Barry Lyndon (Amazon.com Exclusive) (1979)

I am an unabashed Kubrick fan. I was initiated into his work with "A Clockwork Orange" when I was 16 and went from there. Why is it that "Barry Lyndon" has in my mind surpassed other more revered works. You can cite the magnificent technical attributes of the film(cinematography,art direction, costume design,music), however, a technically proficient movie is not necessarily a moving experience. I would have to say that what elevates this movie is the screenplay and the acting. Kubrick does a great job moving the story from Redmond Barry's youth to his downfall among the English aristocracy. Kubrick has also gathered a great cast of actors here in supporting roles(Parick Magee, Leonard Rossiter, Marie Kean, Godfrey Quigley, Steven Berkof, etc.). What cannot be overlooked is the performance of Ryan O'Neal. If some find him wooden or off-putting should consider that he is essentially playing an unsympathetic rogue. It is a daring performance and O'Neal is utterly convincing whether playing a headstrong teenager or a cold manipulator. One gripe about the DVDs in the Kubrick Collection: with the exception of "The Shining", the only extras on these discs are trailers.

Jack Warner is said to have once told an underling not to bring him any movies about people who write with feather pens. The mogul believed that costume epics were dull and plodding, guaranteed to test the patience of most audiences.

When Stanley Kubrick delivered his film "Barry Lyndon" to Warner Bros. in 1975, the studio's namesake was long gone, and that was probably for the best since he may have chosen not to release what is the ultimate feather pen movie and also Kubrick's greatest masterpiece. If asked to do the impossible and name the best film ever made, I wouldn't hesitate to give my vote to "Barry Lyndon."

Plodding? Yes. Dull? To those who demand rapid fire editing, it may be the dullest movie ever. For those who appreciate fine literature and fine art, "Barry Lyndon" is an absolute feast, visually, aurally, and dramatically. Based on an obscure novel by William Thackeray, it's the story of an Irish lad climbing the ranks of English society, alienating everyone in his path.

As Redmond Barry, Ryan O' Neal's Irish brogue comes and goes, but despite that inconsistency, he acquits himself well. Also worth noting is Michael Hordern's narrator, often seeming to express disapproval for the main character as he perceptively surveys his exploits.

The real star of the film is Kubrick and his production team who recreate the 17th century in a way that makes the viewer truly appreciate what life must have been like at the time. Watching the women, most notably the beautiful Marisa Berenson, sashaying about in glamourous dresses, one wonders how they could endure the apparent discomfort of such cumbersome clothing. It's no wonder they took so many baths. And watching Barry rise in society, one is aware that the society is ultimately every bit as superficial and uncouth as the rogue "hero" himself.

The movie is slow, very slow, but so was life in the era depicted, and the achievement of "Barry Lyndon" is that it transports the viewer to an earlier but far from simpler time in a way that no other film has done. The cinematography and art direction are peerless, as is Leonard Rosenman's score which adapts the work of some of the greatest classical composers.

Most movies, even the good ones, are as light as popcorn, easily forgotten when the lights come back on. The patient viewer who gives "Barry Lyndon" a chance to work its magic will be rewarded with a true cinematic experience.

Brian W. Fairbanks

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In 1975, one European reviewer wrote: "One collapses in one's seat and is propelled in a state of drunken euphoria." That's just how I felt about it, going back to experience "Barry Lyndon" over and over again at the Los Angeles Cinerama Dome theater in 1975-76. So I give the movie 5 stars. But for the standard 3x4 DVD (1:1.33 aspect ratio), only 3.

Having recently watched the 16x9 Hi-Def Blu-Ray discs of "Eyes Wide Shut" and "A Clockwork Orange" (after having watched the old standard DVDs a number of times), I can say that Hi-Def makes an important difference with Kubrick's movies -not just because they are gorgeously photographed, but because the richness of the images conveys so much essential, visceral meaning that even a slightly degraded picture (i.e., standard DVD) actually impairs the work's emotional fullness, clarity and expressiveness. So much of "Barry Lyndon" consists of pure image and music, and so many of the images are meant to intoxicate, that the film needs to be seen in the best possible technical presentation.

Short of a new 35mm print, a 16x9 Blu-Ray disc displayed on a big 1080 set in the dark, uninterrupted, is the way to watch all of Kubrick, perhaps especially "Barry Lyndon." Now, finally, Warners Brothers Home Entertainment will release "Barry Lyndon" in Hi-Def on Blu-Ray disc on May 31, 2011. Yes, that means you have to buy it again, but if Warners' Hi-Def releases of their other Kubrick films are any indication, it will be worth it. With any luck, this Hi-Def release should accelerate the recent critical rehabilitation of this tragically under-appreciated masterpiece.

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I am another who considers this film to be perhaps the finest cinematic feature ever produced. I have a few other contenders in my mind, but "Barry Lyndon" continues to grow more and more in my affection and incredulity. I have watched it, I don't know how many times. The DVD brings out it's sharpness, and I love going straight to my favorite scenes when I need an aesthetic pick-me-up. This is Kubrick at his prime, filmed after the scorching he received from the controversy over "Clockwork," and after the disappointment he suffered from realizing that his dream of "Napoleon" would not come to fruition [and oh, what a great loss to all of us it was that he never had the chance to make that movie! One can only imagine how Kubrick would have filled out the character of the Great Provocateur and how that movie would have informed history!]. In "Barry Lyndon," the chastened Kubrick comes roaring back from those two disappointments in all his strength and artistic genius--Kubrick the perfectionist doing the butterfly and backstroke in luscious irony. Yes it's long, yes it's slow--of course it is, it's as slow as the universe, and equally amazing. Every moment is fraught with the crispness of life moving forward and the irony of human ambition. I admit, when I first saw it in 1976 in 70mm at the theater, I was dismayed with it's seeming tediousness, but I was 18 then and I am nearing 50 now, and I think I've learned that the eye and the senses have to look and look and look again--and that's what the eye does with this movie, it looks with Kubrick, and listens with Kubrick, and delights with the master in the presence of his masterpiece. You stare at this movie, and you wait, and in that time spent waiting you find such incredible pleasure in every detail, watching every stroke of genius, every arranged perfection. This movie is simply abundant deliciousness with the accompaniment of Handel and Schubert and Bach and Irish traditional. O'Neil is as banal and absurd as his character and his adventures are exquisitely outrageous on the most sublime level. The cinematography and period reconstruction is pure eye candy. And the musical score is pure eloquence, enrapturing as it is instructive. Buy the soundtrack (see my other reviews, and get the CD now while you can), press the headphones against your ear, and relive over and over again that eternity in a moment when Redmond first walks out, oh so slowly and deliberately with the languorous texture of violin and piano and cello, to come close to, and then to accost, and to kiss Lady Lyndon. The whole movie is the finest minuet moving forward and you only need grasp it's hand and pull it to you and move with it in it's rythm. It is some of the most richly rewarding cinema you will ever experience if you allow it to be what it is--Kubrick the master, at the pinnacle of his craft.

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Stanley Kubrick's beautifully opulent production takes many liberties with William Makepeace Thackeray's picaresque romance, The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq (1843), narrated in the first person depicting events from the eighteenth century. In particular, Redmond Barry who becomes Barry Lyndon, is something of an admirable rake, whereas in Thackeray's novel he is a braggart, a bully and a scoundrel. No matter. Kubrick, in keeping with a long-standing filmland tradition, certainly has license, and Thackeray won't mind.

Ryan O'Neal is the unlikely star, and he does a good job, rising from humble Irish origins to the decadence of titled wealth, employing a two-fisted competence in the manly arts, including some soldiering, some thievery at cards and a presumed consummate skill in the bedroom. Marisa Berenson plays Lady Lyndon, whom Barry has managed to seduce; and when her elderly husband dies, she marries Barry thus elevating his social and economic station in life. But Barry is rather clumsy at playing at peerage, and bit by bit manages to squander most of the Lyndon fortune until his stepson, Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali) grows old enough to do something about it.

This really is a gorgeous movie thanks to the exquisite sets and costumes and especially to John Alcott's dreamy cinematography and a fine score by Leonard Rosenman. The 184 minutes go by almost without notice as we are engrossed in the rise and fall of Barry's fortunes. There is fine acting support from Patrick Magee as the Chevalier de Balibari and Leonard Rossiter as Captain Quinn, and a number of lesser players, who through Kubrick's direction bring to life Europe around the time of the Seven Years War (1754-1763) when decadence and aristocratic privilege were still in full flower.

The script features two dueling scenes, the first showing the combatants firing at one another simultaneously at the drop of a white kerchief, the second has Barry and his stepson face each other ten paces apart, but due to the flip of a coin, the stepson fires first. Both scenes are engrossing as we see the loading of the pistols with powder, ball and ramrod, and we are able to note how heavy the pistols are and how difficult it must be to hit a silhouette at even a short distance. It is this kind of careful attention to directional detail that absorbs us in the action and makes veracious the story. Notice too the way the British soldiers march directly en mass toward the French guns. They actually used to fight battles that way! Also note the incredible pile of hair atop Lady Lyndon's head. Surely this is some kind of cinematic record.

Bottom line: one of Kubrick's best, certainly his most beautiful film.

--Dennis Littrell, author of ""