Comparing The Justice System In The Shawshank Redemption And Cool Hand Luke

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The justice system is in place to protect society from dangerous individuals by imprisonment and rehabilitation. Whether or not the former occurs effectively enough in prisons is debatable. Andy Dufresne and Luke Jackson, from the films The Shawshank Redemption and Cool Hand Luke respectively, are two of those citizens that have been placed in prison to protect society. The prison system failed to rehabilitate either men in any way, but rather it failed them. As a result, both men look to ways to escape the brutality and malfeasance projected onto them by the prison authority. In the films, The Shawshank Redemption and Cool Hand Luke, prisoners exhibit a disobedience to authority as a result of distrust or loss of faith in the justice system’s efforts to rehabilitate them.
The film Shawshank Redemption follows the story of Andy Dufresne,

once a wealthy banker, now a convicted felon. Andy is given two life sentences for the murders of his wife and her lover. However, he insists his innocence of the crime. Upon entering the prison, Andy witnesses the harshness of prison life for the first time when he learns another new prisoner was killed after being beaten by a prison guard, Captain Hadley. After some time, Andy seeks the help of a prisoner who is known to be able to obtain prison contraband, Ellis “Red” Redding. Throughout the course of the film, Red procures several items at the request of Andy. Among these items are several different posters of women as well as a rock hammer.
Unfortunately, prison life leads Andy to be abused and raped by a group of prisoners by the name of the Sisters. A break from the abuse comes when Andy and a group of his friends, including Red, are chosen to retar the roof of the license-plate factory. While working, Andy overhears Captain Hadley talking about an inheritance he will have to pay taxes on. Andy, invoking irritation from the captain, informs him of a way for him to avoid taxes on the inheritance. In exchange for his help, Andy requests three beers a piece for his fellow workers, though he drinks none himself. From that point on, Andy is given special treatment by the warden, Warden Norton, and the guards for the inmates assistance with financial issues and bookkeeping of the prison. Captain Hadley paralyzes the leader of the Sisters, Bogs, after he badly injures Andy.
In the midst of Andy’s prison sentence, he helps to make the prison better by sending letters to senators for funding to update the prison library. After 6 years, Andy receives a check for $200 and a number of donated books and sundries. Following this happy achievement, Andy is alone in the office of Warden Norton. He locks himself off from the rest of the prison, and he plays Mozart over the intercom of the prison. Due to this stunt, Andy is given two weeks in solitary. Andy’s next visit to solitary occurs after a new prisoner, Tommy, tells him of a former cellmate who bragged about killing a banker’s wife and her lover. Andy goes to Norton, to ask for help, but Norton decided it was a fruitless effort. Andy calls him obtuse for his flippant behavior of the matter and proceeds to mention he would remain silent about the illegal activities taking place at the prison. Norton becomes furious at the prisoner’s suggestion and gives Andy a month of solitary.
During Andy’s time in solitary, Norton has Tommy killed to prevent him from testifying to what he heard from his former cellmate. Norton visits Andy’s cell and informs him his friend has died. He gives Andy another month in solitary. Once his time in solitary is finally over, he meets with Red in the prison courtyard. Through Andy’s nineteen years in prison, the pair has become close. Andy confides in Red that he feels he is guilty of his wife’s death because he did not love her as much as he should have; therefore, he believes he drove his wife into the arms of another and got her killed. However, he believes he has served his time for his mistakes, and he wants to get out to go to a town in Mexico, Zihuatanejo. Red tells him he cannot have that mindset in prison because it will drive him crazy to which Andy replies, “it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying” (TSR). That night, Andy escapes from prison through a hole in the wall of his cell which he had been carving with a rock hammer for 19 years.
Once Red gets out on parole, he goes to the same job and apartment that a previous released inmate, Brooks, had been assigned. Brooks, a man who had lived the better majority of his life in prison, felt he could not make it in the real world and killed himself. Red feels institutionalized the same way Brooks felt. The only thing that prevents Red from ending up with the same fate is the promise he made with Andy the day before his escape. He is told to go to a nearby hayfield where he will find something left for him. Andy left him a portion of money the escapee had gotten from using a fake identity he had created while laundering Norton’s dirty money. Andy got away with more than 370 thousand dollars. Also left for Red was a letter telling him to meet him in that town he had mentioned previously. Eventually, Red makes it to the town and the pair meet on a beach while Andy is fixing up a boat he had bought.
The film Cool Hand Luke follows a prisoner, by the name of Luke Jackson, sentenced to 2 years in a Florida prison camp for drunkenly decapitating the heads off of parking meters. He cooly enters the prison with 3 other new inmates by a jail car. They meet the leader of the prison chain gang, Captain, who tells the group that he can either be mean or a good guy. The choice of the matter is up to them. Upon entering the barracks, the floorwalker, Carr, gives the prisoners instructions for how they will spend their prison sentence. Any man that does not obey those rules will spend a night in the box, a small, secluded shed outside of the barracks. Luke spends his first night in prison silently and goes to work in the prison chain gang the following morning.
One prisoner, Alibi, who claims to have a weak heart, does not do a satisfactory job according to one of the prison bosses. As a result, he spends the night in the box. The next time the prison chain gang is seen, they are at work and Luke has mastered the rhythm of work. A young blonde woman comes outside and begins to wash her car. The men get rather excited at the sight. One prisoner in particular, Dragline, has a large reaction. Later in the barracks, as Dragline continues talking about the woman, Luke tells him to stop beating the thought into the ground. Dragline gets angry and challenges Luke to a fight in the prison yard the following day. Dragline, much larger than Luke, knocks him down repeatedly; however, Luke still gets up. Eventually, Dragline walks away from the fight. Luke also proves himself stubborn in a bet to eat 50 eggs in an hour. He barely wins the challenge.
Soon after, it is learned that Luke’s mother, Arletta, has died. Before her death, she visits Luke in prison where she tells him she is giving her house away to Luke’s brother, John. John, who also visits the prison with Luke, gives him a battered banjo, leaving nothing left for Luke to go back for. For the death of his mother, Luke is locked in the box until his mother is buried to prevent him from trying to escape. However, once he gets out, he tunnels through the floor with a handsaw. He is captured and returned to the prison. He is given chains and several nights in the box. Once he is back on the chain gang, he escapes again by tricking the prison bosses into thinking he is using the restroom. He is caught and returned once again. The prison bosses decide to give Luke hard labor and beatings until he is broken and obedient. Once they achieve this, Luke becomes the trusted “rabbit” of the prison bosses who gives water to the prisoners and fetches rifles. It is this way that Luke escapes for the final time.
Luke, given access to the vehicles, steals a prison car and drives off with Dragline. The pair eventually splits up, with Luke ending up at an empty church. He yells at God and asks what his plan for him is in life. Like all of Luke’s previous escapes, the police show up. Though Dragline tries to convince him to go peacefully with the police to avoid being shot; however, Luke is still shot in the neck. The Captain takes Luke to the prison hospital rather than a much closer hospital to ensure Luke’s death. He dies with a smile on his face, as Dragline tells the other prisoners. Prison life goes on after Luke’s demise, but the prisoners still remember his story and influence.
In the film The Shawshank Redemption, the point where Andy loses all trust in the justice system is apparent during his conversation with Norton over a piece of evidence that could lead to his acquittal.

When Tommy tells Andy that he heard a former cellmate of his bragging about killing a banker’s wife and her lover, Andy goes to Norton whom he still trusts would do what is right for the innocent. That is not the case, however. When Norton shoots down any ideas to prove the prisoner’s innocence that could be thought of, Andy, inferring the reason for Norton’s reluctance is his knowledge of the money laundering occuring at the prison, mentions he would keep mum about the operation. Norton, already furious by being called obtuse by Andy, becomes exceptionally irritated by the admittance and sentences him to a month in solitary. It is evident that Andy is shocked by Norton’s behavior. He screams at the warden, “What's the matter with you? It's my chance to get out, don't you see that? It's my life! Don't you understand it's my life?” (TSR). Similarly, Luke loses faith in the justice system due to an

injustice.