I’m sure we’ve all had times where, in the aftermath of some important action, we have been asked “what were you thinking?” and found it hard to answer honestly. We might come up with a narrative to explain what we’ve done, a rationalisation after the event, but most of the time we act emotionally. I’m thinking right now as I formulate this post, but the “decision” to start writing was more of an impulse. If I’m honest with myself, I wasn’t thinking, I just saw an interesting question and my mind very quickly to one specific movie which does an excellent job of communicating this kind of instinctual decision making, so I started writing.
So when we ask what a character is thinking, words are often inadequate. We can show more easily than we can tell, so I believe that film is an ideal medium for this because the amount of information that can be communicated is much higher than in a text. Body language, light, the point of view of the camera, even the movement of the camera can all communicate emotion and impulse more effectively than a long descriptive passage.
The movie I’m thinking of is Cool Hand Luke, a 1967 prison movie set in the deep south of 1950s USA. All the cast are male, except for one essential scene in which the central character, Luke, is visited by his mother. This is also the most dialogue-heavy part of the film, and sets up a lot of the later action, but otherwise a great deal of the communication between characters is non-verbal.
In one stand-out scene, new boy Luke is challenged to a boxing match by an overbearing long-serving prisoner known as Dragline. The camera work here is close in, the perspective of a referee not the crowd that has gathered to watch, but the establishing shot is wide and shows this little work camp in open countryside. It emphasises the loneliness, the sense of being apart from the rest of humanity and civilisation, the dehumanisation the men are subject to.
Luke is physically no match for Dragline, and after giving a good account of himself is knocked down. The other inmates urge him to stay down, and as a viewer we understand that honour is satisfied. Luke has proven himself a man, earned acceptance, and there is nothing to gain by continuing. Dragline is standing by, content, but Luke gets back up and confronts him again, causing Dragline to show a little surprise and also the beginnings of respect. They fight and once again Luke loses, and then again.
The audience are becoming more and more agitated, their concern for Luke is evident as he keeps getting back up for more, and Dragline starts shouting at him to stay down. It’s clear that he doesn’t really wanted to hurt Luke, he was just asserting dominance, and for him the fight is over. But Luke keeps coming, doggedly but not angrily, and Dragline can’t walk away without that being perceived as defeat. It’s a battle of wills.
The fight descends into farce, with a punch-drunk Luke swinging wildly at Dragline, who dodges and blocks but doesn’t try to fight back. He has a look of anguish on his face by this point. Luke eventually throws a last exhausted punch and Dragline ducks under his arm, taking him in a fireman’s lift. The scene ends with him standing in the middle of a silent crowd with Luke’s unconscious body over his shoulders. His stance is protective, he has taken Luke into his heart.
The other scene that comes to mind instantly features a chain gang working on a road. A truck has dumped piles of road grit at intervals along a long rural road, and now another truck will drive down it spraying hot tar. The prisoners have to follow behind and shovel the grit evenly over the surface of the road, and get a stern lecture from the guards about keeping up. It promises to be a long day of hard physical work in the hot sun, with the threat of punishment always looming.
So the truck moves off at a steady pace and they start to follow, but after a while Luke speeds up, and the people around him tell him to slow down and conserve as much energy as possible. He doesn’t ignore them, but grins and goes even faster. Without breaking his rhythm, throwing down a challenge, “the man wants speed, let’s give it to him,” and flings another shovel full of grit with a little shout of exertion. Hup! This all we need to know about his thought process, such as it is. Nothing here needs more exposition.
The men nearest to him respond to the challenge and accelerate as well, and when men further down the line protest they just look at Luke. Everyone gets the message, the pace picks up, and soon the whole gang is racing to catch the truck. Luke is portrayed whispering “give it to the man” to his friends as he runs past them to the next section. It’s never stated, but the relationship of the men to their labour is transformed. Their thoughts are conveyed by their actions and the change in the way they carry themselves. They are not doing demeaning work as a punishment, they are racing to defeat the machine that oppresses them, laughing, asserting themselves.
Again, the camera work is close in, this time from the centre of the road and low down, moving forwards, conveying a sense of the speed of advance. The audio track focuses in on grunts of effort, sounds of shovels, grit hitting the road, bringing us into the midst of the action as the camera rolls forward with the men. We see sweat, effort, smiles, pride, grit flying, and growing consternation among the guards. Patrolling in their usual positions their feet are showered unexpectedly with grit, they start glancing around uncertainly, and fingering their firearms. Their postures change, they don’t know what’s going on, and they can sense that they have lost control of the work gang. We know this without any narration and with minimal dialogue, the guards’ thoughts are communicated by their actions and body language.
Eventually, with several hours left before sunset, the job is complete and the men collapse in exhaustion – and exultation. They know they have just “stuck it to the man” and have regained their pride. For this moment they are human again, and guards’ demeanour shows what they think about that.
The second scene in particular depicts an important decision being made without conscious thought. It ties into folk traditions such as the tale of John Henry, philosophical movements like stoicism, and even touches on Marxist theories about the alienation of labour. Every man in the gang, at some level, was able to connect with their inner desire for meaning and status, and despite being stripped of agency over their own lives, they found a way to achieve that. Most of them would probably struggle to explain their decision in words, or even articulate their feelings, but the viewer understands instantly what is going on without needing to have it explained.
I would be grateful if someone could find a way to connect B&R’s inability to see this with the most famous line in the movie: “What we have here is a failure to communicate!” I can’t quite make it fit.