Cool Hand Luke

To mark the 100th birthday of the ‘indomitable’, we are showing Paul Newman in one of his best roles: The soldier Luke Jackson ends up in prison for criminal damage. As a newcomer, he is at the bottom of the hierarchy. However, as he immediately asserts himself successfully against the top dog, he soon gains the respect of his fellow inmates and becomes their leader with his quiet non-conformity, while the guards do everything they can to break the unruly young man ... A film in which men's bodies really work up a sweat. Luke Jackson's Passion quite obviously borrows from the suffering of Jesus. The inwardly torn and impulsive anti-hero is a projection of much of what was bubbling under the surface at the end of the 1960s. Right up to the bitter finale: great acting cinema! (Florian Widegger)