Search - Cool Hand Luke on DVD

Content Advisory: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 1967 DVD Release: 06/25/1997 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 7 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 17 Genres: Drama, Prison Film See Also: Cool Hand Luke [Blu-ray], Cool Hand Luke [Deluxe Edition]

Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy received one for his work in this allegorical prison drama. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a stretch on a southern chain gang after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the captain (Strother Martin) is for each prisoner to "get their mind right," it soon becomes obvious that Luke is not about to kowtow to anybody. When challenged to a fistfight by fellow inmate Dragline (George Kennedy), Luke simply refuses to give up, even though he's brutally beaten. Luke knows how to win at poker, even with bad cards, by using his smarts and playing it cool. Luke also figures out a way for the men to get their work done in half the usual time, giving them the afternoon off. Finally, when Luke finds out his mother has died, he plots his escape; when he's caught, he simply escapes again. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison camp -- and a symbol of rebelliousness that must be stamped out to the guards and the captain. Along with stellar performances by Newman, Kennedy, and Martin, Cool Hand Luke features a superb supporting cast, including Ralph Waite, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopper, Wayne Rogers, and Joe Don Baker as members of the chain gang. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Paul Newman - Lucas (Luke) Jackson
George Kennedy - Dragline
J.D. Cannon - Society Red
Lou Antonio - Koko
Robert Drivas - Loudmouth Steve
Strother Martin - Captain

Warner Brothers was one of the first major studios to hop on the DVD bandwagon, and all of the discs in their initial line of releases, including Cool Hand Luke, shared a common set of extra features that included nothing more than cast and crew filmographies, scene and language selection and, if viewers were lucky, the original theatrical trailer.
If one can see past the basic lack of extras, Cool Hand Luke is still a disc well worth owning; the picture quality is superb and the color palette, though rather muted by today's standards, is bright and accurately reproduced. There is no 16 x 9 enhancement, but the 2.35:1 aspect ratio has been maintained to good effect. The soundtrack is only a one-track mono, but it is a full digital mono, so even though there are no surround capabilities, the dialogue is clear and there is a wide, well-defined range of tones from high to low.
Cool Hand Luke is a classic film and one that will undoubtedly be the subject of a special edition at some point down the road, but for now it's a pleasure to be able to see it so competently (albeit simply) presented. ~ Andrew Hercock, All Movie Guide