* AdaptationDisplacement:
** The film is considered a classic, but the novel is only remembered as the source material for the film.
** The "tar sequence" background music has become so recognizable as a TV news jingle (particularly within Australia) that it's quite jarring to hear in a completely unrelated context.
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** With regards to Luke's [[spoiler: final escape attempt]] -- was it a spur-of-the-moment thing, as he claims later? Or was it [[spoiler: a form of SuicideByCop? Especially since he'd been threatened with death if he tried escaping again]].
** Luke's in-universe status as a messianic figure seems to be more a case of Dragline projecting his own imaginations and fantasies onto a man he knows very little about. Dragline has an established love of letting his imagination run away with him after all. And on the flipside, Luke doesn't seem to have much direction in the gang until Dragline starts propping him up as 'his boy'. Perhaps being Dragline's pseudo-messiah gives Luke something to live for that he didn't have beforehand?
* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Columbia passed on making the film, having just lost a lot of money on their POW picture ''King Rat'', which no one went to see. [[spoiler:They were also not keen on the fact that the lead character dies at the end]].
* AwardSnub:
** Creator/PaulNewman lost out the Best Actor UsefulNotes/AcademyAward to Creator/RodSteiger for ''Film/InTheHeatOfTheNight''. While the latter is a good film and Steiger is good in it, Newman's Luke ended up being the more memorable and iconic role as the years went on.
** The film wasn't nominated for Best Picture or Director.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The famous "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOWkPk2ETXc tar sequence]]", which would actually be used for many years as intro music for TV newscasts, primarily on Creator/{{ABC}} owned-and-operated stations in the US and the Creator/NineNetwork in Australia, with the latter continuing to use it to this day.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Some critics thought the film made working on a chain gang seem quite appealing.
* {{Fanon}}: Joy Harmon's character is nicknamed Lucille in the film, but her real name is not revealed, and she's just credited as 'The Girl'. Lucille is taken as her CanonName.
* FetishRetardant: The shirtlessness stops being titillating as the film goes on and you see how overworked the guys are. They also have to strip naked before going into The Box.
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: The prisoners ogling the woman washing her car.
* HarsherInHindsight: One of the guards in the infamous {{Stanford Prison Experiment}} claimed to have been [[MisaimedFandom imitating the guards from this movie]].
* HilariousInHindsight: Creator/StrotherMartin plays a tyrannical prison guard and Creator/GeorgeKennedy plays a victimized prisoner four years before reversing that dynamic with their performances in ''Film/FoolsParade''.
* MemeticMutation:
** "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."
** The 50 eggs in an hour and derivative bets have become a memetic contest.
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Pretty much everything Luke does. Dragline gets one when [[spoiler: he attacks Godfrey and knocks off his glasses after he shoots Luke.]]
* OneSceneWonder:
** Joy Harmon appears for five minutes in a {{Fanservice}}y scene of a girl washing her car while the men watch.
** Jo Van Fleet has one extended scene as Luke's mother. It's one of the more emotional parts of the movie.
* RetroactiveRecognition: A virtual Who's Who of soon-to-be-famous character actors appear as prisoners, including Creator/DennisHopper (Babalugats), Creator/HarryDeanStanton (Tramp), Creator/WayneRogers (Gambler), Creator/RalphWaite (Alibi), Creator/AnthonyZerbe (Dog Boy), Creator/JDCannon (Society Red), and Creator/JoeDonBaker (Fixer).
* SignatureScene: The [[AllCrimesAreEqual "Night in the box"]] speech and the [[TheBet "I can eat fifty eggs in an hour"]] scene.
* StoicWoobie: Luke appears to be a ShellShockedVeteran who doesn't know what to do with his life. His mother is dying and passes away during the film, and it's implied he had a tense relationship with his brother John. And of course all the abuse he suffers in the chain gang. You wouldn't know it though, as he just keeps on smiling. He proves NotSoStoic in the third act.
* TearJerker: After Luke's final conversation with his mother -- during which she casually reveals she's dying -- he has a brief exchange with his brother John. Their only words are John tossing him a banjo and saying he has nothing left to come back home for now.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Besides Dragline, none of the other inmates get many lines or development.
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