Cool Hand Luke Page #9

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LUKE:

(smiling)

Nothin'.

The others understand. They have beaten the Free Men by

working harder. They all collapse on the ground, rolling

about, dazed, tired but happy as hell, laughing.

DRAGLINE:

Oh, Luke, you wild beautiful thing!

You crazy handful of nuthin'!

DISSOLVE TO:

OMITTED:

INT. BARRACKS (DAY)

Sunday afternoon scene. The chain men are dancing, jingling.

Three RADIOS BLARE in different corners; a hell-fire preacher

where Deacon and Society Red sit working a letter; romantic

ballads (Near You, Heart Aches by Ted Weeks, etc.) for the

men reading f*** books; rhythm and blues, country music for

a couple of wrestlers, banging into bunks until one depants

the other and runs off. CAMERA FOLLOWS THIS ACTION SHOWING

the scene. Other men rolling cigarettes, Dynamite still on

his rattlesnake wallet, Koko cutting hair, using a board

over an ash can for a barber's chair. Everyone is barefoot.

WICKERMAN:

Visitor for Luke!

Luke sits up from his bunk, staring at the Wicker, unmoving,

amazed.

GAMBLER (O.S.)

Steve. Your mother's here!

ANGLE ON LUKE:

as he gets up. Behind him Loudmouth Steve gets up, tossing

down his sex book resentfully:

LOUDMOUTH STEVE:

Jeez! She never lets me alone.

TRAMP:

You oughta be glad you got somebody.

Steve tosses him a finger as he leaves.

ALIBI:

My wife hasn't been here for a month.

She must be sick again. She's had

this condition of the liver for...

TATTOO:

Alibi, can't you never say nothin'

without explainin' it? Carr says you

even explain when you get up at night.

EXT. CAMP GATE (DAY)

By the picnic table set up for visitors. In far b.g., we SEE

Luke come out of the door and start across the yard toward

the gate, where he is shaken down and permitted to exit,

moving down to the table. A few feet from the end of the

table, Boss Godfrey sits in a kitchen chair, his hands

discreetly crossed over the pistol in his lap. His mirror

eyes play over the scene. Loudmouth Steve, his MOTHER -- a

desperately fortyish blonde -- and a couple of other prisoners

and visitors occupy the background. Parked next to the table

is a truck. In the bed lies Luke's mother, ARLETTA. She is

propped up on pillows and wedged in for traveling.

The whole back is set up as for a chronic invalid, everything

within reach, etc. She smokes incessantly. Nearby, Luke's

BROTHER and his nephew, JOHN-BOY, a kid of twelve, enormously

impressed with the sights and the guns and dogs, etc.

LUKE:

Comin' out here, Boss?

BOSS PAUL:

(by the gate)

Yeah. Come on out, Luke.

A few feet outside the gate, Jackson reaches for the boy,

pats him on the head. Shakes hands in passing with his

brother, who is unmistakably a farmer, and stands in the

doorway looking at his mother. She lies on her side craning

to see him.

LUKE:

How'd you find me?

ARLETTA:

Helen, she sent along your things

with a note, and John here, he wrote

to the police.

LUKE:

Yeah. Well.

(to Godfrey)

Gettin' up here, Boss.

Godfrey just looks at him, says nothing.

LUKE:

Well, Arletta, I got to stand down

here.

ARLETTA:

I allus hoped to see you well fixed

and have me a crop of grandkids to

kiss and fuss around with.

LUKE:

Like to oblige you, Arletta, but

right off I don't know where to put

my hands on 'em.

ARLETTA:

Sometimes I wisht people was like

dogs, Luke. Comes a time, a day like,

when the b*tch just don't recognize

her pups no more, so she don't have

no hopes nor love to bring her pain.

She just don't give a damn. They let

you smoke?

LUKE:

Smokin' it up here, Boss.

Boss Godfrey nods. He lights cigarettes for her and for

himself.

LUKE:

Yeah, well, Arletta, you done your

best. What I done with myself is my

problem.

ARLETTA:

No it hain't, Luke. You ain't alone.

Ever whar you go, I'm with you, and

so's John.

LUKE:

You never thought that's a heavy

load?

ARLETTA:

We allus thought you was strong enough

to carry it. Was we wrong?

Luke gives her the cigarette, and smiles at her.

LUKE:

No. But things ain't always like

they seem, Arletta. You know that. A

man's gotta go his own way.

ARLETTA:

Well, I don't know, I just wash my

hands of it, I guess I just got to

love you and let go.

She catches his hand as he puts the cigarette between her

lips.

LUKE:

Yeah.

ARLETTA:

What are you doin' here?

LUKE:

We call it abuildin' time, Arletta.

ARLETTA:

I ain't askin' what you'll do after

you get out, because I'm gonna be

dead and it don't matter.

His mother's disappointment in him brings Jackson a real

twinge of pain here. He tries to change the subject.

LUKE:

You never wanted to live forever

anyways, did you? It wasn't such a

hell of a life.

ARLETTA:

Oh, I had me some high old times.

Yore old man, Luke, wasn't much for

stickin' around, but damn it he made

me laugh.

LUKE:

Yeah, would of been nice to of knowed

him, the way you talk about him.

She's looking at him and begins to laugh, losing control and

coughing to the point it alarms John and Jackson and they

have to help her. She pays no attention to the cough.

ARLETTA:

He'd... He'd of... broke you up.

She quiets after the fit and lies back, tired.

ARLETTA:

You think life is some kind of ocean

voyage and you start out with buntin'

and hollerin' and high hopes, but

the damn ship goes down before you

ever reach the other side. Luke?

LUKE:

Here, Mom.

ARLETTA:

What went wrong?

LUKE:

Nothin'. Ever'thing's cool's can be.

ARLETTA:

No.

LUKE:

Tried to live always just as free

and aboveboard as you been, and well,

they ain't that much elbow room.

Arletta is looking hard into his eyes as he speaks. She

reaches out to him again...

ARLETTA:

You allus had good jobs, and that

girl in Kentucky I taken a shine to

her.

LUKE:

She took off with that convertible

feller...

ARLETTA:

Well, why not? Idee of marryin' got

you all choked up, trying to pretend

you was respectable you was borin'

the hell out of all of us.

LUKE:

(grinning at her)

Yeah.

ARLETTA:

I'm leavin' the place to John.

LUKE:

That's good:
he earned it.

ARLETTA:

Nothin' to do with it. I ain't never

give John the kind of feelin' I give

you, so I'm payin' him off now. Don't

feel you got to say anything. Way it

is, sometimes, you just have a feelin'

for a child or you don't, and with

John I just didn't.

OFFSTAGE WHISTLE

LUKE:

Gotta go, Arletta.

ARLETTA:

(recovering)

Laugh it up, kid. You'll make out.

She kneads his hand and subsides onto her bed. Luke turns

away from her to face John, who has stood by. Godfrey is on

his feet. The other men are getting up and saying goodbye to

visitors, picking up their packages, etc., and among them is

a chain man, his chains dragging, holding them up with a

string. The kid stands by John looking at the chains clinking

past...

JOHN-BOY

Why can't you have chains?

Luke looks up at John, Sr. with amusement.

JOHN-BOY

Uncle Luke?

TWO SHOT LUKE AND JOHN, SR.

JOHN:

John-Boy looks to you. You're a hero.

He's braggin' on you all over the

county.

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