Paul Newman's '70s Western Comedy Is An Overlooked Treasure Streaming For Free

Legendary filmmaker John Huston released two films in 1972. "Fat City" is a gritty, intimate drama about two boxers (Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges) who meet at opposite ends of their careers. It's the anti-"Rocky," and an essential piece of New Hollywood cinema. Later that year, Huston delivered "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean." This was a big prestige movie loosely based on the wild exploits of Roy Bean, a self-appointed justice of the peace who played judge, jury and executioner for Val Verde County, Texas. It was also a star vehicle for Paul Newman, who'd previously achieved commercial success as a Western hellraiser in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." It was a hit 54 years ago and received mostly good reviews, but it's barely discussed now. What's up with that?

It could be that Bean's above-the-law antics, which are depicted with rowdy aplomb by Huston and screenwriter John Milius, aren't all that amusing in this era of law enforcement overreach. Also, its entire aesthetic is dated and imitative of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Do you cringe at the "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head interlude in that movie? Trust me, you will groan yourself silly when Newman and Victoria Principal throw a picnic with a friendly bear (named Zachary Taylor) to the strains of Andy Williams' "Marmalade, Molasses and Honey."

Does the film work at all today? Surprisingly, yes, and much of the credit goes to Newman's sheer movie-star charisma. The film is also populated with appealing actors playing oddball characters, so if you treat it as a movie of its era, there are pleasures to be found here (and you can watch it for free on YouTube). Just don't ask Milius what he thinks of it.

Milius was New Hollywood's churlish conservative. He can be a great writer ("Big Wednesday," "Conan the Barbarian," "The Wind and the Lion"), but he often clashed with filmmakers when he worked for hire. That said, it's hard to fault him for not enjoying his time with Huston, who famously treated Ray Bradbury like crud when the two worked on "Moby Dick."

Milius also had a hard time working for Huston. He had a very specific take on Bean, and thought Huston turned it into a "Beverly Hills Western." As Milius told The Los Angeles Times in 1973:

"Roy Bean is an obsessed man. He's like Lawrence of Arabia. He sits out there in the desert and he's got this great vision of law and order and civilization and he kills people and does anything in the name of progress. I love those kind of people! That's the kind of people who built this country! That's the American spirit! And they say, 'What you've created is a reprehensible man. We've got to make him much more cute.'"

I'm not sure killing a drunk who shot a poster of your favorite singer in a saloon qualifies as "progress," but Milius is a vociferous Trump supporter, so we may differ on the meaning of that word. I will say that Milius' gift for colorful dialogue is well served by Newman, Ned Beatty, Anthony Perkins, Stacy Keach and Huston himself (as Grizzly Adams). I wonder if his script ended on a melancholy note as Huston's film does (with a cameo from Ava Gardner), but Milius did say that his version was much more humorous. I can't imagine what a funnier "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" would look like.