Cactus Classic Cinema Screening: “Cool Hand Luke” (1967)
Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - One Showing Only
Doors open 6:45 pm; screening 7:15 pm
Rated PG; Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

Background about the film:

Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system. Set in the early 1950s, it is based on Donn Pearce’s 1965 novel.

Film critic Roger Ebert called Cool Hand Luke an anti-establishment film shot during emerging popular opposition to the Vietnam War. Filming took place within California's San Joaquin River Delta region; the set, imitating a prison farm in the Deep South.  The film is significant for its evident and sometimes subtle, intricate use of  Christian imagery woven within the storyline.

Upon its release, Cool Hand Luke received favorable reviews and was a box-office success. It cemented Newman's status as one of the era's top actors, and was called the “touchstone of an era.” Newman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, Kennedy won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Pearce and Pierson were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and Lalo Schifrin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.  In 2005, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, considering it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Tickets:

All reserved floor seats.....$7
(Note: Standard balcony and box seats unavailable for this screening)