Cool Hand Luke - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Cool Hand Luke



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The 1960s was a time of counter culture all around. “Stick it to the man” was a big theme in the music and movies of the time, with films like Rebel Without a Cause giving the cool bad boy James Dean a shot into stardom, and Cool Hand Luke became the Shawshank Redemption of it’s time. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the big popular film of the era, but I hesitate to say that it was the better picture over Paul Newman’s more laid back approach to a man who refused to let the man get him down.

The film opens with a bored and at the end of his rope war hero named Luke (Paul Newman) defacing public property by taking the heads off of parking meters. Caught by the police he is sentenced to a labor prison where the inmates are forced to work out in the hot southern sun hacking at weeds and paving roads in a chain gain. Luke is that infectious, can’t get you down, sorta guy who just goes with the flow. At first he seems like he’s going to make it as he perks up the entire prison population, but his cool demeanor and affable smile makes him a target of the warden and his men, who would rather mercilessly punish the felons than let them have a little bit of joy.

However, Luke shows no signs of slowing down or giving in to those in charge. Instead he chooses the hardest work available, takes every kick and blow from the chain gang leader, and smirks back at those who dealt it out with that affable charm of his. The bosses eventually grind Luke down to the barest nubbin of reality, pushing him to the brink of death and then backing off just enough so that the poor guy can recover, only to do it all over again. Thinking they’ve beaten him, Luke is once more put out in the chain gang as the chain boss’s “pet” inmate, only for the inmate to prove to everyone that NOTHING will keep him down.

As mentioned, Cool Hand Luke is sort of a product of it’s time. It’s steeped in that 1960s “cool as ice” counter culture rebel. He’s taking the heads off of meters just to prove he can do it, and even in prison he sort of gives that Elvis Presley smile to everyone letting them know he’s too cool for school. Despite that cheesy sort of devil may care tone that was indelible to the 1960s, Cool Hand Luke remains a fantastic slow paced drama of a man proving against all odds that no matter if his body is someone else’s, his spirit is still his own.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

The old 2008 Blu-ray looked ok, but was never that good of a Blu-ray (and only on a single layer BD-25 at that). The new 4K UHD is taken from a 4K restoration of unknown time period (most likely a few years old judging from industry chatter) and while it looks GOOD, it’s not night and day better than the old Blu-ray. Personally I feel that it’s due to the lack of pizazz and style that Cool Hand Luke was known for. It’s a grimy and gritty looking film with an earthy hue to it, steeped in soft indoor white lighting and sun blasted road side venues for the chain gang to work. Comparing the Blu-ray to the 4K UHD, it seems that the color timing is still the same, and outside of a slight darkening of the brightness levels, seems like it’s from a near identical looking master as the original, sans the smearing and compression artifacts of course.

Instead of being head and shoulders better and wildly different, what we have a is a much more constrained and tightened up image quality. Gone are the garish highlights from the 2008 disc, and the smearing is gone. Instead we get a nice tight and clean grain structure, along with better fine details midst the weeds and various outdoor backgdrops. While it’s not night and day better, as mentioned, it IS a distinctly better viewing experience than the aging Blu-ray, and should please fans for the most part.








Audio:

Warner hasn’t gone full Atmos on this one, and I’m glad they didn’t. Instead they upgraded the mediocre lossy audio mix from the Blu-ray and created a new 2.0 Mono DTS-HD MA lossless track, and it’s MORE than adequate. It clearly surpasses the old lossy track in fidelity and clarity, adding a little extra bump to the score, and fills out the sound just a tad. Gone is that lightly tinny and strained sound to the vocals and score, and instead we get nice rich vocals and a clean musical tone to the split mono track. It’s not going to blow you away as if it’s a 5.1 or Atmos remix with tons of bass, but the audio is very faithful to the 35mm print I saw years ago and is DEFINITELY head and shoulders over the anemic lossy track from the Blu-ray.







Extras:

• Audio Commentary by Eric Lax
• "A Natural-Born World-Shaker: Making Cool Hand Luke" (featurette)
• Trailer

Final Score: ​

Cool Hand Luke was one of the stalwart prison dramas before films like Shawshank Redemption and the like came out to surpass it. The film is definitely a product of its time, but still an indelible classic that resonates with a sort of rough and tumble “counter culture” tone to it that other films in the 60s like Rebel without a Cause was made famous for. Paul Newman is cool as ice, and the all star cast (with a BABY faced Dennis Hopper in it) is still a fantastic watch. The new 4K transfer looks solidly better than the 2008 Blu-ray that’s been recycled forever, and the new Lossless audio mix is a very hefty step up. Worth getting in my humble opinion.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper
Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
Written by: Donn Pearce, Frank Pierson, Hal Dresner
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono, French, Spanish DD Mono
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG
Runtime: 127 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 4th, 2023

Recommendation: Good Buy

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never saw this in the past so will check it out.