 Contrary to the general consensus , Newman 's biographer Lawrence J. Quirk thought that it was one of Newman 's weaker performances , stating " For once , even Newman 's famed charisma fails him , for in Cool Hand Luke he completely lacks the charm that , say , Al Pacino in Scarecrow effortlessly exhibits when he plays a screw @-@ up who also winds up ( briefly ) incarcerated . " However , Quirk added that Newman 's performance was stronger in the second half and said that " to be fair to Newman , he was trying his damnedest to play an impossible part , since Luke is a convict 's rationalization fantasy and never a real character . " Some authors have criticized the film 's depiction of prison life at the time . In a review entitled " Sheer Beauty in the Wrong Place , " Life , while praising the film 's photography , criticized the influence of the visual styles in the depictions of the prison camp . The magazine declared that the landscapes turned it into " a rest camp ( in which ) the men are getting plenty of sleep , food and healthy outdoor exercise , " that despite the presence of the guards showed that there were " worse ways to pay one 's debt with society . " Ron Clooney also remarked that prisons " were not hotels and certainly not the stuff of Cool Hand Luke movies . " 
