I was once a guest on the Lambcast when we discussed this movie. Some of the other guests seemed befuddled at why the film is so iconic and loved. I recall that one person said that Paul Newman’s character did not have a story arc and he was the same at the end of the film as he was at the beginning. That my friends is the point! Luke Jackson was a non-conformist in the days when conforming was to be expected. The story is set in the 1950s, but the film came out in 1967. The social revolution was in full swing, and here was a movie that celebrated it’s spirit, even if Luke was not a hippie. He was anti-establishment, ant-authoritarian and the friendliest misanthrope you are ever likely to encounter.

Paul Newman was one of our great actors and he excelled in all sorts of parts where his laconic delivery, crooked smile and deep blue eyes could make even a weak script sing. Here the script is not weak, it is powerful with a defiant message about the soul crushing influence of conformity. At one point, the idea is made extremely clear when it looks like Luke has been broken by the repeated torments of the guards. He confesses to Dragline, his friend played by George Kennedy, that he was broken, but as we see in the last act, he returns to his defiant manner and mocking tone. Luke was a world shaker, in the small world that he occupied, but most of us live in such small worlds. It is our own lives that we need to be accountable for. Newman could smirk at God and still seem humble. Whether winning at cards, losing in a fight, succeeding at escaping or failing to elude captors, Newman let’s us know that Luke is not going to be changed by the events of his life. The closest he comes to any such movement was the death of his Mother, but it took the unjust act of the prison captain, to put him in the isolation box to discourage running, that provokes the exact opposite reaction.

If you look at the cast list, you will see a bench so deep as to be unbelievable. The character actors in this film are a who’s who of great film and TV actors of the 60s and 70s. Even the ones who have no lines and are just seen in the background, add so much to the ambience of the work camp. Hell, Dennis Hopper and Harry Dean Stanton are in this film, and they are swamped by some of the other talent on the scree. George Kennedy deservedly won the Supporting Actor Oscar this year for his character of Dragline. It’s a performance that when coupled with Newman almost sucks the air out of the film for any other actor. Almost.

Reader’s of this site know that there is a companion site devoted to the great character actor Strother Martin. I would encourage you to visit there and find some other indelible performances, but let me add a few sentences here before I move on to other contributors. The Captain, is one of the most evil characters Martin would ever play, but on the face of it, he seems almost compassionate towards the prisoners. Of course what he says and what he does are two different things. He gives a speech of welcome to the incoming prisoners and he seems mildly interested in them, but allows the man guarding them to abuse the men without any reprimand or reservations. Much of his performance is silent, as he stares at the prisoners and the guards from his porch, taking in the cruelty and abuse from both the inmates and their jail keepers. His gentile voice and disarming twang, suggest some humanity, but look at the dispassionate expression on his face when Dog Boy, played by Anthony Zerbe, breaks down over the death of one of his beloved bloodhounds. The Captain couldn’t care less. The façade of  compassion is only broken when Luke mouths off after being captured and beaten. His ego having been attacked sets loose an inner rage that we don’t ever see again. It is when Martin tries to restore the image of humanity to the Captain that the famous quote from the movie emerges from his mouth. Not a reprimand but an attempt at explanation. “What we’ve got here is…failure to communicate.”

When Stephen Jannise, the programmer who introduces the films, noted that Stuart Rosenberg is not a household name when it comes to film directors, he is right. but he was nominated five times for DGA Awards, including a nomination for Best Director for this film. Watching the scenes fade in and out, using crane or helicopter shots, is pretty impressive. The sequences where Newman is escaping and trying to throw off the scent that the hound dogs are following, are staged very cleverly and a entertaining as heck. The race of the prisoners to finish tarring the road is a collaboration between Editor Sam O’Steen , Cinematographer Conrad Hall, and Composer, Lalo Schifrin. The visual and music elements are great but Director Rosenberg should get some credit for putting it all together. I think the more often I see the film, the more I am impressed with the technical aspects of the film and not just the performances. Even the title scene deserves some attention for setting up the theme of the film right from the start.

Once more, watching the film with an audience is a treasure to be savored. I heard laughter and groans and intakes of breath for a dozen scenes in the movie. People responded to Like’ resilience in the fight scene, they were horrified by the egg eating sequence, and they were cheering the ways Luke tried to outfox the hounds. I have watched this movie dozens of times at home, but the three times I’ve seen it on the big screen with an attentive audience, are the screenings that will always stand out to me. Classic film fans will always show up for this kind of event, but the rest of the movie going world needs some encouragement. Remember, if you haven’t seen it before, it’s a new movie for you, regardless of when it was made. So “get your mind right”, and make the effort.