Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
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This document is produced by the generosity of Mr. Elliott “Good as Gould” Shuffle, Bellarmine ’04.
Cool Hand Luke (1967) is the moving character study of a non-conformist; anti-hero loner who bull headedly resists authority and
the Establishment. One of the film's posters carried the tagline: "The man...and the motion picture that simply do not conform." With
this vivid film, director Stuart Rosenberg made one of the key films of the 1960s, a decade in which protest against established powers
was a key theme. One line of the film's dialogue is often quoted: "What we have here is...failure to communicate."
This superb film was based upon a screenplay by Donn Pearce (and Frank R. Pierson), from Pearce's own novel of the same name.
The chain-gang prison film (e.g., I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)) has a long history in American films, and this one also
provided entertaining performances, especially with Paul Newman in one of his best roles. One of the most memorable scenes is the
egg-eating contest.
Rich religious symbolism, references and imagery are deeply embedded within the narrative, with some critics arguing that Luke
represents a modern-day, messianic Christ figure who ministers to a group of disciples and refuses to give up under oppression. The
film's theme - of an outsider-protagonist who transforms the occupants of a Southern chain gang institution and tragically sacrifices
himself at the end - resembles the hero in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Actor (Paul Newman), Best Supporting Actor (George Kennedy), Best
Adapted Screenplay (Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson), and Best Original Music Score (Lalo Schifrin) and won only for Best
Supporting Actor.
In the opening scene, set in the South in 1948, Lucas "Luke" Jackson (Paul Newman) is arrested for the minor offenses of being drunk
and destroying two long rows of parking meters in a defiant act of rebellion. As he lazily cuts off the heads of the meters with a pipe
cutter, the red, two-hour time limit VIOLATION warning pops up, foreshadowing his own imminent arrest. Luke is detached toward
police when they arrive at the scene and arrest him for social defiance - under a streetlight's glare, he laughs at them with a big grin.
The next scene, playing under the credits, is of the typical, grueling roadwork forced upon prisoners - an imprisonment which reflects
the authentic horrors of life on a chain gang in a Southern prison.
The vehicle bringing Luke and three other prisoners to a correctional Southern prison is reflected in the mirror-lens sunglasses of one
of the guards. In a lineup in front of the main prison guard, the authoritarian Captain (Strother Martin), the new inmates are taught
obedience: "You call the Captain 'Captain'...and you call the rest of us 'Boss', you hear?" [The scene has been compared to Christ's
appearance before Pontius Pilate.] Luke is there for "maliciously destroyin' municipal property while under the influence." The softvoiced Captain is astonished at the uniqueness of Luke's irreverent crime: "We ain't never had one of them before." Luke describes his
own feelings about destroying bureaucratic, regulatory property: "I guess you could say I wasn't thinkin', Captain." Although he
performed well in the war, a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and a couple of Purple Hearts, and attained the rank of Sergeant, he "come out
the same way" he went in: "Buck Private." Ultimately alienated, Luke had often fought the system - and lost: "I was just passin' time,
Captain."
The reticent loner is given a two-year sentence to work on a chain gang (Division of Corrections, Road Prison 36) with forty-nine
other prisoners. He is instructed in the preliminary line-up:
You gonna fit in real good, of course, unless you get rabbit in your blood and you decide to take off for home. You give the bonus
system time and a set of leg chains to keep you slowed down just a little bit, for your own good, you'll learn the rules. Now, it's all up
to you. Now I can be a good guy, or I can be one real mean son-of-a-bitch. It's all up to you.
Luke is placed in an isolated environment with strict rules, guards, and regimentation and his fiercely individualistic spirit
immediately clashes.
In the bunk house, a litany of rules are delivered by a strutting, cigar-chomping, broad-waisted, white-uniformed guard-floor walker
named Carr (Clifton James). Each infraction is rewarded with "a night in the box":
Them clothes got laundry numbers on 'em. You remember your number and always wear the ones that has your number. Any man
forgets his number spends the night in the box. These here spoons, you keep with ya. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the
box. There's no playin' grab-ass or fightin' in the building. You got a grudge against another man, you fight him Saturday afternoon.
Any man playin' grab-ass or fightin' in the building spends a night in the box. First bell is at five minutes of eight...Last bell is at eight.
Any man not in his bunk at eight spends a night in the box. There's no smokin' in the prone position in bed. If you smoke, you must
have both legs over the side of your bunk. Any man caught smokin' in the prone position in bed spends the night in the box. You'll get
two sheets. Every Saturday, you put the clean sheet on the top and the top sheet on the bottom. The bottom sheet you turn into the
laundry boy. Any man turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box. No one will sit in the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man
with dirty pants on sittin' on the bunks spends a night in the box. Any man don't bring back his empty pop bottle spends a night in the
box. Any man loud-talkin' spends a night in the box. You got questions, you come to me...Any man don't keep order spends a night in
the box.
Carr immediately senses Luke's cool contempt: "I hope you ain't gonna be a hard case." Boss convict Dragline (George Kennedy)
bullies one of the new convicts with his own top-dog attitude: "Boy, you're new meat. You're gonna have to shape up fast and hard for
this gang. We got rules here. In order to learn 'em, you gotta do more work with your ears than with your mouth." Luke soon draws
the attention of Dragline and is eyed suspiciously as a con-artist - he is treated as a hostile, spirited and flippant outsider. The
newcomer is advised: "You don't have a name here until Dragline gives you one." As the acknowledged leader of the gang, Dragline
has a preliminary name for Luke and they have their first sparring:
Dragline: (About Luke) Maybe we ought to call it No Ears. (To Luke) You don't listen much, do ya, boy?
Luke: I ain't heard that much worth listenin' to. There's a lot of guys layin' down a lot of rules and regulations.
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
At dawn, the shackled men quickly assemble to be driven to work. During the drive in the van, Dragline continues to belittle Luke, the
"war hero," about his crime:
Dragline: Tearin' the heads off of, what was it, gumball machines? What kind of thing is that of a grown man?
Luke: Well, you know how it is. Small town. Not much to do in Eaton. Mostly was just settlin' an old score.
In the searing hot sun, the road-gang convicts endure back-breaking physical labor - chopping dusty weeds by the side of the highway.
The men must ask permission, e.g., "Takin' it off, boss," when they want to do something out of the ordinary, such as remove articles
of clothing in the heat. They are closely eyed by one of the impassive, impersonal yet sadistic guards - the 'man with no eyes' Boss
Godfrey (Morgan Woodward) - a nameless boss with reflective sunglasses who never speaks. Their main mid-day meal is a pile of
beans and a slab of cornbread. Even Luke's eating habits are distinctively non-conformist - he takes a bite and leaves the spoon
sticking out of his mouth.
One of the new inmates, Gibson complains about his job assignment (after being promised to switch to an easier job in a set-up) - he is
given "a chance to think about it" with an overnight stay in the box - "a very valuable lesson." Dragline disavows responsibility for the
cruel joke, but Luke is tersely sarcastic:
Dragline: He ain't in the box because of the joke played on him. He back-sassed a free man. They got their rules. We ain't got nothin'
to do with that. Would probably have happened to him sooner or later anyway - a complainer like him. He gotta learn the rules the
same as anybody else.
Luke: Yeah, them poor old Bosses need all the help they can get.
Dragline: You tryin' to say somethin'? You got a flappin' mouth. (His words are drowned out by the last bell). One of these days, I'm
gonna have to flap me up some dust with it.
Carr accounts for all of the 50 prisoners after the last bell: "Forty-nine, one in the box, Boss."
One day while the men are digging a ditch in the scorching sun, a blonde-haired, shapely and sexy young woman (Joy Harmon) in a
neighboring house prepares to wash her car, sending the men into a voyeuristic frenzy. She brings out a radio and turns it on,
signalling the beginning of her sexual act. One of the convicts asks permission to clean his glasses: "Wipin' off here, boss." As she
opens up the nozzle on her watering hose, a particularly-apt phallic symbol, the men perk up and attentively spy "the scenery." One
man can't endure the lustful suffering she creates: "Oh man, oh man, I'm dyin'." The woman wets down the car and then lathers and
caresses white, frothy soap suds over the car's surfaces. She tempts and stimulates the men even further in the symbolic simulation of
the sex act. She looks into the car's rear view mirror and into one of the tire's shiny hubcaps to look back to see how the men are being
pleasured.
Her loose-fitting blouse with well-endowed breasts begins to open up and taunt them: "She ain't got nothin' but, nothin' but one safety
pin holdin' that thing on. Come on safety pin, POP. Come on baby, POP." The men dig more vigorously as she heightens her own
cleansing activity. Dragline prays to the heavens to sustain his eyesight just a little longer for the girl he names Lucille: "Hey Lord,
whatever I done, don't strike me blind for another couple of minutes. My Lucille!...That's Lucille, you mother-head. Anything so
innocent and built like that just gotta be named Lucille."
Knowing that she has a ripe and attentive audience, the blonde rubs the car harder and harder. In the most blatantly sexual act of all the orgasmic conclusion to her show - she squeezes the white foam out of her sponge and rubs the soap suds across her abdomen:
Convict: She don't know what she's doin'.
Luke: Oh boy, she knows exactly what she's doin'. She's drivin' us crazy and lovin' every minute of it.
Dragline: Shut your mouth about my Lucille.
She gently drinks from the end of the penis-shaped hose. While washing the roof of the car, her soaped-up, ample breasts rub back and
forth across the car's window.
Later that evening while the men take a communal shower, their frustrated and already-heightened sexual-aggressive tendencies flare
up. In the hot-house barracks as the men lie in their bunks, they sweat profusely. Dragline remembers the afternoon's entertainment
and fantasizes while frustrating the other prison-mates: "Did you see how she was just about POP-in' out of the top of that dress...And
down below, man, that thing didn't reach no higher than...She liable to catch cold runnin' around like that. It was stretched so tight
across her bottom, I do believe I saw one of them seams bust loose. And the openin' got wider and wider and wider." Luke brings him
back to reality, causing Dragline to take a particular disliking toward him:
Luke: Forget it, man.
Dragline: Whaddya mean, forget it?
Luke: Stop beatin' it into the ground. It ain't doin' nobody no good.
Dragline: OK, new meat. You get some sleep. And save your strength, cause you're gonna need it. Tomorrow.
The ventilation fan in the bunkhouse spins and cuts to the next day's weekly boxing sparring, where Luke is challenged to a
showdown - the weekly knock-down, drag-out boxing fight in front of the other men. Characteristic of his indomitable spirit, in the
middle of a circle of convicts, Luke is severely bloodied and beaten by Dragline but won't stay down. The other convicts sensibly
advise him to stop and survive the epic pounding: "Just stay down, Luke. He's just gonna knock ya down again, buddy...It's not your
fault. He's just too big...Let him hit you in the nose and get some blood flowing. Maybe the bosses will stop it before he kills you."
Mockingly, strong-willed Luke replies: "I don't want to frighten him."
Ignoring their suggestions, Luke taunts Dragline as he doggedly keeps fighting without surrendering. In the bloody fray, he takes the
brutal punishment upon himself, suffering for their entertainment at first, and then taking the blows that could lead to his own death.
Repelled by Luke's mindless, 'who-cares' attitude, Dragline eventually implores Luke to drop and quit so that he won't be killed:
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
Dragline: Stay down. You're beat.
Luke: You're gonna have to kill me.
By not submitting his spirit, Luke 'wins' the fight when his opponent walks away, although Dragline convincingly overpowers him
physically. Luke's iron will earns the grudging respect of Dragline and other convicts.
He also proves himself a hero and endears himself to the inmates during a poker game. With a winning hand of 'nothin', easy-going,
stone-faced Luke successfully bluffs his opponent. After winning the pot, Luke is anointed with his prison name:
Dragline (laughing): Nothin'. A handful of nothin'. (To the losing, card-playing convict) You stupid mullet-head. He [Luke] beat you
with nothin'. Just like today when he kept comin' back at me - with nothin'.
Luke: Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real Cool Hand.
[Luke's dependence on "nothin'" and the many parallels between Luke and Jesus Christ recall the Biblical reference in Luke 1:37: "For
with God, nothing shall be impossible."]
Dragline begins to establish a friendship, luxuriating in the reflective glory of Luke's exuberant victories. He develops a nickname for
Luke - while sliding over near him: "Move over. I'm gonna sit in here next to my boy - Cool Hand Luke." The label signifies Luke's
cool-headed, independent, individualistic spirit that won't submit to the powers that be.
Luke's sickly, dying mother Arletta (Jo Van Fleet) visits one Sunday afternoon to say goodbye, stiffly and painfully propped up in the
bed of the pickup truck - it is presumably their last time together. Driven by her respectable son John, Sr. (John Pearce), she is chainsmoking a cigarette while coughing [with lung cancer or consumptive TB?]. Arletta still cares and expresses warm affection for her
wayward yet favored son - but with guarded words. Although she is disappointed about how he turned out (and feeling guilty about
her role as caregiver), Luke tells her that she'd done her best raising him as a single mother. In the tragic scene which implies much
about her son's broken childhood and upbringing, the terminally-ill Arletta expresses regrets and resigns herself to "let go" of her
independent-minded son who tried to live like she did - "free and above board." In the poignant conclusion to their conversation, she
plans - after her death - to give her inheritance to her less-loved son John:
Arletta: I always hoped to see you well fixed. Have me a crop of grandkids to fuss around with.
Luke: I'd like to oblige you, Arletta, but uh, right off, I just don't know where to put my hands on it.
Arletta: You know, sometimes, I wished people was like dogs, Luke. Comes a time, a day like, when the bitch just don't recognize the
pups no more, so she don't have no hopes nor love to give her pain. She just don't give a damn...(She hands him the pack of cigarettes)
Luke: You've done your best, Arletta. What I've done - myself is the only problem.
Arletta: No, no it ain't Luke. You ain't alone. Everywhere you go, I'm with you. John too.
Luke: You never thought maybe that's a heavy load?
Arletta: Aw, why, we, we always thought you was strong enough to carry it. Was we wrong?
Luke: I don't know. There are things just never the way they seem, Arletta. You know that. A man's gotta go his own way.
Arletta: I guess I just gotta, gotta love you and let go, hmm?
Luke: I guess.
Arletta: Well, I ain't askin' what ya gonna do when you get out because I'll be dead and it don't matter.
Luke: You never did want to live forever. I mean, it wasn't such a hell of a life.
Arletta: Oh, I had me, I had me some high old times. Your old man, Luke. He wasn't much good for stickin' around, but dammit, he
made me laugh.
Luke: Yeah, I would have liked to have knowed him, the way you talk about him.
Arletta: (after coughing) He'd have broke you up. Luke?...What went wrong?
Luke: Nothin', everything's cool as can be. Arletta, I tried. I mean, to live always free and above board like you. And, I don't know. I
just can't seem to find no elbow room.
Arletta: (takes his hand) Oh now, you always had good jobs. And that girl in Kentucky. Oh, I'd taken a shine to her.
Luke: And she sure took off - with that convertible fella.
Arletta: Well, why not? Idea of marryin' got you all, all bollocksed-up. Tryin' to be respectable. You, you was borin' the hell out of all
of us. I'm leavin' the place to John.
Luke: That's good. He earned it.
Arletta: Ain't nothin' to do with it. I just, I just never give John the, the kind of, you know, feelin' that I give you, so I'm, I'm gonna pay
him back now. Oh, don't feel you have to say anythin'. The way it is, you see, sometimes you just, just have a feelin' for a child...with
John, I just didn't.
As Luke is told his time is up for the visit, Arletta encourages him: "Laugh it up, kid. You'll, you'll make out." Luke's nephew John, Jr.
(Eddie Rosson) asks why his uncle doesn't have chains, and Luke answers with experience:
John, Jr.: Why can't you have chains?
Luke: ...You know, them chains ain't medals. You get 'em for makin' mistakes. And you make a bad enough mistake and then you
gotta deal with the man - and he is one rough old boy. OK?
John, Sr. presents his brother with his last remaining possession - a banjo: "Now there ain't nothin' to come back for."
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
[The Tramp (Harry Dean Stanton) sings the religious song Just
bunk house, accompanying himself by strumming a guitar.]
a Closer Walk With Thee on the front steps of the
I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.
One of the detestable jobs the prisoners must perform is to shovel sandy dirt onto a newly-tarred country road that stretches out into
the distance. It is hot, back-breaking work but rebellious Luke makes a frenzied challenge out of it, spurring the prisoners on to work
faster and shovel harder. Dragline urges the men to follow Luke's lead: "Use that shovel like it was your spoon...shag it, mac.. Hah!"
Boss Godfrey can't walk fast enough down the center of the road to keep up with their progress. Dragline discovers that their enforced
labor is fun: "I don't know whether to smile, spit, or swallow." After Luke's sabotage of the system, the guards are embarrassed that
the work is completed in record time and there is nothing left to do for the rest of the day. The scene fades out on a red STOP sign.
Dragline: Where'd the road go?
Luke: That's it. That's the end of it.
Convict: Man, there's still daylight.
Dragline: About two hours left.
Convict: What do we do now?
Luke: Nothin'.
Dragline: Oh Luke, you wild, beautiful thing. You crazy handful of nothin'.
As a prelude to the film's memorable, comic egg-eating contest scene, Dragline bets on his boy Luke: "He can eat busted bottles and
rusty nails, any damned thing." Luke boldly wagers that he can eat fifty hard-boiled eggs in one hour. [The number 50 becomes
significant - since there are 50 prisoners' souls and 50 eggs, Luke's ingesting of the eggs parallels Christ's taking upon himself the sins
of the world and bringing about a rebirth. Eggs, the celebration of Easter, and the resurrection are symbolically tied together.] The
men exuberantly bet against him, disbelieving that he can perform the miracle without throwing up: "Fifty eggs gotta weigh a good six
pounds...A man's gut can't hold that. They'll swell up and bust him open....They're gonna kill him." Remarkably, Luke takes the
challenge - it's raining and the activity will pass the time: "It be somethin' to do." After a period of preparatory training, stretching his
stomach's skin to make room for the eggs ("What we gotta do is stretch that little ol' belly of yours. Get all this stuff out of the way.
Them eggs are coming down!"), and eating speed tests, Luke is about ready. He sits on his top bunk with a towel draped over his head
[another Christ image].
Dragline readies the crowd for the contest: "All right. Stand back you pedestrians, this ain't no automobile accident." As Luke's trainer,
he peels the eggs before they are eaten, arguing that Luke doesn't have to peel his own eggs within the hour limit: "When it comes to
the law, nothin' is understood...I'm his official egg-peeler. That's the law!" The big event begins with Luke's entrance, the removal of
his shirt, and his kneeling down in front of the men who surround a table in front of him. One of the convicts observes how quickly
Luke pops each egg in his mouth: "He's gonna lose a finger eatin' eggs like that." After 32 eggs, Luke's bloated stomach bows out:
"Just like a ripe watermelon that's about to bust itself open." Some of the men bet against him as Luke anoints his forehead with water.
Dragline, with Luke in cahoots with him, encourages everyone to wager everything against Luke: "I wanna hear from some big money
men. Where's all the high rollers?" Society Red (J.D. Cannon) replies that everything has been bet: "I believe you've got it all,
Dragline. Every cent in camp is riding."
As time is running out, and Luke approaches the elusive goal of 50 eggs, Dragline coaxes him on: "Just nine more between you and
everlastin' glory...Just little ol' eggs. They pigeon eggs, that's all." The men mimic his chewing action. Up until the last second, it is
uncertain whether he has swallowed the last egg. After his winning victory, Luke is laid out on a table strewn with egg shells. The
men quickly forget about him and abandon him after using him for their own amusement. Luke is left alone - from an overhead shot,
his arms are outstretched, his legs are crossed at the ankle, his eyes are closed, and his head is tilted toward the left - [a symbolic
Christ-like crucifixion pose]. An enigmatic grin crosses his face.
When a poisonous rattlesnake in the thick grass along a country road threatens the men as they chop weeds in a ditch, Luke boldly
grabs for it and holds it up. The 'man with no eyes' shoots the head off the rattler with one shot from a shotgun. Luke reflects back the
boss' expertise in his dark sunglasses: "Man, you sure can shoot." A booming thunderstorm breaks open the skies above the men.
While the convicts are permitted to scamper to the truck for cover from the rain, Luke looks up and gestures toward the heavens. In a
conversation with God, he challenges God's power over nature and his own life, but he concludes that God's existence is questionable:
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
Luke: Let him go. Bam, Bam.
Dragline: Knock it off, Luke. You can't talk about Him that way.
Luke: Are you still believin' in that big bearded Boss up there? You think he's watchin' us?
Dragline: Get in here. Ain't ya scared? Ain't ya scared of dyin'?
Luke: Dyin'? Boy, he can have this little life any time he wants to. Do ya hear that? Are ya hearin' it? Come on. You're welcome to it,
ol' timer. Let me know you're up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it. (He looks around) I'm just
standin' in the rain talkin' to myself.
Dragline pays off the bets following the egg-eating contest and he brags about Luke, his deceptively cool, witty performer: "That's my
darlin' Luke. He grin like a baby, but he bites like a gater." When Luke receives notice in a telegram that his mother has died, he is
given space by the inmates to pay his last respects to her in the privacy and quiet of his cell bunk. He strums on a banjo and sings a
requiem for her - it's a parody of a raunchy pop-gospel tune "Plastic
a plastic Virgin Mary:
Jesus," a song that is about finding temporary solace with
Plastic Jesus
Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes,
long as I got my plastic Jesus,
sittin' on the dashboard of my car.
Get yourself a sweet Madonna,
dressed in rhinestones sittin' on
a pedestal of abalone shell
Comes in colors, pink and pleasant,
glows in the dark cause it's irridescent
Take it with you when you travel far.
Goin' ninety, I ain't scary [sic - 'wary'],
'cause I've got the Virgin Mary,
assurin' me that I won't go to Hell.
Early the next morning, the Captain orders that Luke be put in the isolated, windowless prison "box" to keep him from getting "rabbit
in his blood" and running to his mother's funeral to pay his last respects. As Luke is led to the cramped box, the guard is sympathetic
and apologetic: "I wanna say a prayer for your Ma, Luke...Sorry, Luke. Just doin' my job. You gotta appreciate that." Luke reminds
the man: "Aw, callin' it your job don't make it right, boss."
He is let out after his Ma is "in the ground" and advised: "You best forget about it, Luke. Got a day and a half lay in. Tomorrow's a
holiday." That night, the men dance to loud radio music during the holiday - Luke can no longer endure confinement and rebels
against the system. He saws a hole in the wooden floor of the bunkhouse. Between the first and second bell, his cohorts distract Carr
with a trashy novel while Luke escapes - he's counted as missing: "one in the bush." The bloodhounds are given pieces of Luke's
clothing for the scent. He eludes and confuses the dogs by wading through water, jumping fences, traversing land by wires, and crisscrossing. He is pursued into a railyard and down train tracks, but escapes by jumping off a train trestle into water.
Dog Boy (Anthony Zerbe), one of the prisoners who religiously tended the bloodhounds, reluctantly returns to camp without his prey,
but with a dead bloodhound in the trunk of the Sheriff's car: "He run himself plum to death." But soon, Luke is quickly captured and
returned to the road gang. To make an object lesson of the runaway, the Captain of the prison is determined to admonish and break
Luke 'for his own good' in front of the other men:
Captain: You're gonna get used to wearin' them chains after a while, Luke, but you'll never stop listenin' to them clinkin'. 'Cause
they're gonna remind you of what I've been sayin' - for your own good.
Luke: (back-talking) I wish you'd stop bein' so good to me, Captain.
Captain: (enraged) Don't you ever talk that way to me. (He savagely lashes out at Luke with his stick.)
The Captain, who has now become the authoritarian object of Luke's rebellious will, foreshadows Luke's doomed future. He observes,
in the film's most familiar line, that Luke demands more disciplinary rehabilitation:
What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week - which is
the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.
The men idolize Luke's escape and congregate around him during a lunch break. They learn that he went a mile and a half and then
stole a "shiny new buggy" (with keys in the ignition) in a supermarket parking lot. He was pulled over at a stoplight by an inquisitive
cop wondering about his incongruous "state-issued" clothing: "That's top-flight police work. That's all there is to it. The fella's
probably a lieutenant by now." Dragline advises Luke to 'lay low' for a while: "We're just gonna lay low and build time. Before you
know it...everything will be right back where it was. Right, sweet buddy?" Luke eats with a piece of bread sticking out of his mouth his non-conformist way of answering.
Almost immediately after his first running off, Luke escapes again from the chain gang while having "privacy" behind some bushy
trees. To prove he's there in the bushes, he repeatedly calls out while shaking the branches: "Still shakin' it, boss, still shakin'. I'm
shakin' it, boss." He tricks the guards by tying a string to a branch and tugging on it from a long distance away. After escaping, Luke
speaks to two curious black boys (James Bradley Jr. and Cyril "Chips" Robinson) who ask about his leg-iron chains: "Whatcha got
them on for?...How do ya take your pants off?" He dares one of the boys to be strong enough to heft and bring him a heavy axe. The
other boy encourages him to take the incriminating stripes off his pants. With a few strokes, Luke chops off the leg irons, and he
leaves a lot of "chili powder, pepper and curry" in the path of the bloodhounds on his trail.
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
After a few days, Dragline receives an issue of Outdoor Life magazine (sent from Atlanta) during mail delivery - inside is a black and
white picture of a well-dressed Luke surrounded by two female bar companions [the opposite page has an article on hallucinations
titled: "A THING CALLED EARLY BLUR," subtitled "The Illusion That Kills" with a hunter aiming a gun right at Luke's heart].
Society Red reads Luke's writing for the illiterate Dragline: "Dear Boys: Playin' it cool. Luke." Dragline envies his friend's freedom:
"Look at that! My baby. We're in here diggin' and dyin'. He's out there livin' and flyin'." Later, he calls the picture: "a true vision of
Paradise itself with two of the angels right there prancin' around with my boy."
To their surprise, the inmates turn and see a recaptured Luke dragged back into the bunkhouse - after a second failed runaway attempt.
The Captain threatens the lost soul on the floor:
You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains. You run twice, you got yourself two sets. You ain't gonna need no third set 'cause
you're gonna get your mind right. And I mean RIGHT. (To the other inmates) Take a good look at Luke. Cool Hand Luke?
The inmates haul Luke's broken and beaten body over to a table and while gathered around him, they glowingly admire and idolize
him for his daring escape and dalliance with two women: "You really can pick 'em, Luke...Come on, tell us, what were they like?"
Luke tells them the truth, shattering their illusions about his adventure and good times: "The picture's a phony. Cost me a week's
pay...The picture's a phony. I had it made up for you guys...Nothin'. I made nothin', had nothin'. A couple of towns, a couple of bosses.
I laughed outloud once, they turned me in." He yells at their dumb ignorance, praise, and their insistence that the picture is real:
Oh come on! Stop beatin' it! Get out there yourself. Stop feedin' off me. Get out of here. I can't breathe. Give me some air.
On the road gang the next day, Boss Paul (Luke Askew), one of the guards mistreats Luke, kicking him for his indolence and
weakness. At night, he is isolated in the box, and Dragline still boasts about his companion: "That old box would collapse and fall
apart before Luke calls it quits." Society Red qualifies Luke's qualities - he has more nerve than brains: "Your Luke's got more guts
than brains."
Luke's battered and tired spirit are put to the test when he is given a full plate of rice for dinner - an amount that would be impossible
for him to eat by himself. The other inmates take spoonful portions of his food so that he doesn't break the rule: "You gotta clean your
plate or go back in the box." [It is an apt metaphor for the way the inmates have vicariously taken pieces of him and fed off him.]
After a full week of work, Luke is humiliated and tormented by being forced to submit to the authority of Boss Paul. To systematically
break his spirit in front of the other prisoners, he is ordered to dig a "graveyard-shaped" ditch on the prison grounds. When he has
completed the grueling task of emptying the Boss' ditch, he is told to fill it back up again - and then after it's filled to re-empty it
again! The men sing "Ain't
humiliation.
No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down" in full view of his tortured, groveling
Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down
1.
There ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
when you hear that trumpet sound
gonna get up out of the ground
there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
Go down yonder Gabriel
put your foot on the land and sea
now blow your trumpet boy until you hear from me
There ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
when you hear that trumpet sound
gonna get up out of the ground
there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
2.
3.
Meet me Jesus meet me
Meet me in the middle of the air
if these wings fail me, meet me with another pair
There ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
when you hear that trumpet sound
gonna get up out of the ground
there ain't no grave gonna hold my body down
Looked over Jordan, what did I see?
A band of angels coming after me
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
Cotton fields back home
When I was a little baby,
My mother rocked me in the cradle,
In them old, cotton fields back home. :|
|: It may sound a little funny,
But you didn't make very much money,
In them old, cotton
Chorus:
Chorus:
Oh when them cotton balls got rotten,
You couldn't pick very much cotton,
In them old, cotton
fields back home. :|
|: I was home in Arkansas,
People ask me what you come her for,
fields back home.
In them old, cotton
Chorus:
|: It was down in Lou'siana,
Just about a mile from Texarkana,
In them old, cotton fields back home. :|
Chorus:
fields back home. :|
To symbolize his own death and the genuine end of his ferocious individuality and defiance, the guard slashes Luke across the head at
the end of one end of the ditch, and he is tossed backwards into the open "coffin." Broken and tired, he begs the bosses to accept his
cracked will and tarnished pride:
Luke: Don't hit me anymore...Oh God, I pray to God you don't hit me anymore. I'll do anything you say, but I can't take anymore.
Boss Paul: You got your mind right, Luke?
Luke: Yeah. I got it right. I got it right, boss. (He grips the ankles of the guard)
Boss Paul: Suppose you's back-slide on us?
Luke: Oh no I won't. I won't, boss.
Boss Paul: Suppose you's to back-sass?
Luke: No I won't. I won't. I got my mind right.
Boss Paul: You try to run again, we gonna kill ya.
Luke: I won't, I won't, boss.
When Luke returns to his bunk house, the men begin to abandon and turn away from him - one of them rips his phony picture into
four pieces now that he is no longer their hero. After confessing to them, "I got my mind right," the prisoners contemptuously ignore
him and refuse to help him - and he cries out at their betrayal: "Where are ya? Where are ya now?"
On the chain gang, Luke is forced to slavishly run errands for the guards and to become the water-carrier for the other prisoners. When
he fetches a large turtle shot by the boss with no eyes, Luke pulls up the jaw-clenching beast: "Here he is boss. Deader than hell but
won't let go." Playing the beaten fool, an instant later, Luke regains his rebellious nature and drives off in one of the boss' dump trucks
- with Dragline hopping on the running board. He craftily stole the keys out of all the trucks so that pursuit is delayed.
Dragline admires Luke's bravado and remembers how Luke 'fooled' them about being broken. Without embellishment or heroic pride,
Luke accepts and admits that he was broken:
Dragline: You're an original, that's what you are. Them mullet-heads didn't even know you was foolin'.
Luke: Foolin' 'em, huh? You can't fool 'em about somethin' like that. They broke me...
Dragline: Aw. All that time, you was plannin' on runnin' again.
Luke: I never planned anything in my life.
A fugitive one more time, Luke has decided to lay low, remain on his own, and not join Dragline for worldly pursuits: "I've done
enough world-shakin' for a while. You do the rest of it for me. Send me a postcard about it." As Luke wanders toward an abandoned
country church to take refuge, Dragline calls out: "You're a good ol' boy, Luke. You take care. You hear?"
In a memorable scene as Luke sits on one of the plain wooden pews, he delivers a rambling monologue and repeatedly talks to God
and asks for guidance and an answer, occasionally looking up toward the empty rafters - his entreaties are met with silence:
Anybody here? Hey, Ol' Man, You home tonight? Can you spare a minute? It's about time we had a little talk. I know I'm a pretty evil
fella. Killed people in the war and got drunk and chewed up municipal property and the like. I know I got no call to ask for much but
even so, you gotta admit, you ain't dealt me no cards in a long time. It's beginnin' to look like you got things fixed so I can't never win
out. Inside, outside, all 'em rules and regulations and bosses. You made me like I am. Just where am I supposed to fit in? Ol' Man, I
gotta tell ya. I started out pretty strong and fast. But it's beginnin' to get to me. When does it end? What do ya got in mind for me?
What do I do now? All right. All right. (He kneels on his knees and cups his hands in prayer.) On my knees, askin'. (pause) Yeah,
that's what I thought. I guess I'm pretty tough to deal with, huh? A hard case. I guess I gotta find my own way.
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Pat Orr Christian Scriptures Spring 2006: Cool Hand Luke Script (Shuffle)
A few police cars drive up in front of the church. Dragline calls out to his friend from the church door: "Luke?" Luke looks up and
addresses an aside to God: "That's your answer ol' Man? I guess you're a hard case too."
They are cornered and Dragline [like Judas the Betrayer], in exchange for a promise of clemency, reveals where Luke has been hiding
- in the church:
Luke? You all right? They got us, boy. They're out there, thicker than flies. Bosses, dogs, sheriffs, more guns than I've ever seen in my
life. You ain't got a chance. They caught up with me right after we split up. And they was aimin' to kill ya. But I fixed it. I got 'em to
promise if you give up peaceful, they won't whip ya this time...Luke, you gotta listen to me. All ya got to do is give up nice and quiet.
Just play cool.
Luke opens up one of the church windows and looks out on the Captain and other sheriffs in an eerie red light reflected from the
cherry-tops. Ultimately unbroken and with a cocky, assured but cool smile, he mocks the Captain with the famous film line:
What we've got here is a failure to communicate.
He is tragically shot in the throat and silenced forever by the crack-shooting Boss with no eyes. Dragline supports and carries his
mortally-wounded friend to the vengeful bosses, and then hysterically charges toward the killer - he grabs at the man's throat with an
iron grip. The reflective glasses that have never left the boss's face topple to the ground. Weakened and sliding in mud, the boss gropes
for his glasses. As Luke is put in a vehicle and taken to his sure death at the prison hispital, Dragline encourages him: "You hang on in
there Luke. You hang on. There's gonna be some world-shakin' Luke. We gonna send you a postcard." Flooded by a reddish glow,
Luke dies in the back seat of the boss' car - his face wears the familiar grin - a sign of the victory of his spirit over death. The tires of
the vehicle smash and grind the sunglasses into the mud. In the distance as the car drives away, a stoplight turns from green to red - his
spirit leaves his body.
In a final montage sequence, Dragline favorably remembers and resurrects his martyred hero while telling the story of his death to his
convict-compatriots outside the church during a work break in the chain gang. Images of Luke's legendary, unbreakable smile from
scenes in the film are flashed back on the screen:
Dragline: They took him right down that road.
Convict(s): What'd he look like, Drag?...Yeah, what'd he look like?..He had his eyes opened or closed, Drag?
Dragline: He was smiling...That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they
didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy.
Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.
The camera pulls back from Dragline, now in leg-iron chains himself, chopping weeds at a cross-roads - a crucifix symbol. Luke's
picture (torn cross-wise) is superimposed on the cross-roads where the chain gang works.
We continue to thank Elliott Schuffle ’04 for producing this document from original material off the internet.
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