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What we've got here is failure to communicate
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"What we've got here is failure to communicate"
The Captain (Strother Martin) delivers the quote.
Character
The Captain
Luke
Actor
Strother Martin
Paul Newman
First used in
Cool Hand Luke
Voted No. 11 in AFI's 100 Movie Quotes poll
The phrase "What we've got here is failure to communicate"[1] is a quotation from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, spoken in the movie first by Strother Martin (as the Captain, a prison warden) and later, abridged, by Paul Newman (as Luke, a stubborn prisoner).
The context of the first delivery of the line is:
Captain: You gonna get used to wearing them chains after a while, Luke. Don't you never stop listening to them clinking, 'cause they gonna remind you what I been saying for your own good.
Luke: (sarcastically) I wish you'd stop being so good to me, Cap'n.
Captain: Don't you ever talk that way to me. (pause, then hitting him) NEVER! NEVER! (Luke rolls down hill; to other prisoners)
What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men.
The Captain's line is often misquoted as "What we have here is a failure to communicate".[2]
Towards the end of the movie, Luke takes a final stab at freedom – stealing a dump truck and taking flight. After his dramatic escape from the Florida chain gang prison, Luke abandons the truck and enters a church, only to be surrounded by police moments later. Feeling that his life is no longer worth living, walks to a window facing the police and mocks the Captain by repeating the first part of his speech ("What we've got here is a failure to communicate.").[2] He is immediately shot in the neck by Boss Godfrey.
The phrase ranks at number 11 on the American Film Institute list, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.[1]
In popular culture[edit]
Guns N' Roses included the quotation, sampled from Martin's speech in the film, in the opening of their song "Civil War" (1990), and later remixed it in "Madagascar" (2008).[3][4][5]
The quote has been used in many movies, TV shows and other mediums due to its lasting popularity.
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b "Frankly, My Dear, I Don't Give A Damn", AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes, American Film Institute.
^ Jump up to: a b Greatest Film Mis-Quotes, AMC Filmsite
Jump up ^ Pop Culture 101: COOL HAND LUKE. Turner Entertainment Networks
Jump up ^ Dennis O'Dell (2008-11-14) Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy Review. BBC
Jump up ^ Bond, Callan (February 8, 2006). "Questions and Answers". Cool Movie Trivia.
External links[edit]
Sound clip of the phrase (.wav, 57 KB)
The quote on IMDb
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=What_we%27ve_got_here_is_failure_to_communicate&oldid=795952798"
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This page was last edited on 17 August 2017, at 15:13.
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