237. Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Ryan O'Neal

Marisa Berenson

Patrick Magee

IMDb Rating: 7.9

My Rating: 8

"If ever i should meet him again you will find out who is the best man of the two. I'll fight him sword or pistol, captain as he is."

Barry Lyndon is a film in two parts. An alternate title could have easily been "The Rise and Fall of Barry Lyndon." In Part One, we meet young Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal), a passionate Irishman who only wants to establish himself as a wealthy nobleman. After killing British Captain John Quill in a duel, Barry flees to Dublin. Along the way he is robbed of his money and horse. This forces him to enlist into the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War. Eventually, Barry abandons the British Army, and is forced into the Prussian Army. There he saves the life of his captain, which leads him to becoming a servant for Chevalier de Balibai (Patrick Magee).

The Prussians suspect Chevalier of being a spy, and they assign Barry to verify their theory. Barry learns that Chevalier is also an Irishman, and the two quickly become close allies. The two travel around cheating nobles. Seeing himself changed, Barry seduces the Countess of Lyndon (Marisa Berenson). This is easy and she easily falls in love with him. The year following her husband's death, Barry and the Countess are married. It is here that Barry's life has peaked and the downturn of his life slowly begins.

I am not a huge fan of "period piece" films. So I met Barry Lyndon with some skepticism. I will say of all the period pieces I have seen, this is by far one of the best. Ryan O'Neal gives us a character that we root for in the beginning and slowly start to dislike as the film progresses. His passion at the beginning of the film, I found very easy to identify with. The language of the film was never too difficult to understand. Historical films have a tendency to lose you in the language. Through a great main character and a script that never goes off course, Barry Lyndon entertains and intrigues the audience.

Stanley Kubrick once again adds to his multi-dimensional talent. It was hard to believe that this film came from the same man who made The Shining and A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick adapts the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray into a perfectly written script. The film also looks absolutely gorgeous. Kubrick's filming of a classic duel, gives us a genuine feeling of what it was like to have been present at one. Kubrick has once again given us a cinematic film, on which every film in it's genre will have to be compared.

After first watching the film, I wasn't impressed as I was later the next day. As the film settled in, I started to realize how excellent of a film it was. It's run time is a hefty three hours, but there is a lot of story to tell. It rarely feels unnecessary or dragged out. I would recommend the film for anyone who enjoyed Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence or television's The Tudors.