Kubrick Watch: Barry Lyndon (1975)

Watched:  09/21/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Stanley Kubrick

Somehow I'd never seen Barry Lyndon (1975).  I assume some part of my brain would look at the film and say "it won't be fun, and it's 3 hours" and would tap out before I could hit play.

In the past 20 years or so, the common wisdom I received in the 1990's - that the movie was dull or not Kubrick's best - seems to have evaporated and the film has received serious reconsideration.  But aside from "people in ruffles cavort in what looks like the second half of the 18th Century", I had no idea what the film was about.  That said, every film student knew that Kubrick's movie was shot with very special lenses, using only candlelight in many scenes -something unheard of in film production.  And I knew Barry Lyndon was supposed to be one of the most visually stunning movie ever produced, which... I mean, Kubrick.   You get that as part of the package.

I am the first to confess, I am not a reader of 19th century books - not since college, anyway, and usually then as coursework.  The film is a loose-ish adaptation of a novel by Thackeray, released in the 1840's but set in the mid 1700's.  There's whiffs of other things I've seen or read that let me know what's in the book and therefore the movie, and I'm reminded of Tom Jones a bit, as well as Great Expectations.  But that's a real basic bitch reading, I'm guessing.  

Still, it's the episodic adventures of a young man moving through a life where titles and social standing are all that matter, and occasionally getting laid (tastefully and off camera).

Much has been said about the look of Barry Lyndon.  And that is all true.  It is absolutely painterly in its use of light, of color, of framing.  It looks very much unlike other mid-70's cinema and wears its influences from the preceding centuries openly.  I'm not steeped in art history, but I've been to a museum or two, and even I could see what Kubrick was up to, recreating how figures were captured, scenes were composed, light fell.  It's a very image-forward film, hanging on often languid shots to allow you to take it in, a lost era re-created so completely one might find it immersive.  

I am not on record as a Ryan O'Neal fan, nor will I be one today, but will say that he had a window in which he made some excellent movies, either by luck of being cast or what he brought.  And I feel like Kubrick saw something so baffled and dead-eyed in what O'Neal could do, he really is the ideal casting for someone barely in touch with the events surrounding him, maybe too dull in some ways to do much but coast along on the currents of fate, which keep him bumping and swirling for the first Part of the film.  

O'Neal is rarely asked to do much more than look pretty and have a somewhat vacant expression.  Redmond Barry - who will become Barry Lyndon - is not the sharpest crayon in the box.  He sees himself as a would-be gentleman, always on the verge of a great destiny, and he is somewhat cunning.  But he is riding the tides of fortune from when he is ejected from his home (and even that is engineered, he learns later), his actions sometimes having great impact, but almost never what he intended.

It takes him from bucolic Ireland to the front lines of the Seven Years War (one I know only the North American aspect), to the courts of royals and into marriage with a woman far above his station.

Across the board, everyone's bringing their A-game.  Oddly, aside from O'Neal, the only actor I recognized was Patrick Magee, who plays the Chevalier.  One will note that Philip Stone who played Grady in The Shining also appears.

What I can't believe is my lack of familiarity with Marisa Berenson, who appeared in Cabaret, but who I otherwise haven't seen. But apparently she is an American who went to Europe and stayed there to make movies.  

I know some find Kubrick's distance from his subjects aloof or off-putting.  I don't (so there!).  He's not shoving anyone at the lens and insisting you love them via the intimacy of a close-up of a beautiful face.  It's camera as 3rd person limited omniscient, and it's up to us to sort out the film.  And this may be a bit challenging.

Barry Lyndon is at least a comedy in part, but also a tragedy for many characters, and a commentary on class and chasing a better station.  Who has more bills than those who throw their fortunes around?  Even when you achieve the role you imagined for yourself, is that enough?  Or do you both want more, and fail to avoid the trials and tribulations of life?  And, in the end, who you are deep down is often what truly matters.

This is, at the end of the day, a movie I feel necessitates a re-watch.  I was too caught up in the visuals at times to always listen to the dialogue as closely as I probably should have, to see everything the movie had to offer.  And I was trying!

Is it my favorite Kubrick?  No.  Do I get why people rave about it?  Yes.  And I suspect the more I may see it, the more I may enjoy it.