who used to say that all the time. Since he fancied himself rotten, I wasn't terribly impressed. Never having seen the movie I figured he thought he was Paul Newman.
Fave movie. Great choice of topic - always happy to look at Mr. Newman.
Its like a trip down memory lane. keep them comming
I've only seen bits of this movie. I really need to watch the whole thing.
I've been meaning to watch this movie for a really long time! Thanks for teh reminder!
Cool Hand Luke is one of my favorite movies. :)
Greetings, all: Thanks for commenting. If you haven't seen the movie, I hope you put it on your list. A great classic.
Oh, yes~!! One of my faves...At that movie time, I had this enormous crush on Newman...Great movie, great addition to the "C" challenge!
Margaret: I had a MAJOR crush on Newman, too. It was unbelievable.
Like Humphrey Bogart, although he was not a great actor, Paul Newman was in a lot of great movies.
[Of course, those who really know their American Cinema also know that had James Dean not died so young, the world would likely have never met Paul Newman.]
Best Paul Newman movie ever? Wow! That's a tall order. 'Cool Hand Luke' is certainly in the running (can you eat a hard-boiled egg without thinking of this movie?) 'The Sting' and 'Butch Cassidy' are certainly in the running.
But for my money? . . .
I'm going with 'The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean' - one of my all-time favorite Westerns. (True, you might need to be tripping on Acid to really appreciate it, or at least be loaded to the gills on tequila. But there it is.)
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Would you like a hard boiled egg? I love this movie - for me it is the apex of Paul Newman's "rebel cool." George Kennedy well deserved that Oscar - and thanks to it we got Kennedy in a whole bunch of movies for the next decade that are all the better for having him in them. My connection to this movie came from Lou Antonio - former actor (he's the "cold drank" guy in CHL) and now prolific TV director - he directed something like seven or eight episodes of two different series I worked on - he was very cool, and I have his autograph on my Wall of Fame. Thanks for this post!
Stephen: I'm a Paul Newman and I love just about every movie he's made. The Newman/Redford combination was amazing. Loved Butch & Sundance, and The Sting (my fave next to Cool Hand Luke). I have a wonderful memory of The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. It was playing on my 17th birthday and I went to the movie with my grandmother. It was just the two of us and it was the only time we ever went to the movies together. I'll never forget it. She was a Newman fan, too.
Craig: You are an autogaph hound LOL. The closest I've ever been to a celebrity was when Ali MacGraw and Steve McQueen got married here in Cheyenne at our city park. Kudos to George Kennedy, too. He is amazing!
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