Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Diana Koerner, Gay Hamilton and Leon Vitali
There was no film-maker past or present who challenged the viewer quite like Stanley Kubrick. He was a relentless auteur who picked stories and subjects that seem tailor-made to do didactic message movies - from war (Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket) to technology (2001: A Space Odyssey) to the dissolution of nuclear family (The Shining) - and he had the bravery to present them to the audience in a way that doesn't proselytize them. He often also did this in the most out-there, trippy way that could possibly be conveyed.
1975's Barry Lyndon was the film that came directly before The Shining on Kubrick's filmography, and the only one of his major films that I hadn't seen. Its lackluster reception at the time is what led to him picking a horror film as his ensuing project. It's easy to see why this movie was a hard sell to the general public. It was historical fiction, for starters, a genre that doesn't fare very well at the box office unless you have a Harlequin Titanic-style schmaltzy love story attached. It also has a very slow pace, a three-hour running time and that trademark Kubrick opressively cold atmosphere that keeps every character at an arm's length. Having said all of that, it is also an immensely engaging watch with deeply layered storytelling, a mix of different themes, and plenty of amazing sights to behold from a film-making standpoint.
Like many tragedies, the story of Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) starts with ill-fated love. The setting is 18th century Ireland, and Barry is infatuated with his cousin Nora Brady (Gay Hamilton). While the romance starts off promising, it soon spirals when Nora catches the eye of a British army officer and agrees to marry him. This leads to Barry challenging the officer to a pistol duel and winning, a move that results in his banishment and travels all around Europe. Regarding the structure of this film, it is indeed loose, but every scene has a purpose and seems to lead directly into the next. For a movie that clocks in at 187 minutes, the script feels lean, due in no small part to an ever-present voice-over from a narrator who is never seen as an onscreen character.
The next phase of Barry's life centers around his entering the military and service in the Seven Years' War, a move that seems merely convenient at the time due to his status as a wanted man. He begins the war in the British army but eventually deserts before being recaptured by the Prussian forces and forced to join their ranks. There are some great scenes in this section of the film, particularly a long, unbroken shot of musket after musket being inserted into a sniper's hole and firing their payloads. Barry is a brave soldier, saving his commanding officer (and Prussian abductor, no less) and gaining enough trust to engage in an espionage mission when his military service has concluded. This move is what brings him to Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee).
The second half of Barry Lyndon is a difficult watch, far less entertaining than the first but no less engaging. In that way, it is very similar to Kubrick's later war opus Full Metal Jacket, which began as a funny, angry and heartbreaking film about basic training and ended as a Vietnam war thriller. I also noticed many similarities to Gone With the Wind, with a character doomed by early love who makes it their mission to acquire riches by any means necessary. Barry sees those means as a result of his association with the Chevalier and their standing in high society, noticing the Countess Lyndon (the beautiful Marisa Berenson) along with her elderly husband and young son. It isn't long until the Countess' husband has passed on, leaving Barry wide open to swoop in, marry her, and claim her last name as his own.
The final act consists of the fall of this character. The newly-minted Barry Lyndon has a son with his new wife who later dies in a horse-riding accident; yup, just like Gone With the Wind, although the novel this film was based on predates that one by almost a century, so no ripoff here. What the story focuses on, however, is Barry's relationship with his stepson Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali). To put it mildly, this union is tempestuous at best, with the kid holding a great deal of enmity for the rogue after his family's titles and riches. The conflict eventually builds up to the film's climactic and quite unpredictable duel scene, which ranks only slightly behind this in all-time best cinematic duels:
Barry Lyndon is yet another visual feast from Kubrick. The film's interior shots are masterworks of set and production design, with the night scenes often being filmed utilizing only natural lighting in a technique that Kubrick had to create for the film. The exteriors are no less memorable, with the lush Irish countryside serving as the stand-in for not only Ireland but also England and Prussia during the war scenes. In short, 300 principal filming days of prime, ridiculous, obsessive-compulsive disorder Stanley Kubrick on display in glorious 4K resolution if you're willing to shell out thirty bucks for the Criterion Collection Blu-ray.
Speaking of the Criterion Blu-ray, the back of the box admittedly made me laugh, describing the movie's message in no uncertain terms at all as a repudiation of opulence, aristocracy and riches. You know...in every interview that Stanley Kubrick ever had, he became extremely annoyed if the interviewer asked him, "what does this mean?" He didn't WANT to spell out the meaning of his films. He was all about ambiguity and leaving everything up to interpretation for the viewer, and this film was no different. My take-away from this film is that people are not good at heart. We're all selfish assholes who seek creature comforts and material things for superficial pleasure, and it takes concerted effort and application to be better. You can argue that this is confirmation bias on my part, and you wouldn't be wrong, but that's the beauty of Kubrick's works. You're free to take anything from art that you want, and this is what great art - and great cinema - is all about.
Rating: *** 1/2 out of ****. While I didn't feel an attachment to any of the characters (and wasn't meant to), this was an endlessly fascinating and eye-popping story where I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. Check this one out.
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