Themes in “Cool Hand Luke”
Luke as a Messiah Figure
When the film begins, there is a word that is written across the screen, “violation”. This word gives the audience a glimpse of the film’s tone. Luke Jackson does things under the influence of alcohol. While he is drunk, he cuts the heads of parking meters in town and the police arrest him for doing so, or simply for destruction of town property while drunk. When the police asked him why he had to destroy municipal property, he said, “I was settling an old score”. This makes the audience believe that perhaps he was getting a parking ticket in the past. This is because the reader does not get any hint of what an old score means. The police arrest him with a chain gang, and later he is incarcerated in a road prison. The penalty that he was charged for did not match the crime that he had committed. In the modern world, such a crime would only make someone spend some time in the community service instead of a tough labor in a prison gang. To make it worse, Luke died when the story ended.
Luke was known to be an expert, but he just got demoted from the military in the same way that he joined it: as a private. This proves that he had problems with his commanders while he was working in the military. The fact that he got the Bronze Star, the Silver Star and some Purple Hearts proves that he was a brave person. The Silver Star is offered to people who have the courage to take further steps, including risking their lives to saving people’s lives. During his career in the military, instead of being promoted, he was demoted. However, the tale does not offer a detailed analysis of how this took place. What happened to Lucas proves that his commanders assumed his success in the military, and failed to promote him based on the number of lives he had saved while he put his life to risk. His commanders also failed to recognize how much effort he had put to work for his country while exposing his life to danger.
Luke believes that when a person dies, he gets absolute freedom. It is evident that Luke believes in the existence of God because he communicates with God during the film although his dialogue with God seems more like squabbles instead of prayers. During the last scenes, an empty church shell resembles his relationship with God and his emptiness. Luke believes that God had never answered his prayers. He addresses Him before the story ends. He tells God that he had never listened to his prayers and has never considered him at any moment. He argues with God and says that if he loved him he would not have let the military to decorate him with medals alone. He thought that it would be better for God to make him a hero by getting him promoted to the highest ranks in the military.
Conclusion
Luke’s traits resemble those of the messiah. The fact that Luke could risk his life for the sake of other people’s lives means that he cared about other people just like the messiah did. He worked in the military with passion yet they failed to recognize his efforts by promoting him to higher ranks. Luke complains to God for not recognizing his efforts.
