cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
This is a fairly literal attempt to draw the shape of the story to one of my favorite all time films, Cool Hand Luke (1967) according to the Kurt Vonnegut approach:
In the beginning, since he is drunk and feeling no pain, Paul Newman’s character is doing pretty good at chopping parking meters, although we have no idea why he is doing this. Of course, his track plummets in finding himself in jail. But it is there, among the various characters, that his spirit rises, although he is beaten up in the fight with Dragline (the young but always tough George Kennedy), Luke’s fortune just keeps arcing as his spirit of a fighter is respected by the other prisoners.
Although they are given the grunt work of clearing roads and tarring, it is Luke’s leadership that leads them not only to an early finish, but a bit of a relief of a sideshow when Joy Harmon’s character sexily attends to a dirty car.
Things could not go more in the I range when Luke’s mother die, but sinks lower when he is placed in “the box” as some sort of an example. There we ride the peaks (one of these is the egg eating scene?) and valleys as Luke seems to easily escape but almost as easily ends up brought back to jail. It’s that last one, when the guards make Luke repeatedly dig and bury the same ditch, and essentially (seem) to break him when he asks god for help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oudNoKfNUfs
Yet, he is not broken since he (and Dragline) escape one final time- will they break free? No, and they are caught and shot at a church- I place this not so far below because maybe it is an end to the cycle that the prison would give Luke this next time (?). And his stature only grows more in respect after he is no more, when Cool Hand Luke becomes a legend even bigger than a big man. How much more G can you get for a guy who always does things on his terms.
Just sing along with Luke
I made this in Brushes on the iPad, importing a still image of Luke’s glazed eyes while eating one of 50 eggs. I used different layers for the axes, curves, text (I have the hardest time getting it to brush and not move the canvas), and even tossed in a little bit of a background layer to put behind the text.
