Roy Bean was an American saloon owner in Texas during much of the 1800s who has acquired a reputation of having something of a god complex. This is due to the fact that he took it upon himself to convict criminals on his own in the area he lived. Many movies and books portray him as a murderous psychopath who kills people for breaking even the most trivial rules, but in reality, he only sentenced one person to hang. John Huston must have been interested in the story of Bean's life, and so he decided to make a movie about him. This movie is a heavily fictionalized version of his life though, and shouldn't be considered very accurate. It is about an outlaw, Roy Bean (played by Paul Newman) who rides into a town called Vinegaroon one day and kills a few men who tried to kill him earlier in the film. Since there is no law or order in the middle of nowhere, Bean appoints himself judge of the area. Throughout the movie, Bean is obsessed with a girl he has never met (and never will) named Lillie Langtry, an english actress from the 1800s. He has posters of her all over his saloon, and even shoots a man after he puts a bullet hole through one of them while drunk. While all this is going on, Bean becomes attracted to a girl named Maria (who is native american) and eventually marries her. This is where the movie gets pretty frustrating to watch, because Lillie Langtry actually vists a town close to where Bean is (which never happened in reality) and he shows up there expecting to meet his idol. Unfortunately, the show is sold out, so he tries bribing people for their tickets. Two men knock him out and when he wakes up, Langtry is gone. Meanwhile, Maria has a child but the stress of the birth kills her. Dejected over the loss of his wife, Bean rides out into the desert and disappears for 2 decades. At the end of the movie, Bean actually comes back and meets his daughter for both the first and last time. He is killed shortly afterwards once a gunfight breaks out in the town. Frustratingly, Lillie (Ava Gardner) actually vists Bean's saloon at the end, and it's the only time in the film we see her. It's just sad how Bean died before they could meet, because they probably would have liked each other. In all, this movie is interesting because it's based on a real guy, but the story elements are mostly made up. I thought it was interesting how bean died in 1903 in real life, but in the movie, Lillie is told about how Bean's daughter eventually marries a former world war I pilot. This would imply Bean was alive while the war was going on, which is not true.
