Cool Hand Luke – Blu-ray Disc Review
August 27, 2008 – 6:20 PM --- by: Justin SlussTags: George Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Jo Van Fleet, Paul Newman, Robert Drivas, Strother Martin, Stuart Rosenberg, Warner
has an average rating of 8.3 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 25gb disc
Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
include Commentary & an ALL-NEW Documentary
– GP
– 1967
– 126 minutes
– Warner
– 
Overall Verdict – A Nice Restoration
Buy it for $19.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself was originally released back in 1967. “Cool Hand Luke” was Directed by Stuart Rosenberg also known for doing the original 1979 version of “The Amityville Horror“. The story is that of a cool young man named “Luke Jackson” (played by Paul Newman in one of his best roles) who has a problem with being a nonconformist. He’s the original “anti-hero” in ways as his whole stunt that gets him a 2 year prison sentence included only being drunk and twisting the heads off parking meters. After he’s been sentenced to serve 2 years, Luke is shipped off to the prison camp where he meets “The Captain” (played by Strother Martin) who’s basically the prison camp warden. Luke soon meets a new friend in an unlikely paring with a large fellow named “Dragline” (played by George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance). Luke acquires the nickname “Cool Hand Luke” from his new friend Dragline and the name just seems to stick with him. Dragline one day decides to start taking bets on his boy Luke’s claim he can eat 50 eggs in a one hour period. All the other prisoners place their bets and get very excited in the whole situation. Luke manages to actually eat the 50 eggs without vomiting and wins for his friends that bet on him.
This whole time that our leading man Luke is in prison his mother “Arletta” (played by Jo Van Fleet) has been on her “death bed” (so-to-speak). She shows up one day to visit him and tells him that she’s proud of him despite where he’s currently at. This is the last time Luke see’s his mother and from here on out he starts to really “buck against” the system (the bosses of the prison camp). Luke goes from his normal routine of serving on the chain gang with his buddy Dragline to spending a day in the “hole” which is made up back then of nothing more than basically an outhouse. The Captain is hellbent on conforming Luke and taunts him eventually with the now-legendary line “What we’ve got here is… failure to communicate“. Speaking of that line I’ll admit going into this that was how I knew this film as I had never seen it before in it’s entirety.
Overall “Cool Hand Luke” as I just said was a film I’d never seen but knew of it’s legendary status. After my father telling me it was worth the watch I gave it a chance. What resulted was that I was totally pleased with what I got in the 2 hour runtime. The movie is that just as the legendary critic Roger Ebert said on 12/3/67 in Chicago Sun-Times “A Tough, Honest Film with Backbone.” This is truly the case and a cinema classic now over 40 years old in it’s age. Also known for being one of the best starring roles by actor Paul Newman, “Cool Hand Luke” is a prison movie that should be given the chance — just as the case for our main character.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc). This was originally shot on Panavision 35mm using Technicolor which needs to be taken into consideration when assessing the video quality here at this 41-year-old film. The original negatives seem to have been taken extremely well care of because we get a very nice Hi-Def transfer here from Warner Brothers. There’s certainly a good amount of detail to be found throughout the film, during the scenes by the roads in the “chain gang” when the sweat glimmers in the sun or in the close-ups which show every hair and facial pores of the actors skin quite well. This holds a very solid black level with accurate fleshtones and a somewhat vivid (Technicolor) color palette. “Cool Hand Luke” in it’s new restoration on Blu-ray Disc is very much worthy of a solid “4 Star Rating” which will leave old and new fans very pleased.
Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono sound. Yes I said mono and I know at first that might scare some of you away but keep in mind this a 1967 film (around 41 years old now). This isn’t exactly something that you’d consider bothersome to have to hear this only through the center channel, in fact by the time you’re halfway through the movie you’ll be so into the story you probably won’t remember it’s in mono. It does have some ’shrills’ at time in the musical Score accompaniment but never anything that makes you cover your ears or reach for the volume on the remote. This earns a “3 Star Rating” which might sound awfully generous for a mono track but I did find it to contain no distortion and hold a very retro cinema feel to it. I will obviously say, I like the majority of you certainly would have appreciated a Dolby Digital 5.1 track to have been created as well but this just lacked the right type of subject matter I guess.
Bonus Materials are presented in Standard Definition (480i/p) using MPEG-2 for video and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo for sound.
- Commentary by Historian / Newman Biographer Eric Lax
- “A Natural-Born World-Shaker: The Making of Cool Hand Luke” is an ALL-NEW documentary that includes interviews with the cast and crew looking back on the film. I’m not sure why they chose to do this in Standard Def instead of Hi-Def which would have maybe filled the bonus materials out a little more. Still the video quality aside, this is definitely worth the watch for old and new fans of the film.
- Theatrical Trailer is presented which is nice to see included but doesn’t get Hi-Def treatment.
Overall the bonus materials are a tad bit nice and include an ALL-NEW documentary on the making of the film. The lack of a commentary track that includes the actual cast members, namely Newman and Kennedy who both are still alive is a bit of a disappointment. But I will say Newman Biographer Eric Lax does a pretty decent job on the commentary track included.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
