The enigma of Sydney


The e-nigma of Sydney, by Jacqui Taffel - 29th March 2003
(Credit: Sydney Morning Herald)


The man ... and the motion picture that simply do not conform" went the tagline of Cool Hand Luke. The classic 1967 film stars Paul Newman as Lucas "Cool Hand" Jackson, a charismatic and recalcitrant prisoner on chain gang duty. "You're gonna get used to them chains after a while, Luke," drawls a sadistic guard before beating him to the ground. Despite physical and mental cruelty, Luke refuses to be broken.

Thirty-five years later, the film is an inspiration to a young Sydney man who calls himself Lucas Jackson and has created the Broken Man website.

Though the names come from the film, the purpose of the low-tech, two-page site is more obscure. The home page features a few photos, a button, an email contact and some optimistic text: "Can you picture a terrorist-free world? A drug-free environment? People valuing freedom of speech? Peace in a war-free earth? Then 'SOMETHING UNBELIEVABLE' is exactly what you need. COMING SOON."

After Broken Man went live last December, Jackson began using some interesting publicity techniques. Fake crime scenes appeared around the CBD, with a chalked body outline and the web address "brokenman.net" marked off with US police tape. These crime scenes also contained "clues".

Since then, Jackson has left more clues by various means including distributing 1000 wallets around the city and creating a secret phone line. He has also kept up a vigorous chalking campaign, scrawling his website address from Bondi to Sydney's inner west.

In person, Jackson looks like an ordinary guy in his early 20s (at a guess - he refuses to be more specific about his age than twentysomething). Wearing jeans, T-shirt and wraparound reflector sunnies, he's friendly, with no obvious nervous tics or oddities. And young men obsessed with cult movies are hardly unusual. The difference is Jackson has decided to make a statement in the public domain, though it's not yet clear what his message is.

When questioned about his motives, Jackson is vague. "A whole bunch of situations" led him to take action, he says. A previous Herald news story implied he was an anti-war protester, but he denies it, and didn't join the crowds at Hyde Park on February 16. "I kept away from the peace march. I've got my own opinion of the war against terrorism."

The fake crime scenes, he says, were "symbolic of everyday things we don't see ... that are kind of hidden agendas by governments and different bodies."

He doesn't deny being a conspiracy theorist. "I believe everyone's got hidden agendas; they're everywhere."

He's not marketing a product or hawking religion, though he feels "people are reaching out for something to believe in. I'm not telling anyone to believe in anything but themselves."

As for where the clues are leading, Jackson says the final piece in the puzzle is not far away and that "it will outcome in quite a large way and in a positive way".

Jackson is the sole instigator of this enigmatic project. The only help he's had is from a friend who dealt with "the technicalities" of building the website. Jackson is no computer genius or high-tech hacker, claiming he only uses the web "to play a bit of pool now and then".

His Broken Man website is simply the means to find a large and diverse audience. "I'm reaching out to rich people, poor people, students, the homeless." Jackson claims to have registered up to 30,000 hits on one day, though he says the average is closer to 7000. He also says he's received countless emails and phone messages and expects about 100,000 people to participate in the final puzzle "which will be quite testing".

Jackson has a day job, though predictably he won't reveal what it is. The web is an affordable way to broadcast his message to the world. "It's very cost effective, doing it by myself," he says. "It's really just energy I'm burning and not money."

Working towards a terrorist-free, drug-free, war-free world must burn a lot of energy. Realistically, can one person with a low-tech website, some chalk and an active imagination deliver "something unbelievable"? Jackson says he's "totally confident". When pressed about what he hopes to achieve with Broken Man, he responds: "Hopefully it changes some opinions and opens some minds. Hopefully it changes some lives."

Right, but in what way? There's a long pause before he answers with a smile.

"In a positive way."

Infofile

In a famous scene in Cool Hand Luke, the lead character takes on a bet to eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour. The plausibility of this feat has since been scientifically analysed - see BBC's Hollywood Science.

Links:

The Sydney Morning Herald Online

Brokenman

Brokenman: Crime Postings

Balmain Internet Cafe

DVD Network

Media Man Australia: Entertainment


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