Post by Eddie Love on Nov 29, 2010 18:59:15 GMT -5
In the 1970s Paul Newman was an unassailable giant in American film. He could have gotten anything made, and the script of whatever was produced had his fingerprints all over it whether he ended up starring in it or not. He had the film world at his feet. That’s why it’s depressing when you see how largely disappointing the decade was for him as a whole. (His two pictures with George Roy Hill notwithstanding.) But of all his 70s output the bottom of the barrel is the wretched bummer THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN. By turns arch and pretentious, but always unfunny and generally unpleasant, this shitty movie is a chore to sit through.
Essentially a “revisionist” Western that tells the (tall) tale of the frontier character who set himself up as the “the only law west of the Pecos”: Judge Roy Bean. Through a host of painfully unamusing episodes, we trace the life and legend of this thouroughly unlikable figure.
Indifferently directed by John Huston, this simply has to be his worst film, I can’t think of anything else that comes close, in fact. Are we meant to find the Judge a lovable rogue and take pleasure in his hanging men? There’s certainly no depth to the portrait otherwise. And I don’t blame the failure of the finished film on the scriptwriter John Millius, because you do get the sense that there was a lot of research that went into the project as well as a stab at some epic scope. But what we wind up with onscreen is stylistically and thematically ugly and rendered by movie titans who are simply phoning it in.
And what a cast. Never have so many been assembled in the service of so little. Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardiner, Jacqueline Bisset and Houston himself fill out a cast that yells and twangs their way through whole scenes. Stacy Keach has a wildly over-the-top cameo as a crazed albino, gunfighter that’s even weirder than what he did in BREWSTER MCCLOUD around the same time, and to even less effect. What a waste.
The whole film has a tacky and obvious musical score. But the most jaw-dropping offense in that regard is the romantic song interlude ala "Raindrops.." from BUTCH CASSIDY. Once again Newman cavorts with a gorgeous woman (and also a bear) while an incongruous easy listening number plays – something sung by Andy Williams of all people. I guess it’s possible that this is some kind of parody, but it will nevertheless induce cringes.
Is there anything good here? Well, any film with Paul is made finer by his presence, and he has a few decent moments. Best of all in this mess is the ravishing, fresh-faced Victoria Principal as Bean’s young bride. I’ve never seen a single episode of Dallas and always thought of her as a plastic starlet, but she’s breathtaking and natural here. That’s it. These are the only merits to this picture that's otherwise really pretty odious.
TLATOJRB is like a movie mirage. I sometimes think, “I must have been wrong. Surely, I missed it. There has to be something there.” And when I look again and chance to re-watch it, I realize, “No. It really is that awful.”
I hate this movie.
