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Cool hand luke movie analysis
Essays on the movie cool hand luke
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Throughout the semester, we have watched three films all in which there has been some sort of resistance to power. Cool Hand Luke, directed by Stuart Rosenberg in 1967, was a movie in which the main character, Luke, played by Paul Newman, has been forced to conform to a life in prison. Afterschool, directed by Antonio Campus, is about a boy named Robert, played by Ezra Miller, who is a sophomore in a prep school who happened to catch two girls overdosing on video. The Matrix, directed by Andy Wachowski in 1999, is about a guy named Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, who is a computer programmer by day and a hacker by night. Although these three movies have completely different plots, they all somewhat relate in a way that the main character in each …show more content…
He is being forced to abide by the rules in prison and at first, does not get a warm welcome by his fellow prisoners because he refuses to abide by the captains order which is simply to get their minds right. He is soon challenged to a fight by one of his fellow inmates. Throughout the fight, it is clear that Luke is being brutally beaten. He can barely stand up on his feet but he refuses to give up. To me, this is a sign of resistance of power because he does not want to just face the fact that he lost this battle. Throughout the movie, Luke has attempted to escape two different times, both in which he was captured and tortured. As if this was not enough, he attempts one final escape in which he is shot and killed by a masked police …show more content…
Anderson, asleep at his desk a little bit into the movie and it soon changes over into what seems to be a dream. In this, we find out his name is Neo and he is a hacker selling illegal software. After speaking to Trinity for a while, there is an alarm that goes off waking him up with him being back in his own bed. A phone is delivered to Neo and the first call he receives is by Morpheus who tells him men in suits are after him. These men eventually capture him and take him in for questioning. These men, known as agents, hold Neo down and insert a metal like device into his stomach. He soon awakes at his house and is told by Morpheus that he is “the one.” When he meets with Trinity and Morpheus, Trinity removes the metal device from his stomach which shocks him because he didn’t believe that to be real. Morpheus soon offers to reveal the Matrix to Neo. He is given the option of a red pill or blue pill; the blue in which he will go home and remember nothing, red in which will allow him to see the truth. He chooses the red which will turn his world upside down. The movie soon explains the resistance to control. Morpheus explains to him how a long time ago, there was an artificial intelligence that humans developed that they soon lost control of. They desperately created a nuclear winter hoping that they could eliminate the solar power robots needed to survive by blocking out the
The film Matewan brings to life the workings of a small West Virginia coal-mining town in the 1920's. Stone Mountain, as the town was called, existed for mining exclusively. Every resident of the town worked for the Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company was the dominant force in the community, acting as a feudal lord. It owned all the land, residential areas and restaurants. In this particular town residents had no other choice than to work for the Coal Company because it had monopoly control over all the resources thus creating a feudal economic system. The miners were forced into a bondage contract with the company, because of the lack of choice they had regarding their employment, which is a fundamental element in a feudal system. The owners of the Stone Mountain Coal Company who profit from the coal generated never actually stepped foot on the Stone Mountain mine land. They had no idea who worked for them and what their situations were. The workers never knew their employer instead the owners sent two representatives to ensure the excavation of the coal happened. The representatives became a third force necessary for the existence of feudal economy in Matewan. They were sent from the company to manage the organization and production of the mine. The representativesÕ primary job was to enforce the rules that the company had established in order to maintain power of the town, mine and essentially the workers. They used threats to induce fear in the miners as a way to stimulate and motivate them to work, because the miners had little significant reason to work besides basic survival.
Braudy, Leo and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fifth Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
Another example of Luke’s non-conformity is when he is invited to join in on the prisoner’s card game and is asked whether he is “in or out” and Luke replies that he is “out” (Rosenberg 1967). The game is ritualistic and reinforces the power dynamics, attitudes, and beliefs within the prisoner 's social group. Through Luke’s rejection of the game, he also rejects membership to the group. Later on, when he starts joining in on the card games he is also conceding to their norms. This eventually wins him a nickname, “Cool Hand Luke”, as a symbol of his conformity to their rituals and his role in the
Mahatmas Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the South Africans all have used disobedience in order to change an unjust norm or law(s). The most common form of disobedience which have been used in history is to simply not obey the officials of higher authority and protest in order to get the point across. These protests have been successful because of the mass numbers of supporters but also because they set out to change an unjust rule or norms. In the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke featuring Paul Newman, Lucas (Luke) has been sent to jail for "beheading" parking meters while intoxicated. During his time in jail, he disobeys both the de facto inmate leader and the wardens simply because he did not like to conform to their rules. Luke's, unlike the aforementioned disobedience leaders, lack of just cause for disobeying authority ultimately leads to his unhappiness and demise.
...ntrast to the stereotypical “hero” stories where a reactive call to action is committed even though they previously failed to show leadership skills. Also I discovered that the parties involved shared similar leadership traits and each movie character can be easily traced and tied to multiple theories or skills. This shows the success of the group was almost predetermined before the accident occurred due to the experience, knowledge, and skill sets these men offered. Finally I learned that recreations of true events often correlate to actual leadership traits, which evokes me to revisit other films based on real occurrences and observe them in a deeper manner; provoking further insight and expansion into my mind about how these events parallel through leadership and quantify the importance the traits and theories presented above can maintain in all aspects of life.
Additionally not only knowing the historical, social, and political background of a film and how the ideas in this film were form,but also how this film affected the society and the point of view of individuals,because after all film is not only affected by the context in which it is created ,but the film also affects individuals are catalyst for change in societies and cultures.
The purpose of this paper is to expose some of the stereotypes present in the film The Matrix, directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski. In order to accomplish this we shall see that although The Matrix is considered to be a film about rebellion, it contains several stereotypical portrayals, which actually make it a film that supports the status quo. We shall also see that the African American characters in The Matrix (the Oracle, Tank, Dozer, and Morpheus) are all depicted in the stereotypical servant roles. Furthermore, the women (Trinity and Switch) in this film are portrayed stereotypically; that is, they are either reduced to a caring/nurturing role or they simply help make up the background (they do not have a voice). Finally, Morpheus’ initial power and leadership is stripped away leaving him to play the stereotypical supporting and buddy role.
In consideration of how power functioned in both the Crucible and the Holocaust a tend of how an individual can use power to control, influence, benefit themselves, and also protect themselves from attacks can be seen. Human Nature compels us to gain power because of want, but once we have the power we will inherently use it to influence other because of the need of the individual to have their ideas agreed with. Power can either make a leader great or make a whole society or movement corrupt. Lessons can be used about how to effectively use power to properly initiate change and make a positive impact on the world.
The second film we watched during the semester, as well as the one of the last films we watched, were George A. Romeo’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead as well as Jordan Peele’s 2017 Get Out. I have chosen to combine both of these films into the same section because I believe they express similar themes, in the monstercity of male privilege as well as the monstericity of whiteness. For example, in Night of the Living Dead, Romero goes out of his way to show the “roughness” of the male psyche by showing the three men try to take charge in the cabin. The scene where Harry, Tom, and Ben are all arguing trying to figure out which plan the group should take to survive expresses this. The entire scene is just a huge pissing contest between Ben (who
In 1984 Winston has to deal with power through his government named The Party. The Party wanted the power over Oceania and no one else to have it even over a person’s own body and mind. This is where the main character Winston has a problem, in the book everyone must love The Party and they must never do anything the party denounces. They have telescreens and microphones all over and Winston hates the party and goes against it in his own little way but the party puts out his little fire and remain in power even over him. In Hamlet the struggle for power is by Hamlets uncle Claudius wants to have power so bad that he goes and causes the deaths of multiple people. With Claudius he wants power but he does not retain what he earns because in the end he winds up dead also. He tries to get power but he cannot keep it because of the way he took it and tried to retain it. Through their use of how power and control make people selfish for power, makes people do things that are irrational, and how it makes people paranoid, Orwell and Shakespeare both demonstrate how power will take control of the lives of the people being affected by it and how it will eventually lead to death.
One can learn from Tony’s mistakes. One can learn that family comes first. Society can also learn that taking shortcuts in life sometimes lead to a dead ends with no u-turns. This film showcases the time line of how a drug lord could rise to power from nothing. This film also shows how that same power one gets from becoming a drug lord could be taken at any time. Studying how to analyze a movie has definitely changed my perspective on how I view movies. I actually look at all the detailing in movies. I look at the camera angles and how they affect the scene. I even start to question why the director did not use a different angle for certain shots. By using film theories and criticism one can generate enough ideas in order to understand the movie better. When a film is being captured the director focuses on certain angles and lights to get the meaning of the scene to the audience. Just like everything in life has a meaning, everything in film also has a comparison meaning. This course has widen my intellect on how movies affect our societies. Movies can play a major role in how we act or how laws are even created. Movies has the same power as music. I say movies has the same power because one can look at a movie and want to become whatever he or she saw in the movie. One major skills that I developed in this course is being able to focus. Before this course, I could not focus on anything at all. I was the type to focus on three or
Power is a quality, a tool, and a weapon utilized for a variety of reasons. It is in the form of a quality in which it gives the possessor, a sense of control. In the form of a weapon, power is possessed in order to produce a negative environment of hurt and punishment. But, in the form of a tool, power may be used in order to gain something more, something positive. Thus, power creates a sense of superiority which may result in consequences on both side of the spectrum, the good or the bad.
In the video Eric breaks it down for viewers for us to see how power is perceived and structured. At the beginning of the film Liu illustrates how power resides in the people. He goes on to say that those who really have power then turn evil because people may perceive it distinctively. Democracies and dictatorships show the contrast in how power is perceived and understood contrarily based on how it is defined in their civic life. His definition of power is essential in this video because it identifies the importance that it has on people and their abilities compared to others. I identified our class concept during this part of the video because people may have different perceptions of power and interpret it in a different manner. When organizing what we perceive we think about the stereotypes that are given to those with power, and those without it. We make generalizations upon these stereotypes. We also create personal constructs upon people we encounter who have more power because of the judgments that are constructed. Interacting distinctively with those of lesser, or higher power, is a norm for people who interpret the definition of
...ence” is an example of one that is much more than that. Without relating this movie to current political events, the movie might not have resonated with the viewers as deeply as it did. Americans continue to see these types of violent movies for enjoyment; this enjoyment extends beyond the movie theater when the audience can leave with new perspectives. Movies live on through daily conversations, books, and the internet; however, this could only occur if we are able to relate the movie’s message back to something in our lives. People receive messages best when they willingly accept it and Cronenberg claims that Americans willingly accept movie violence because we all have a personal history of violence; that “it's wired into our DNA” (Interview). Without sermonizing, he shows us why we desire what is publicly reprehensible and how we are able to make peace with it.
Luke's Three Dimensions of Power. Power serves to create power. Powerlessness serves to re-enforce. powerlessness"(Gaventa, 1980:256).