Synopsis
Outlaw and self-appointed lawmaker Judge Roy Bean rules over an empty stretch of the West that gradually grows, under his iron fist, into a thriving town, while dispensing his his own quirky brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by.
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Cast
- Paul NewmanJudge Roy Bean
- Victoria PrincipalMaria Elena
- Ned BeattyTector Crites
- Matt ClarkNick the Grub
- Roddy McDowallFrank Gass
- Jacqueline BissetRose Bean
- Bill McKinneyFermel Parlee
- Anthony PerkinsReverend LaSalle
- Tab HunterSam Dodd
- Stacy KeachBad Bob
Recommendations
- 70
The New York Times
It leaves itself wide open to charges of pretentiousness. Yet "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" is so entertaining and so vigorously performed, especially by Newman in the title role, that its pretensions become part of its robust, knock-about style. - 70
Time
With a two-fisted script by John Milius (who later wrote Apocalypse Now and Red Dawn), Huston and Newman created a raucous, Rabelaisian, revisionist western of the sort popular at the time. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Paul Newman has lots of fun playing the legendary hanging judge, and Ava Gardner is a ravishing Lily Langtry, the object of Bean's unrequited love. [18 Aug 1991, p.6] - 63
Chicago Sun-Times
It's an incredible lapse in a movie of this size and ambition - but they've failed to make Judge Roy Bean interesting. He's one-dimensional, predictable, propped up by Paul Newman's acting style, with no personality of his own. - 50
Chicago Reader
Newman does a remarkable John Huston impression, and screenwriter John Milius demonstrates once again that he went to film school. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
A rambling revisionist western whose episodic nature was only marginally successful and which didn't come close to BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID on any level. - 40
Variety
The overkill and the underdone do it in. - 38
Chicago Tribune
Despite the direction of John Huston, this story of a self-appointed Western judge (Paul Newman) isn't one of anyone's best. [06 Apr 1990, p.71]
