My present tag line is from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman. The line comes after Luke (Paul Newman) issues a sarcastic response to the “Captain,” the prison warden (Strother Martin).
Lucas Jackson is a decorated World War II vet who finds himself on the work detail of a sadistic prison camp in 1940′s Florida.
The pertinent scene has the Captain explaining to Luke, who is being fitted with leg irons after a short lived escape, that the clinking of the chains would serve as a reminder of all the things that the Captain had been telling him. It is, the Captain assures, for Luke’s own good.
I originally posted a clip of the scene right here, but the powers-that-be blocked embedding. Even the trailer lost it’s home at Warner Brothers. So here’s what happens next: Luke replies to the Captain, “Wish you’d stop bein’ so good to me Cap’n,” and then the Captain gets real mad and hits Luke while screaming, “Don’t you ever talk that way to me. Never! Never!” As Luke tumbles down a hill the Captain exclaims, “What we’ve got here is…failure to communicate,” and some other stuff. (The “a” is implied.)
The line is used extensively in the movie trailer which appears to have settled in the vault of Turner Classic Movies.
A good movie entertains, occupies the mind for a brief time. A great movie draws you in. Cool Hand Luke drew me in. The characters were so fascinating, so different, that I had to watch. Something about the antiheroic Luke was familiar and compelling. It didn’t seem to matter if it was the guards or the other prisoners, Luke refuses to be broken, almost as if he had to prove to himself that he could successfully resist.
In fact, in the opening scene, Luke seems like a man fully intending to get himself arrested. Clearly drunk, he is methodically removing the heads of parking meters with a large pipe cutter when police arrive. During his induction he clearly signals his disdain through body language and an incessant smirk.
In one scene, at the end of a long list of rules that, if violated, would result in the inmate spending “a night in the box” Carr, the Floor Walker (Cliffton James), explains each rule, stressing the penalty.
“Any man forgets his number spends a night in the box…Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box…Any man playing grab-ass or fighting in the building spends a night in the box…Any man not in his bunk at eight spends the night in the box…Any man caught smoking in the prone position in bed spends a night in the box…Any man turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box…Any man with dirty pants on sitting on the bunks spends a night in the box…Any man don’t bring back his empty pop bottle spends a night in the box…Any man loud talkin’ spends a night in the box…”
As he’s concluding he adds, “You got questions, you come to me. I’m Carr, the Floor Walker. I’m responsible for order in here. Any man don’t keep order spends a night in…”
Luke, again smirking, finishes Carr’s sentence, “…the box.”
Carr gives a stern look and says to Luke, “I hope you ain’t gonna be a hard case.”
Luke is, in fact, going to be a hard case.
I’ve decided to open my first t-shirt shop with this tag line and I have two t-shirts ready. Both are heavy duty 100% pre-shrunk cotton shirts that are custom printed using an amazing process called “flex printing” which can actually outlast the t-shirt materials. This design is my first available commercially.
failure to communicate - violation
Available in white for $21 and black for $19 they make the perfect gift for the non-conformist in your life (even if that’s you). (The white shirt uses 3 colors, black, red and white, to create the same design using 2 colors, white and red, on the black shirt; which explains the small price difference.)
Here are some additional tie-ins from Amazon. The Deluxe Edition DVD, soundtrack CD, and if you’re a book lover, the novel by Donn Pierce. (I didn’t find an MP3 of the soundtrack but as soon as it’s available, I’ll update my links accordingly. Ya know, ’cause that’s what I do.)
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