Film Credits

Screenplay by: John Milius

Directed by: John Huston

Starring: Paul Newman, Eva Gardner, Roddy McDowell, Stacy Keach, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Ned Beatty

Review

Ah, the curse of the mediocre. Your illustrious editor has been ragging my ass to get my reviews in so he could publish. Of course, since I chose a bunch of mediocre films to review, it's taken me all month to sit my ass down and begin to write. (Cursa you a Frogga man.) Anyway, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean is not a bad film, yet it's terribly great either. Directed by John Huston, Judge Roy Bean is not one of his classic films like The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of Sierra Madre, or, my personal favorite, The African Queen. The film is, however, an entertaining way to spend two hours. In a nutshell, the film is about an outlaw (Paul Newman), who declares himself a judge and then declares himself "The Law West of the Pecos."

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean is an interesting film, and if I were to attempt to categorize it, I would probably call it a pseudo-Western. The film struggles to present the characters as larger-than-life heroes, but an incongruous mix of different film styles manages to sabotage this effort. One minute Judge Roy Bean rides into town and shoots everyone, while the next minute he's comically trying to give a eulogy; another character, who happens to be dead, breaks the fourth wall and talks to the camera from beyond the grave; and finally, yet another character is shot dead by a bullet that leaves a perfect circle through his stomach. Additionally, John Milius' screenplay is doused with a liberal amount of violence (surprise, surprise!), and as happens with most of Milius' scripts, the film begins to wander towards the end of the second act.

All this aside, with the exception of a real annoying and insipid love song by Andy Williams, Judge Roy Bean is entertaining to watch. You get the feeling that John Huston and the cast had fun making this film. As Judge Roy Bean, Paul Newman is terrific and enjoyable to watch. In addition, Eva Garder is elegant in a brief cameo as Lily Langtry; Roddy McDowall portrays an effeminate nebbish lawyer; and Stacy Keach steals the show as an insane gun-slinging albino. Other cast members include Jacqueline Bisset, the late Anthony Perkins and Ned Beatty.

With regard to the laserdisc presentation, Warner has done an outstanding job. I give them credit for remastering, and in most cases, letterboxing many of their "non-classic" titles. Speaking of letterboxing, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean was filmed in the anamorphic Panavision process and is presented on disc with an accurate approx. 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film palette is comprised mainly of earthtones, and although these can be difficult to reproduce, the disc does represent the image fairly faithfully. Side three is presented in CAV, with perfect still frames. The two-disc set is encoded with 26 listed chapter markers, and was pressed at WEA Manufacturing, Inc.