Cool Hand Luke

 

I don't have any right to talk about Paul Newman or try and sum up his accomplishments, so I won't. There are people like my parents who've grown up alongside his work, who've grown as he's grown and been there throughout his entire career. I didn't know he ever made anything except salad dressing until about a year ago. I saw Cool Hand Luke for the first time this January, and was amazed. I was so moved by his performance that I watched the movie over and over until I understood everything there was to understand about Lucas Jackson, Dragline, and the rest of the gang.

I'm trying to finish his entire body of work right now. I want to understand who this incredible person was, and the impact he made on everyone that knew him. He's almost like a superhero: famous movie star, makes delicious food that gives all of the proceeds to charity, and a race car driver. You heard me right, movie star AND race car driver. You can't make this shit up.

Out of everyone I've seen him play so far, I've related to Luke from Cool Hand Luke. He reminds me of Mersault from Camus' "The Stranger" in a way. They both operate off of instinct and feeling. Rules and laws exist on a different plane from them entirely, intersecting only when they attempt to act out against what others hold sacred. I could never find a poster from the movie that I really liked, so I made my own for my room. It's 20"x12" at 300 DPI. The lettering was a pretty involved process. I printed out letters in Trade Gothic on copier paper, exacto'd the shapes out and used the leftover copier paper as a stencil for watercoloring the words onto thicker paper stock. They were then scanned in and composited alongside the drawing.