What makes Cool Hand Luke such an amazing movie?

Ok, so I finally saw it. And I have to say, after all I was expecting, I was seriously underwhelmed. But since it is so well loved and popular, I obviously must be missing something integral to the movie. Perhaps we had a failure to communicate? Ok Ok, I’ll stop now :P

SPOILERS!!!!!!!! This is what I got from the movie: Man gets drunk and damages government property and gets 2 years jail time for it. On a side note, doesn’t 2 years seem kinda steep for what he did? Then he proceeds to show a never say die spirit with everything he does, including trying to escape a few times. Gets caught each time and abused more and more. Movie ends with him going to the hospital. Does he live? die? Does it matter? Is it cool that he made life so inconvenient for himself or didn’t plan his escapes better? Why was he even trying to escape? Why was he destroying the property in the first place? What “old score” was he trying to settle that he went to prison? I saw that movie and thought “wow, that guy has some psychological/mental problems” not “woot, what a role model!”

End rant. Bottom line: What do you think of this movie? What makes it so great in your eyes? Why is it a classic? Why do you think “United States Library of Congress deemed Cool Hand Luke to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry” (source)?