Script To Screen: “Cool Hand Luke”
A key scene from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson, novel by Donn Pearce.
IMDb plot summary: A man refuses to conform to life in a rural prison.
Here is a boxing scene from the movie’s script:
EXT. BARRACKS CLOSE ON LUKE AS GLOVE SMASHES INTO HIS FACE
(DAY)and Luke falls back into the dirt. He’s hurt, startled, but
grins. We HEAR a CHEER from the men O.S., as he gets up. He
is stripped to the waist, wears huge 16 oz. boxing gloves.FULLER ANGLEshowing Dragline similarly dressed. They are squared off in
the yard, surrounded by YELLING men who want blood. It is a
release from the sexual tension built up by the night before.
The guards stand in the guard boxes, watching. The Captain
sits up on his porch, so he can see without being too obvious.Luke gets up and manages a lunging right across to Dragline’s
Adam’s apple. Dragline is momentarily staggered but counters
with a terrible clubbing blow that mashes Luke’s gloves into
his face, knocking him to the ground. Time is called for the
round.LUKE AND OTHERS BEHIND HIMas he gets to his feet.TRAMP
Why don’t you just stay there? He’s
only gonna knock you down agin.ALIBI
It’s not your fault. He’s just too
big.SOCIETY RED
Let him hit you in the nose, get
some blood flowing. Maybe they’ll
stop it before he kills you.LUKE
(shaking his head,
grinning)
I don’t want to frighten him.The second round is called and Luke advances toward Dragline.TWO SHOT LUKE, DRAGLINEcircling. Luke has to get in his shot before Dragline gets
too close and clubs him again. He feints a punch that moves
Dragline off-balance and winds up for a big one, but Dragline
smashes him backhand. Luke hits the dirt, the men SCREAM AND
YELL. Wiping some blood from his mouth, Luke rises again. He
is dizzy. Dragline smacks him down again.THE MENSHOUTING, SHRIEKING, they have blood in their eyes, releasing
their tensions.INTERCUT THE VARIOUS REACTIONSas the fight continues. The Captain on his porch rocks and
spits dry little spouts of wind, Godfrey, impassive, waiting
in his guard house. The YELLING gradually subsides as Dragline
continues to smash Luke, who keeps getting up.ANGLE ON DRAGLINEWithout relish, he pokes Luke down again. Now there is no
cheering, no yelling, just silence.ANGLE ON CAPTAINas he gets up and walks down to the wire where he can see
what is happening. The silence disturbs him.ON LUKEHe rises, grinning and winds up to throw another punch. But
the act of lifting his giant glove is a Herculean task.
Seconds go by in which he tries to raise the glove high enough
to launch a punch.ON DRAGLINEwaiting, gloves at waist level, poised.DRAGLINE
(low)
Ommana pop you one easy. Stay down.He pops Luke who reels, goes down on a knee and then slowly
rises, rises. Dragline is honestly agonized.DRAGLINE
I’m gonna kill you, you go on…LUKE
That’s what you’re gonna have to do.ANGLE ON CAPTAINconcerned.ANGLE ON BOSS GODFREYimpassive.ANGLE ON DRAGLINEHe raises his fists. But Luke is up again. Dragline realizes
he’ll have to kill him to beat him. After a long moment,
Dragline drops his hands to his sides, looks back toward
Godfrey and the captain and then starts walking to the
barracks, fast.ANGLE ON LUKEHe looks after him and reaches up to wipe the blood away,
still grinning.
Here is the movie version of the scene:
Several differences, most notably the repeated suggestion for Luke to “stay down,” driving home his stubborn refusal to give up. The fight is extended in the movie, numerous moments in which Dragline clobbers Luke to the ground — again reinforcing the point of the scene, a metaphor for the entire story: Luke will not bow to authority or what is expected.
It is instructive to go through the movie scene, shot by shot, a deft use of 1st and 3rd person POV, as well as proximity, cutting from the prisoners to the guards, back and forth. It provides a perspective on the fight that widens its influence and makes an influence on the Captain and the other prison employees, setting up much of what transpires later.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.