"Cool Hand Luke"| Prop Shackles

This 1967 film starring Newman, Strother Martin and George Kennedy was a career-defining role for Newman and helped establish the anti-hero as a feature of American cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Newman’s depiction of the prisoner at odds with the warden, but beloved by his fellow prisoners (for such exploits as the legendary egg eating challenge and escape attempts) earned him an Oscar nomination and the film’s tone fit perfectly within the anti-establishment tone of the Vietnam era. It was selected by the National Film Registry of worthy of preservation for its cultural significance.

Cool Hand Luke also provided some of the most memorable lines in film history:

“What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don't like it any more than you men…”