Cool Hand Luke

“That traditional object of sorrow and compassion in American folk song and lore, the chain-gang prisoner, is given as strong a presentation as ever he has had on the screen in Cool Hand Luke. He has never been as forcefully revealed as a victim not only of the brutality and sadistic discipline of his captors, but also—and this is most important—of the indirect cruelty that comes from idolization in the eyes of his fellow prisoners and, finally, of himself.”