This is quite a movie. Update of the chain gang, prison films of an earlier generation, with the non-conformist streak then just starting to re-emerge in Hollywood. Luke is a great character, he’s complicated, and you never fully understand what’s going in that head of his, which is what makes him so fascinating. Throughout the viewing I kept being reminded of Heath Ledgers recent performance as The Joker. Both of these characters are the ultimate individualists, they do what they feel like when they feel like doing it, with little thought to the consequences; yet they almost always seem to be enjoying themselves regardless of their present circumstances. Yet Luke is obviously more restrained then The Joker, either this is an inherent aspect of his disposition, or related with his then current existential battle with the idea of God. Luke has taken a side, yet not yet severed that link to an idea of things beyond himself, he is not a nihilist, though I think he kind of wishes he were. The movie has some great lines and moments, including the visit of Luke’s mother, bed ridden so there in the back of a pick-up truck, presumably cancerous but still smoking cigarettes, and of course the egg eating contest, "No man can eat fifty eggs!" This movie did not fail to communicate, and on several levels. Five out of Five.
See also: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
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