This critical and box-office hit came to symbolize antiauthoritian attitudes of the time. Paul Newman’s Luke is an irreverent loner who is put on a chain gang for destroying parking meters. When he stands up to the gang’s merciless boss, he becomes an unlikely hero to his fellow prisoners. Donn Pearce adapted his own novel for the screenplay, which expertly dissects old-fashioned attitudes of the American South. Newman’s controlled portrayal of the gutsy prisoner earned him an Academy Award nomination.