The Films of Stuart Rosenberg

Question 7

Fame is the Name of the Game

Cool Hand Luke (November 8/08)

Anchored by Paul Newman's thoroughly magnetic performance, Cool Hand Luke ultimately comes off as an amiable yet awfully slow paced prison drama that boasts a number of justifiably indelible sequences and images. The film - which follows Newman's Luke Jackson as he's sentenced to a two-year stint at a Southern prison, where his refusal to conform makes him a legend among his fellow inmates - unfolds in as leisurely a manner as one could possibly envision, which certainly proves instrumental in establishing both the multitude of characters and the very specific atmosphere of the prison itself. The episodic nature of Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson's screenplay ultimately does prevent one from consistently connecting with the material, however, as there's little doubt that certain interludes are more effective (and interesting) than others. The inclusion of several '60s-era flourishes by director Stuart Rosenberg undoubtedly heightens the uneven vibe, yet it's worth noting that the movie does boast a number of engaging, downright electrifying moments - with Luke's attempt at consuming 50 eggs surely remaining the highlight of the proceedings. The underlying camaraderie between Luke and his confined colleagues ensures that the film is often far more touching than one might've anticipated, with the respect that George Kennedy's Dragline eventually comes to feel for Newman's character cementing Cool Hand Luke's place as a pivotal entry within the guy-movie canon (despite the increasingly baffling nature of Luke's rebellious antics).

out of

The April Fools

Move

WUSA

Pocket Money

The Laughing Policeman

The Drowning Pool

Voyage of the Damned

Love and Bullets

The Amityville Horror

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Brubaker (October 1/18)

Brubaker casts Robert Redford as the title character, the ambitious, idealistic new warden of a deeply corrupt Arkansas prison who attempts to clean the place up from top to bottom - with his ongoing efforts generally stymied by a wide variety of outside forces (including politicians, local vendors, and the prison's own population of guards and inmates). It's interesting to note that Brubaker, before it devotes itself entirely to the protagonist's exploits, boasts a first act revolving around the happenings within the central penitentiary, with Redford's character disguising himself as one of the incarcerated felons and essentially observing the day-to-day workings of the facility. There's a meandering, hit-and-miss quality to this stretch that generally prevents one from wholeheartedly embracing the material, and it's clear, ultimately, that the entirety of Brubaker has been similarly hard-wired with an episodic feel that prevents it from acquiring any real momentum - which ensures that the picture, though armed with a typically solid Redford performance, is never quite able to become the searing expose filmmaker Stuart Rosenberg has intended. This is despite an ongoing inclusion of better-than-expected sequences, including, in what turns out to be the highlight of the entire production, a stirring scene in which Brubaker negotiates with and confronts a crooked contractor (M. Emmet Walsh's Woody Woodward). By the time the conclusion, which is straining for uplift but instead comes off as false and forced, rolls around, Brubaker has confirmed its place as a periodically interesting yet egregiously bloated drama that could (and should) have been so much better.

out of

The Pope of Greenwich Village

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys