Through a Glass Brightly - Director's Fascination with Lenses and Mirrors #1 - "Man, You Sure Can Shoot" - Luke and the Man with No Eyes

So many things could be said about Cool Hand Luke, Stuart Rosenberg’s movie from 1967. The stunning performances of the actors, the genial direction, the deep meditation on the topic of liberty and what it means to human beings… one doesn’t know where to start. Not to aim too high, and being this series dedicated to the fascination most directors inevitably have with lenses and glasses, here we will just focus on a few photograms.

It is often said that eyes are the mirror of the soul. It is not a surprise, then, that some people might want to hide them from others. Walking Boss Godfrey is one of them: in order to prevent inmates from watching his eyes, he always wears mirrored sunglasses, which win him the nickname of “man with no eyes”. Not surprisingly (at least for me), Rosenberg has a hard time keeping his camera away from these lenses.

We have Godfrey pointing his rifle at a bird:

Godfrey looking at an inmate about to be punished:

Godfrey looking at the road soon after Luke’s last escape:

Anyway, the instance that I like the most is the following:

If Cool Hand Luke looks perfect as a whole, well, this frame looks like perfection squared, to me.

Luke, embodying a freedom that can be annihilated, yes, but can never be won, smiling in the very face of authority, impersonated by the dumb, soulless, vacuous mirrors Godfrey always wears in front of his eyes.

“Man, you sure can shoot,” Luke is saying with his words in this moment of the film. But his smile is adding something to that line, and the viewer (and Godfrey, behind his glasses) can certainly feel it.