What we have here is a failure to communicate! Lucas Jackson (Paul Newman) is a man who likes to do things his own way. That leads to a world of hurt when he winds up in a hellish Southern prison camp -- and on the wrong side of a sadistic warden (Strother Martin). George Kennedy won an Oscar as a fellow prisoner who tries to break Luke and then comes to revere him. The stellar cast includes Dennis Hopper, Harry Dean Stanton and Joe Don Baker.