"Barry Lyndon" **** (out of ****)In the end, it is always a woman that leads to a man's downfall.
Starting a movie review with a sentence like that may make you think of a review about film noir but this is about Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" (1975). How can that be?
"Barry Lyndon" is a movie that tells us life is a grueling experience. For every bit of joy it may bring, tragedy follows. But, you will say, no, "Barry Lyndon" is a movie about how beautiful cinematography can be by candlelight. The cinematography is beautiful and inventive and all the other things you have read and heard over the years. But, a movie is nothing without a story and the story "Barry Lyndon" tells is a grim one that all comes down to a woman.
Watching Kubrick's masterpiece again and skimming through some reviews I find too many are preoccupied writing about the technical aspects of the movie, namely the cinematography. However, they say little about the story and the meaning of the story. Stanley Kubrick was too much of a perfectionist and too gifted not to make a movie that was about something. Theme is what interest me most about films. What are particular films about? What is the message the filmmaker is trying to make? The filmmaker usually will then use the conventions of filmmaking to get across that theme.
At the beginning of Kubrick's film, we meet a young man, Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal). He loves his cousin Nora (Gay Hamilton) and she seems to favor Barry. Feeling the bliss of first love, young Barry soon learns of its bitter aftertaste. The lovely Nora becomes the object of affection of Captain John Quin (Leonard Rossiter), a wealthy British army captain that may help Nora's family get out of debt. Barry, however, cannot stand aside and allow the woman he loves to marry another man. With hatred, jealousy, heartbreak, and pride stirring inside him, Barry challenges the army captain to a duel. This singular event sets the path Barry's life will follow. He must leave his beloved Ireland, leave his family, and leave the woman he loves.
The experience eventually will harden Barry and sour his view of life. His main ambition will now be to become a gentleman. He will become like the wealthy army captain he has killed in a duel. He will do whatever it takes to succeed and reach this goal. It is all because of a woman. A woman that hurt him. His quest to correct that moment in time leads to his downfall.
"Barry Lyndon" is somewhat episodic in its plot and tells its story in two acts and closes with an epilogue. After Barry leaves home he heads for Dublin and joins the army to fight in the Seven Year War. He makes the acquaintance of a libertine Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee). The two men join together and develop a system to cheat at cards which leads Barry to his ultimate goal, to marry a wealthy woman. And he finds one, Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson). She is married and with a child when they meet but Barry is able to seduce her and wait for her elderly husband to die.
The movie was based on a picaresque novel written by William Makepeace Thackeray entitled "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" and is similar to Thackeray's "Vanity Fair". Both deal with the class structure and follow two social climbers. And both are satirical. Although both movies were released in the same year and the source material is different, watching "Barry Lyndon" I can't help but think of Woody Allen's "Love & Death" (1975). Nothing in "Barry Lyndon" is as laugh-out-loud funny as in Allen's movie but "Barry Lyndon" does have moments of dark humor.
Unlike others, I enjoy Ryan O'Neal's performance as the lead character. O'Neal has an innocent face, which fits well with the early moments of the film, and he is able to express a coldness in his performance. Coldness and emotionless behavior is a large part of "Barry Lyndon". Some criticize the movie on this ground and say the movie is cold. Stanley Kubrick doesn't make warm and fuzzy movies. To call a Kubrick movie cold is not a criticism. It is an accurate description. His movies usually had a detached quality to them. O'Neal seems to be a perfect vehicle for this.
Kubrick doesn't make the viewer like Barry or grow an affection for him. Barry isn't off-putting but Kubrick places the audience, in a conscious way, in the role of observer. There isn't much of a mystery to what will happen in the movie because a narrator tells us things in advance and speaks in a lifeless voice, stating events in a matter-of-fact way. The "Acts" also have subtitles that outline events to come.
And yet despite Kubrick's intention of keeping the audience at a distance, I find that I love this movie. I love the character. I love the screenplay and the movie's message. The movie is almost nihilist. What happens in "Barry Lyndon"? Does the lead character learn any lessons about life? Maybe that it is foolish to shoot down (you'll understand after you see the movie). But there is nothing redeeming about the characters. If you look at the movie with this in mind, it is almost bleaker than an Ingmar Bergman movie.
I suppose society dictates that I must mention something about the film's cinematography. Being the perfectionist Kubrick was he did not want to use electrical lighting so he may stay true to the period. Kubrick and his cinematographer, John Alcott would shot several scenes by candlelight. Kubrick had the movie shot with special lenses.
To get a bit film geeky (?) on you, there is one scene that really impresses me but may not be as memorable to other viewers. We see a few soldiers in the frame as the camera pulls back, now we see there are more soldiers on the side of the frame. The camera pulls back further and now we see the background and more soldiers. Upon pulling further back we see the full army and an audience watching them. What I love about this scene is the way Kubrick creates depth within the scene and plays around with space. Many scenes in the movie are shot with wide long shots.
The cleverness of Kubrick's camera and his lighting may mean little to some who will say the movie is boring. It goes on too long and nothing happens. Of course, events are happening on-screen but it doesn't seem to amount to much. Does the life of Barry Lyndon, in the way it is depicted here, deserve such an in-depth examination? But, I must point you back to the themes; ambition, greed, the meaningless of life...etc.
The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards (including best picture) and won four; best cinematography, art direction, costume design, and music. It was a box-office flop when released in 1975 and was greeted with a mixed critical reaction. Some critics, like the former Chicago Tribune movie critic, Gene Siskel, thought very highly of the movie and placed it on his year-end top ten list. Due to reevaluation, it is now thought of as one of Kubrick's best movies. But, I find it still gets lost in the shuffle. Movie fans more readily acclaim "Dr. Strangelove" (1962), "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) or "The Shining" (1980). "Barry Lyndon" is equal to or greater than those movies. Of course, thinking it over, it seems all of Kubrick's movies have taken time to find their audience. "Barry Lyndon"'s day is yet to come.
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