Cool hand Luke
The theme of the movie is perseverance and determination. The way that the angles of the camera in this scene show that there is an uphill struggle for the main character. The theme itself is didactic because of the way that the message is metaphorical through the prison warden’s main phrase “What we have here is a failure to communicate”. This shows the fight that Paul Newman’s character does not agree with the way that the prison is being run. This infers that there is a struggle between the two.
Movement is used by forcing Cool Hand Luke down the hill. This shows the dominance of the prison warden as well as it shows that the prison warden is threatened by the “coolness” of Luke and his popularity with the rest of the prisoners. By using movement to force Luke down the hill the prison warden positions himself above the prisoner, creating dominance. The rhythm is shifted in the scene right before when Luke talks back to the warden. At the beginning of this scene the warden shifts the rhythm in his favor creating a momentum shift. Rhythm and movement work together in this scene to create one of the most memorable scenes of rebellion in the movie industry. The movement is an example of the continuous repression used by the prison that Luke has to battle. This is evident throughout the movie as Luke is held down, forced to go to the box, made to dig pits incessantly until the prison breaks his spirit. However in this scene you can see that Luke never fully stays down showing that he is indomitable. The rhythm of the movie is one that builds up until the very end when Luke gets shot after repeating the phrase back to the prison warden and Boss Keen doesn’t take too kindly to this. The movie shows the way that he rolls down the hill through rhythm, Luke rolls with the punches because as the warden says, “He wants it that way”. The rhythm is consistent with the movement and Luke is the center of both.
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