Simply A Masterpiece

hyped garbage

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

TITLE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN opened in theaters in the United States on December 18 1972 starring Paul Newman, Victoria Principal, and Anthony Perkins and it will take you 2 hours to watch this movie. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN was a 1972 western film written by John Milius, directed by John Huston, and starring Paul Newman (at the height of his career, between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting). It was loosely based on the real-life, self-appointed frontier judge. SUMMARY: An outlaw, Roy Bean, rides into a West Texas border town called Vinegaroon by himself. The customers in the saloon beat him, rob him, toss a noose around him, and let Bean's horse drag him off. A young woman named Maria Elena finds and helps him. Bean promptly returns to town and shoots all those who did him wrong. With no law and order, he appoints himself judge and "the law west of the Pecos" and becomes the townspeople's "patrone." Bean renames the saloon The Jersey Lilly and hangs a portrait of a woman he worships but has never met, Lillie Langtry, a noted actress and singer of the 1890s. When a band of thieves come to town (Big Bart Jackson and gang members Nick the Grub, Fermel Parlee and Whorehouse Lucky Jim), rather than oppose them, Bean swears them in as lawmen. The new marshals round up other outlaws, and then claim their money after Bean sentences them to hang. Dispensing his own kind of frontier justice, Bean lets the marshals hang Sam Dodd and share his money. When a drunk shoots up a saloon, Bean doesn't mind, but when Lily's portrait is struck by a bullet, the fellow is shot dead on the spot. Prostitutes are sentenced to remain in town and keep the marshals company.QUESTIONS: Who was Maria Elena? Who was the mountain man? What kind of gift did he give to Maria? Why did Bean go to San Antonio? What did the Judge bring back to Maria? MY THOUGHTS: I loved this movie. There was action and drama right from the beginning. I thought the job that Paul Newman did in the role, as Judge Roy Bean was great. This Western had something in it as most Westerns don't and that was comedy. One of the best is when Maria catches the Judge with another woman an she takes after him with a shotgun. I bought this movie however for Victoria Principal and I wasn't disappointed. This was Victoria introduction and she was great. She was very young in this picture but her acting was great. You didn't get to see much of her because it was a Western, however because of her beauty and acting I'm giving this movie 10 weasel stars.

Paul Newman plays the outlaw who one day, after looking through a law book, decides that he's a judge. He then appoints a bunch of robbers as his Marshalls, hangs posters of a actress all around his bar aka house of law and hangs people left and right. With a beer loving Bear and a hot gal by his side he has a pretty wild life.This is of course a comedy, or at least partly a comedy. It does take time for some drama and a whole lot of action. As the times gets more civilized, the honorable judge Roy Bean never seem to change too much, which is of ill liking of the more sophisticated. Paul Newman gives a solid performance as the half crazed judge, his supporting cast is good as well and we even get great cameos from Perkins, Gardner and Huston himself. I highly recommended watching this one.Overall rating 8.5/10.

The life of the real Judge Bean was more interesting, at least as how it is recounted on Wikipedia, and if Wikipedia is true, then episodes of the movie go directly opposite events of the real Roy Bean's life.The scene where Paul Newman orders the hanging of a criminal who doesn't think he has done anything wrong for killing a Chinese man? The real Bean made up that law himself as an excuse to release an Irish murderer from his crime - by saying that his law book ruled against killing human beings- not Chinamen.The first man Bean ever killed was a Mexican "desperado," according to Wikipedia. At 41, he married an 18 year old Mexican girl and then was convicted of assaulting her in their marriage, which eventually led to a divorce after 4 children.No, the real Judge Bean didn't sound at all like a person worth mythologizing, at least not THIS way, except as an example of misbehavior and notoriety - a far cry from this boring, lazy, star-vehicle movie with a truly reprehensible script that does a disservice to history and to our intelligence.The only real interest this movie has is as a historical document and as an excuse to ogle the famous actors of the time - Paul Newman, Ava Gardner, a young Victoria Principal, who all play shallow, 2 dimensional characters.

If you're looking for a factual account of Judge Roy Bean, this is not the film. One has still to be made for veracity. You won't find it in the old television series that starred Edgar Buchanan as the judge nor will you find it in the old William Wyler western, The Westerner, that got Walter Brennan an Academy Award for playing Roy Bean.But if you're looking for good rollicking entertainment than this is the film for you. I have to believe that Paul Newman must have loved making this film, because it allowed him to be colorful, outrageous, and overact like a ripe Virginia ham. John Huston as director doesn't hold him in check in any way and the results are grand.In fact the real Roy Bean (1825-1903) lived a good deal longer and had a longer career than what is shown here. He was probably more of a hell raiser than what Huston and Newman give us. He had more children than the one daughter played by Jacqueline Bisset towards the end of the film. Huston did incorporate some of the legend, it is true that he had a stiff neck as a result of a hanging attempt. Please note that the real Bean did die in 1903 so the whole last 20 minutes or so of the film is pure fabrication. But it's great stuff.His obsession with fabled actress Lillie Langtry is also part of the Bean legend and it is true. They never did meet, but it is a fact that Lillie as played here by Ava Gardner did visit Bean's town now named Langtry, Texas after Bean's death here and in real life.Victoria Principal made her screen debut in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean as the woman who nurses him back to health after some unfriendly bandits nearly lynch him and who becomes his wife. It's hard to believe that this is the same woman who played a much different Texas female in Pamela Barnes Ewing on Dallas.Huston assembled a good supporting cast for Newman besides those I've mentioned, Anthony Perkins, Tab Hunter, Ned Beatty, Roy Jenson, Bill McKinney are some of them. My favorite is Stacy Keach as the crazed Albino killer who challenges Bean. His demise at Newman's hands is the image I carry most from this film.I think when you see The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean it will be the same for you.