An Interesting Utterance

In How to Do Things with Words, Austin claims that by "saying" something you are, in effect, doing something, unlike the philosophical ideals of the time that believed in a dependence on truth values for sentences. He goes on to classify the different occasions of these statements, which he calls performatives, and also specifies them as rules that must be followed in order to be considered a performative.

One part that I found very interesting was the rule concerning the thoughts, feelings, and intentions behind those utterances. However, I wondered if, under a certain circumstance, an utterance could be interpreted in radically different ways. For example, in the movie Cool Hand Luke, we can examine the most famous line spoken by the overbearing Captain to the protagonist Luke and his prisonmates, who says "What we have here is 'failure to communicate'." The Captain utters this to Luke after striking Luke for escaping the prison several times. I find that Austin, if he were to hear this, might immediately note that the Captain is warning the others by not only hitting Luke, but by talking down to them and saying that going against his rules would result in pain. Additionally, he is asserting that he is their boss, through forceful words and an assertive demeanor.