Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke parents guide

Some strong language, strong violence and some innuendo or implied sex, which is more than most PG titles carry. Beyond that, nothing scary and no jump scares.

Our estimate: fine from about 13, higher than the PG suggests, because of the violence and language.

Scare

Not scary

Jump scares

None noted

Gore

Light gore

Some blood or injury, briefly.

Violence

Strong violence

Violence is frequent or intense.

Sex and nudity

Mild

Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.

Language

Moderate

Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

How gory is Cool Hand Luke?

Light gore and strong violence.

What is Cool Hand Luke rated, and is it OK for kids?

Rated PG, with more than the label suggests: some strong language and strong violence.

What is Cool Hand Luke about?

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Cast and crew

More like Cool Hand Luke

• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)Gritty · comfort watch · strong violence · emotionally devastatingAn innocent man's integrity and unquenchable hope shine through decades of gritty prison life.
• The Godfather (1972)Gritty · full attention · brutal violence · graphic goreA crime family saga unfolds with measured, gritty suspense, building an epic and melancholy atmosphere.
• The Godfather Part II (1974)Gritty · full attention · brutal violence · graphic goreA crime family's epic saga unfolds with melancholy, as a son expands the empire his father built.
• Taxi Driver (1976)Gritty · full attention · brutal violence · graphic goreA disturbed cabbie navigates a bleak city, his measured descent into violence feeling intensely intimate.
• GoodFellas (1990)Dark satire · gritty · full attention · brutal violenceA Brooklyn kid's rise through the Mafia is a relentless, gritty, and darkly satirical crime epic.
• Better Call Saul (2015)Dark satire · gritty · full attention · strong violenceA small-time lawyer's darkly comic hustles slowly transform him into a criminal underworld's fixer.
• The Green Mile (1999)Melancholy · full attention · strong violence · graphic goreOn death row, a gentle giant's miraculous gift brings both healing and profound melancholy to a gritty prison.
• Sons of Anarchy (2008)Gritty · full attention · brutal violence · graphic goreAn outlaw motorcycle club navigates gritty, tense, and bleak criminal enterprises in a small California town.

Cool Hand Luke is on our Prison and Classics (pre-1970) lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “a movie that will make me cry”
• “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
• “funny but not stupid, under two hours”

Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.