We've only seen the first thirty minutes, but I would like to hear some early impressions.
1. What do think of Lucas at this point? What motivates him? What does he seem to value? Point to specific actions or comments to support your ideas.
2. Who are the bad guys in this story thus far? Who are the good guys? Here again, be specific.
I think Lucas is smart, but dumb. Now, these may seem like opposites, but in the movie, for some reason, he is able to do these well. Luke is witty with the way he speaks, but he makes very bad decisions. He shouldn't even be in the prison in the first place, if he hadn't have cut the tops off of the meters. So far in the movie I don't see a real motivator that Luke followed by, rather he is independent and self providing.
ReplyDeleteThe two bad guys that I can think of in this movie that we have seen yet is an object and a person. That object is alcohol because that is a substance that gets him in prison. He is under the influence when he commits the crime which lands him into doing this horrible work. The bad people are the officers of the prison. I think it is wrong for them to put somebody in a box and make them living there overnight. Also it is wrong for them to put the prisoners through all this work and give them little amounts of food and drink. That is why some of them collapsed.
1. Lucas doesn't have much motive. The thing that put him there in the first place is when he cut off the parking meters. And when he is asked why he did that he said something like "it's a small town, there's nothing else to do." Even though he was in a war and won a lot of medals he doesn't seem too traumatized by it, and he doesn't seem to be suffering from withdraw from alcohol. So he may just be a guy who likes to drink and do whatever he wants.
ReplyDelete2. There is no specific evil guy in this movie so far. As "bad" as the guards might seem there has been no conflict between them. The only real conflict we have seen Lucas be in is when he talks to that "Lucille" guy who seems to be feared in the prison. He definatly asserts himself as the dominant force in the prison. But I'm not completely sure that he will be a bad guy in the end, they could very well escape together.
Lucas seems to a very self-motivated person. By that I mean that he doesn’t really care what other people think of him, but says and does what he wants to. He’s very frank about his opinions. When the cops drive up and ask him what he’s doing, he just tells them that he cut off the tops of the parking meters, doesn’t deny it or anything. He also is the only one so far to stand up to Dragline. We also are hinted that this is the case when we hear how well he did in the military, but he still came out a private, implying he did something that brought his rank back down. Even when he gets teased, Lucas seems perfectly comfortable to just be who he wants to be.
ReplyDeleteThe villains seem to be a combination of the guard, especially Carr, and Dragline and his cronies. The guards subject them to long hard hours of work, and Carr seems only interested in punishing them for misdeeds. Dragline, among others, make up a job to sell, which gets the man who paid them put in the box. Dragline is also more than a bit disgusting about the girl who washes the car, and while others do similar things, he is the only one that calls her his own. Other than this, he seems to be overly interested in control. He is the prisoner in power.
(Dragline was that guy's name)*
ReplyDeleteI think Lucas is a good guy who made a mistake. He seems very young, but he served in a war (Vietnam, I presume) and earned many medals. He made a stupid mistake by drinking and cutting off the heads of the parking meters. But I think he's starting to realize the mistakes he did and hopefully won't make them again. I also think he values respect to authorities, especially since he served in the army; he couldn't have been disrespectful to his generals in the war or he wouldn't have gotten those medals. He also answers the policemen quickly and honestly, showing his value in respecting authority.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Dragline is the bad guy. He acts like he's the greatest in the prison and like he's in charge. He leads a group of inmates that cheat their fellow inmates out of their belongings, like the instance where his right-hand-man stole the dollar from the new guy, convincing him that he would trade his easier job. I think Dragline must do the same thing, and his right-hand-man guy is getting from him. Dragline also is power-hungry, threatening Lucas for questioning him. Dragline wants to remain in charge of his fellow inmates, and anyone who questions him will be punished.
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ReplyDeleteCool Hand Luke
ReplyDelete1. Personally, I find Lucas to be an incredibly dull character. He's your typical male protagonist: badass and cool with an easy temperament and a sense of righteous. He embodies the American ideal: calm, hard working, and heroic. Even when everyone doubts he'll make it, he pulls through because he's an hard-working, all-American hero. He sticks up for those who need it, telling the dictator-like Dragline to stop his messing with the guy who paid a buck for a broom and "Lucille", even if he makes an enemy because of it. He can do no wrong, even if he is a criminal, he's only in for a small, harmless crime that makes him look super cool. He's even a war hero! If he isn't an American hero, I don't know what is. I've seen this character before and I'm sick of him. He's flat, he's cliche, and he's just uninteresting. So far (and to be fair we're only thirty minutes in), you could take this character out entirely and the movie would be fine for it.
2. Well, as I said, the good guy is obviously Lucas. He's the freedom-fighting war hero. Looking at it from this perspective, the bad guys are obviously the wardens. They're oppressive and they take freedom away from our hero. You could also say Dragline's a bad guy as well, as while he never directly takes freedom from anyone he does have a dictator-like rule over the prisoners. Plus, he opposes our hero, so obvious he must be evil!
(Sorry for the sarcasm. You may have noticed I'm not a huge fan of this movie.)
1.I think that Lucas is a cool dude. He seems smart. I don't know why he was messing with the parking meters, maybe it was some type of political protest. I don't see what motivates him or what he values. Maybe this is why he makes bad decisions, he has no morals or motivation. I would say he is independent and only looking out for himself, but he doesnt care about punishment.
ReplyDelete2. The bad guy so far has to be Drag. He is confronting Lucas for talking back at him, when he is not used to it. This isnt a reason to be confrontational, he also just seems like a mean person.
I think he drives to make everyone around him mad and not to give any of them any kind of satisfaction over him at any point in the story. We see this when he is first talking to the boss when the boss insults him and calls his thinking stupid and Lucas simply takes it without any kind of retaliation. We also see it when he is put in the box. It doesn't seem like the box had any major affect on him the next day he simply continued his work without complaining about it. The final moment we see this is when the guy keeps going on and on about the girl they saw and Lucas tells him to shut up and he gets mad. He doesn't show any major anger of any kind towards him and doesn't retaliate when he gets mad.
ReplyDelete2. I think the bad guys are all of he prisoners who have been there and are trying to give Lucas a bad time. They are quite persistent with him by calling him names and treating him as a less than them. I don't think there is a good guy in the story thus far because nothing major has happen yet.
I think Lucas is a character with a lot of potential but no driving force behind his actions. Like we've discussed in class, he seems to be a person who doesn't really believe in anything and because of that he is not particularly motivated. He is serving jail time for what seems to be a careless crime (He did say he was "settling a score," so his motive may later be revealed). Lucas also does not seem concerned with how others view him; he picks fights with dragline, which could be seen as righteous, except he never steps in to defend the other new prisoners or underdogs.
ReplyDeleteDragline could be the "bad guy," but I don't think I've seen enough of his character to decide. The prison guards are most likely going to be a uniting "bad" force for the prisoners. As for the good guy, it is probably Lucas. I can see him having some experience during the movie that causes some sort realization and character development. The way that he is being portrayed makes it seem like he will become the hero by the end.
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ReplyDelete1. I think that Luke has shown little motive in this story. He seems to be the calm returned war hero who got busted for a dumb reason and all he has to say about it is, "I wasn't thinking that night." He is independent and stands up to Dragline and his buddies while they are playing poker and while Dragline was constantly objectifying Lucille. Perhaps this independence can be expressed as faith in ones self. We will have to see more to find out.
ReplyDelete2. Dragline seems to be the most prominent villain of the movie because he stole a dollar from a new inmate and has a little disagreement about Lucille with Luke. A good guy would be Luke, obviously, and perhaps the man that passed out the first day.