One movie that is not on the list of 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time as compiled by the American Film Institute is Cool Hand Luke (1967).  I could think of a couple films counted among that number that I would replace it with if it were up to me.  There are a few scenes in it that, if you are familiar with it and my work, would make it obvious for a Catholic reviewer to wish for such a change.  However, you do not need to take my word for it.  Even a little bit of research on the movie will tell that its writer, Donn Pearce, intentionally filled it with Christian imagery.  This proved an added bonus for me.  Initially, I chose it simply because visiting those imprisoned are a specific corporal act of mercy according to the Church.  I had not seen it before, at least not in its entirety, until I viewed it recently while flying to New Orleans.  As such, I was not prepared for the amount of Christian morality found in the proceedings.

You would not see Christian symbolism in the first actions we see from Lucas “Cool Hand Luke” Jackson (Paul Newman), henceforth Luke.  In the opening scene he is going around town cutting off the tops of parking meters.  The police find him incoherently drunk and take him to prison to serve a two-year sentence.  Upon arrival, the head of the correctional camp, referred to as “The Captain” (Strother Martin), cannot believe a decorated war hero had committed such crimes.  Luke’s only defense is that it was a small town and that there was nothing better to do.  The ones whose reactions arguably matter more are those of his fellow inmates.  There are a few of these, but they all mainly cow to Clarence “Dragline” Slidell (George Kennedy).  When Dragline hears about Luke’s wartime heroism, he is eager to test this newcomer.  The one thing that soon becomes apparent about Luke is that he does not back down from anyone, though neither does he seek out trouble or is aggressive.  After a few perceived slights on Dragline’s part, the longer tenured prisoner challenges Luke to a boxing match, the only sanctioned way for the incarcerated to settle their differences.  Luke does not put up much of a fight, but keeps getting up off the ground with every blow that knocks him flat.  Despite everyone telling him to remain on the ground, he keeps rising to his feet.  Eventually, Dragline walks away, but he does so having earned some respect for Luke.  Their mutual feelings are cemented when Luke, seemingly just because, initiates a race to complete their labors while they are on work detail.  Any others that might question Luke as the new unspoken leader are taken care of when he wins a bet that he can eat fifty boiled eggs in an hour.  While this sequence belies a somewhat humorous, if uneventful, stay behind bars, we are given other insights into Luke’s character when his mother, Arletta Jackson (Jo Van Fleet), visits.  During their conversation, she makes it clear that she has a lot of regrets with the way she raised him and his brother.  She admits to have favored Luke over her other son, and as such plans on leaving her property to his brother.  Luke says he is fine with this arrangement, if for no other reason than to change the subject from the fact that she is dying.  It is not too long after this visit that she does pass away.  Luke does not take this information well.  The Captain also has an awful method of dealing with people with grief.  Since those in jail cannot leave to go to funerals, he preempts any attempt on their part to escape to attend the service by forcing them to spend the night in “the box.”  This is a cramped wooden structure on the prison grounds, in which it is not big enough for a person to lie down.  Once Luke is forced to do so this, he begins a series of attempts to escape.  His first one sees him get a few miles from camp, leading the bloodhounds used to track convicts on the lam in such a grueling chase that it costs one of them its life.  Upon being captured and returned, he is given what others before him have received: permanent chains around his legs.  Still, the next time they are out of the camp and clearing brush along a country road, Luke heads into the bushes on the pretense of relieving himself and once more runs away.  This time, he uses a mixture of chili powders to shake the dogs, and has a number of days of freedom.  Indeed, he gets so bold as to send his friends behind bars a picture of him with two women in a club.  It is this sort of behavior that eventually gets him found and brought back, but not before taking a severe beating from the authorities.  Further arbitrary bumps and bruises, and mindless work, lead to Luke seemingly breaking for the first time.  The only thing that gets them to stop hitting him is for him to beg for mercy.  Doing so brings scorn from the other inmates, particularly as Luke proceeds to bow and scrape from this point on.  Of course, Luke has other plans.  Biding his time until they believe they have him beat, he eventually makes off in one of their work trucks when he is asked to bring Boss Godfrey his rifle so that the overseer can shoot a snapping turtle.  Once this is accomplished, Luke drives off in this truck, having first stolen the keys to the other vehicles.  He is joined by Dragline, who gleefully hops in the passenger side as Luke gets going.  Eventually, they split up, but they are not separated for long.  Dragline finds Luke in a church, praying to God for a sign.  Dragline explains that if Luke comes out peacefully, the Captain and Boss Godfrey have promised not to shoot Luke on sight.  This proves incorrect when Luke shows himself in the window, and is almost immediately mortally wounded.  Dragline is devastated, and lunges at Boss Godfrey.  The final shot is of Dragline telling the others about how the dying Luke was driven away, smiling.

There is kind of a dark conclusion to be drawn from Cool Hand Luke, and it is that the only way you can truly escape is through death.  In the Christian context, this is a little less scary as death is, in some respects, a reward to those who follow Jesus.  The hope is that God on His judgement seat will look at us after we have died and say to our immortal souls, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” (Matthew 25:23) and ask us to join His feast in Heaven.  One could hope that this is the realization that Luke had at the end of the film as he smiled his last in the back of the Captain’s car.  While in the prison camp, his actions seemed more for the benefit of others than himself.  Indeed, it is as if he tried to take the pressure of being incarcerated off them and put it onto himself.  That is something a follower of Jesus is asked to do on a daily basis, part of always taking up our own Crosses for the sake of others.  Jesus did so because, as God, He could take our sins to the Cross and use this act for our salvation.  Luke’s behavior is a little less dramatic and for smaller stakes, but it still gets the focus onto him and away from some of the others who seem less capable of handling their time behind bars.  For me, the most telling moment for how he gets them on his side is during the boxing match with Dragline.  Luke inspires them to not be beat down by their circumstances.  Still, everyone has their breaking point, and he demonstrates his humility by telling the others that even he is susceptible.  It is about vulnerability.  It is good to be this way with your fellows.  It is even more important to be so with God.  Sure, He knows everything about us without us having to say a word.  Yet, that does not sound like a relationship, does it?  And before you go thinking that God never answers us, the movie has a response for this, too.  In the moment in the church, Luke asks God for an escape and He gives Luke his friend Dragline.  While it does look like Dragline might have been responsible for the police finding them, he still tries to avenge his friend.

All the same, God calls for us to do less avenging and more behaving like Cool Hand Luke.  This is not meant to condone his behavior.  What he did would land anyone in jail.  Because of this, I started wondering why he would attempt to escape.  Nonetheless, it is worth a watch.