The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

(On Cable TV, August 2022) I’m not sure whether I expected too much or too little from The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. On the one hand, it does feature Paul Newman—a sure-fire crowd-pleaser and usually a dependable screen presence. On the other hand—I’ve seen far too many 1970s revisionist westerns lately, and I think I just had my fill before watching this one. Back to the first hand: It’s directed by John Huston, and features notables such as Tab Hunter, Anthony Perkins, Victoria Principal, Ava Gardner, Ned Beaty and Jacueline Bisset—how can you not be interested in this cast? But returning to the second hand: the film makes a bland protagonist out of a rather problematic figure (the inverse of what other revisionist westerns of the time were doing!) and its intention to tell its subject’s story over several decades means that the film works in stop-and-go episodes, not earning much narrative velocity or interest. Even at two hours, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean feels overlong and heavy. There’s a comic musical interlude (with a bear) in a film about a figure best known for presiding over violent justice. In other words, in a pitiful attempt at a conclusion where I throw both hands in the air: I just couldn’t get into this film despite elements that should have worked much better. I’m confounded by it, and may revisit it someday… but not soon: I feel as if I’ve given it a chance, and it fumbled it.