We are often in situations—a stuttering political speech, misunderstood hand gestures at a restaurant, or your regular “I thought you had the keys” moment—where we may express our amusement with these simple words: failure to communicate.”What if I said a prison camp’s Grim Reaper-like warden—our villain—says this to a bunch of chain gang prisoners right after assaulting a new recruit?“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”Unlikely? Think again. Over the years, we have casually tossed this phrase around, as a pop-culture shorthand, so often that its core meaning is lost on us.But when the Captain (Strother Martin), the prison camp warden in Cool Hand Luke, tosses it at you, it’s not trying to put a comically sophisticated spin on a chaotic situation. In fact, anything but that. When he assaults the irreverent Luke (Paul Newman) and utters these words to the bystander prisoners, he isn’t making a clever comment. He is making a chilling example out of Luke.And that’s exactly what we are going to do: explore the bone-deep menace in what appears to be a gentlemanly line.The Scene: Cinematic Power DynamicsIn Cool Hand Luke, we come across a prison where prisoners do arduous labor while constantly being monitored. The Florida heat is not their friend either; in fact, it’s an accessory to the prison’s correctional system.As Luke is brought to the labor site and is chained up, the Captain, with a smug southern drawl, explains how it’s going to go for him: “You gonna get used to wearing...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Wednesday, 15 October