THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN.

by John Milius

play

Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures. He co-wrote the first two Dirty Harry films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of Apocalypse Now, and wrote and directed The Wind and the Lion, Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark comedy. This looks like a screen play but the prose is like the author sitting alongside the reader, winking and nodding as we watch Judge Roy Bean's life unfold. For example, when he starts to look around his town, describing his dream to Marie Elena and telling her that his dream is that the "entire land will some day be covered with farms - green fields - a railroad - schools - churches - trees lining the streets" while standing on a mound. He continues "and a great house on this hill where I can look down and see that everything is going according to plan." Her response is simply "This is a small hill for a house." and the author responds with: It was; there was truth in that.

An interesting read with interesting characters who are not quite what they seem.

At a local theme park, there's a replica of Judge Roy Bean's bar where you can go in for a soda and marvel at a poster of Miss Lillie Langtry - the Jersey Lily in all her beauty. The next time I visit, I will definitely take my time and explore the little building with the sign over the entrance proclaiming it "The Law West of the Pecos".

[Vytas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt that it would never build up to sufficient energy and would dissipate due to its too-episodic nature, but by the time the script reached the last scene - it paid off generously. And when I mean generously, it’s satisfied-after-winning-the-life-or-death-duel generously. An elegy to the Old West that encompasses more history than Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”. And in all its similarities to “The Ballad of Cable Hogue”, another Peckinpah’s picture, on paper “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” might be on or above par with it.

[Bnschmid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beano...come and get me Beano...