The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean

So a man walks into a bar, and half an hour later I found myself thinking 'Go home, movie, you're drunk'.

Some people think this a mess, but I think that its eccentric performances, complex Milius script and continual (yet controlled) tonal shifts--from realism to folk tale to surrealism to farce and then back to realism again--make this a uniquely enjoyable epic Western. More than any other film outside the Peckinpah oeuvre, it effectively chronicles and mourns the disappearance of the Old West. Newman is good, and Stacey Keach is a standout in an hilarious cameo as "Original Bad Bob the Albino."

Frustratingly uneven 'revisionist' Western suffers from tonal problems that likely resulted from Huston's desire to 'subvert' Milius's script. Rounding off the edges of this scumbag character, the kind of would be visionary outlaw who captures the 'American spirit', in the words of Milius, was probably a mistake, and it ultimately doesn't do anything that McCabe and Mrs Miller and Buffalo Bill (also starring Newman) didn't do better.

This movie is all over the place, but it's on purpose. You know, it's the 70s... Surrender to its offbeatness, and there is plenty of laughs to be had here (e.g., torch catching, Judge Roy Bean apologizing for an insult by coming up with several much worse insults and several of the awesome scene-stealing bear gags).

Tongue-in-cheek Western with surrealistic touches.

Criminally underrated and little seen masterpiece from genius Huston. Contains a myriad of unforgettable and bizarre scenes and characters. Keach's small scene might well be the most awesome thing ever put on a screen.

Paul Newman saves this from being a disaster. Huston toying with convention doesn’t do it for me in this context

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Delightfully offbeat comedy with a great performance from Newman, who seems to be having a ball. Very underrated Huston film. Bean's a real life person, but the film follows his story very little; It's more a fantasy version of his life. Very much feels like Huston making a Coen Brothers movie. It has some very funny moments. Can't help thinking that it was very very close to being something truly special, but it's a damn good and unique movie as is. Stacy Keach is also awesome in a small role.

A movie that never quite betters the sum of its parts. There's some great humor here surrounded by a few gags that fall flat (and some that haven't been able to stand the test of time). And the sets and costuming are pretty good. It's just that it constantly feels like it's overstaying its welcome.

This is a weird film that has a bit of everything. Some comedy, some drama and some very strange scenes. Paul Newman is great in the lead role. Overall I would recommend this film.

Had some epic moments. But the comedy was just too cheesy for me to rate this high.

Highly-stylized Western featuring Paul Newman and a bear who loves beer.

Tremendously enjoyable and touching with an epic central performance from Newman where his gruff charm centers what could have been messy but now works as an episodic tale. Moments here will stay in my memory for a long time, not least Newman having an oral argument with a bear.

5$? That's outrageous!

1051: really good and tasty! wow!

Loses it's dynamic and energy in the middle but overall it's a great movie with many epic scenes and characters [Stacy Keach's "Bad Bob" for example :)]

69.000

Entertaining, amusing, clever, absurdist/revisionist western. Completely one-of-a-kind. It does run out of steam at a certain point, but never feels worn out.

A rickety mess from Huston. It's little more than a series of increasingly tiresome incidents as the prickly title adjudicator played by Paul Newman takes over a frontier town. Maybe it's good for a misplaced laugh to see Huston himself bluster pointlessly for a scene as Grizzly Adams or to watch Victoria Principal strain admirably but ineffectively in her screen debut as a Latina spitfire, but overall it makes for fairly dreary viewing.

A movie this bizarre with this director and this cast ought to have been a lot more satisfying