Barry Lyndon
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Movie Reviews of Barry Lyndon
Movie Review: unattractive characters, a bored narrator, and phenomenal story
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the most original films that I have ever seen. It turns so many notions of normal hollywood filmmaking on their head that I think it is great satire based on realism. Not only do we start off knowing that the principal character that is doomed by his character flaws, but its great beauty/prize - Marisa Berenson in her prime - comes across as dull and plain as a doornail. THere is not a single redeeming character, and even its climax - the duel with his step son - is a comedy of errors. Perhaps the funniest moment in the film is a death by heart attack.
The result is a marvelously lush tour of the underbelly of the late 18C British aristocracy in the context of the wider society, with strict attention to period realism. Virtually all emotion, as witnessed by the viewer, is vapid, self-seeking, deluded, and in the end pathetic. When action abruptly occurs, and there are plenty of vivid bursts of it, it comes too late to do much good.
The theme, I believe, is decadence, a doomed order just prior to the French and Industrial Revolutions. Disillusioned at every turn, Redmond Barry is stripped of his dignity and humanity by a trick and then enlistment in the military, reasserts himself as an interloper into the aristocracy, and imposes his cruelty and cynicism on everyone. His only redeeming features are a few relationships, which invariably are doomed or abandoned, except for his tough mother. It is truly bleak.
Though completely unsympathetic, the actors are wonderful. O'Neal is brilliant as a guileful fool. Berenson, a pampered weakling full of romantic illusion, has nothing whatsoever interesting about her.
As it did 35 years ago, this film utterly rivetted me. As many reviewers have noted, the print is regrettably mediocre. But this is a classic. REcommended.
Movie Review: A Cinematic Masterpiece, Should be in the Guggenheim
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a very fancy art lover, who spends 30 minutes gazing at the out of focus paintings of monet and trying to come up with some feelings towards it( I tried, and couldn't, to the disappointment of my date!!), I am however, an amateur photographer, I dabble in terms such as Aperture, lighting, kind of a junior. I got interested in Kubrick work when I bought 2001 on blu ray, the equisite depiction of space, and shots of the moon surface were captivating, so I started looking at some of his other work, until I stumbled upon this one.
This is by far the best cinematography I have ever seen, as a matter of fact, Kubrick used a special lense built by Carl Ziess for NASA apollo moon exploration program, with the incredible 0.7 F stop, highest ever used in film history ( up until now no film maker has even tried to use that lense). Certain scenes Kubrick uses three candels to light the entire scene, thats it, a perfect work of art.
This movie is like gazing at the monalisa, and then all of the sudden she starts talking an acting. Actors walk out of portraits on the wall to interact and have a dialog. As with all Kubrick movies, you need to watch it more than once to discover it more. first time I rented this, I was bored within 45 minutes ( most of the story is about some british royalty wearing tight pants), Then four months later I re rented it just to look at the candle scene( I muted the sound), I was debating whether I should buy it or wait for the Blu Ray to come out, but finally I said this is something I need in my personal collection. Definitely a captivating display of images.
If I ran the guggenhiem, I would take off all the Monet and van gogh paintings on the wall, and post frames from this movie up there.
Movie Review: Beautiful Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
If a movie can be said to have texture this is it. This is, by far, Stanley Kubrick's best movie. Coincidentally, this is Ryan O'Neal's best movie though he told an interviewer that Kubrick drove him crazy during the production. Kubrick experimented with cameras to capture the quality of candle light. For the most part, he was able to avoid artificial lighting but not entirely. Technology has its limits though. Actors were required to keep still during the scenes lit by candles; the cameras needed a narrow focus.
Though Hollywood legend says that all the costumes were antiques, this is not true. However, given Kubrick's nature for exact detail I am sure the copies looked original in every minutia. Supposedly, Kubrick framed scenes in the movie to match paintings by a Gainsborough, who would, perhaps have been a contemporary of Barry Lyndon, had he been real. This movie won a slew of Oscars for cinematography, best music, art direction and costume.
As all good movies, there is some basis in fact. The original story was by William Makepeace Thackeray on one of Queen Elizabeth's ancestors: Mary Eleanor Bowes, the Countess of Strathmore, called "the unhappy countess" for her love affair with an Irish rake and fortune hunter Andrew Robinson Stoney. Thackeray is the author of "Vanity Fair," which no doubt was the reason for Kubrick's interest in the film.
This is an excellent film for couples. There is little violence. The pace is slow but this allows the audience to absorb, full measure, the atmosphere this movie attempts to create. Kubrick was successful, I believe.
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Movie Review: The best film about the 18th century
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps the most underrated film ever made. Barry Lyndon is one the most beautifully crafted films in any genre. The film is set in the 18th century, the Age of Reason. But personal feelings and motivations seeped up through the rationalist surface of that time. Barry Lyndon, more than any other film, captures the essence of the 18th century. The costumes, cinematograghy, and settings are all beautiful. Ryan O'Neal, who plays Barry Lyndon, is quite good in the title role. Some have commented that this Stanley Kubrick's most boring film. Actually, important and interesting things happen in every scene.
There's too many events, surprises, and turns in this film to write about them here, which would ruin it for a first time viewer anyway. Barry Lyndon is an Irish scoundrel who is determined to climb up the ladder of the strict British class system. He's not a perfect scoundrel and gets caught off guard several times in the film. The film has a subtle sense of humor like the duel between Barry and the fearful Capt. Quinn. The seduction of Lady Lyndon by Barry in and outside of a gaming room is wonderfully done. There's no dialogue in that scene at all, but if there was it wouldn't have been as effective. Bryan's (Barry's son) deathbed and funeral scenes accompanied by Sarabande music are powerful. When Barry was in the Royal Army he got into a fistfight with another soldier. His opponet was bigger and had the brut strength that Barry didn't have. But Barry was more cunning and quicker so he won the fight. The scene says a lot about the character and the plot. There's a lot more but you really have to see it for yourself.
Movie Review: I saw BL twice(!) the month it came out - in 1975...
Summary: 5 Stars
I was already a devoted Kubrick fan - after all, "Dr Strangelove", "2001" and "Clockwork Orange" all debuted within the previous 10 years (my teens). In the months preceeding the release of Barry Lyndon I read about several aspects of the filmmaking that piqued my anticipation - and ultimately contributed to my lifelong appreciation for this film: 1. The fact that Kubrick assisted in the development of lenses of heretofore unequaled sensitivity in order to film numerous interior scenes by natural or candlelight; 2. That he chose as subject matter a novel (by Thackery), that the author himself had so disliked that he discouraged its publication during his lifetime; and 3. I read that Kubrick had listened to "every" extant period composition for quartet to choose the accompanying soundtrack. Sure, I was as skeptical as anyone as to how Ryan O'neill - Mr "Love Story" - could possibly have the gravitas for a Kubrickian character, and I knew going in that it was 3+ hours long... but I was hypnotized from the opening frame. The pacing, the sardonic narration, the breathtaking cinematography, the unerring score. Certainly my affinities for photography and art history were thoroughly rewarded, but I also found the storytelling strangely compelling as well. Which is why I sat through the film twice, on the BIG screen, within the first few weeks that it opened. As an insight into my cinematic preferences, the only other film that I recall seeing twice within the first few weeks of release, was "Natural Born Killers"... The soundtrack to BL is also highly recommended.