The movie Paul Newman said was three-quarters of a classic: “Never came to grips with the ending”
Even though his filmography was hardly lacking in the classics department, Paul Newman was convinced that he’d have another one to add to the collection if only he managed to stick the landing.
Does that mean you could switch it off 75% of the way through and think you’ve just seen a masterpiece? Probably not, because that’s a ridiculous way to watch a movie, and shame on anyone who does. Unfortunately for Newman and everyone else, the ending is the single most important part of a picture.
It doesn’t matter if a film opens with a bang, a grandstanding set piece, or a jaw-dropping sequence, and it doesn’t matter what happens in the middle; the final moments are the freshest thing in an audience’s memory, and that’s the first thing they’ll want to talk about when the lights come up and they leave the theatre.
Of course, Newman knew a thing or two about ending one of his star vehicles on a high note, with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid boasting one of the most iconic final shots of its era. Despite being paired with one of cinema’s most legendary directors, though, neither of them could crack the coda to The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.
Helmed by John Huston, who had two Academy Award wins and a dozen nominations to his name when production began in early 1972, it was one of the first screenplays produced that was penned by soon-to-be ‘New Hollywood’ stalwart John Milius. Throw Newman into the mix, and that’s a trio that packs a punch.
Inspired by true events, the star’s title character rides into the town of Vinegaroon, gets his ass kicked in the local saloon, finds himself rescued by a Mexican woman who nurses him back to health, before he promptly returns, guns down everyone who almost killed him, and declares himself as the new judge.
Milius hated the entire thing, accusing Huston of “changing things and doing scenes, I thought, deliberately wrong,” but at least Newman enjoyed most of it. “Marvellous,” he recalled. “The first three-quarters of the picture are a classic. We never came to grips with the ending, though. I loved that character.”
The final act unfolds during World War I, with Bean returning to a town overrun by automobiles and the unstoppable advent of industry. He blows up an oil rig, instigates a shootout, and disappears into a burning building on horseback, although the movie concludes with the saloon that started and ended his story, now converted into a museum, being a place where people share tales of his feats.
Frustratingly, Newman didn’t explain his reasons for thinking The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean had fallen apart in the final stretch, but since the third act is demonstrably weaker than the first two, it may well be as simple as that. Had he, Huston, or Milius cracked it, then it would have been a different story.
