Film: Barry Lyndon
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Country: UK / USA
Released: December 1975
Runtime: 185 minutes
Genre: Historical Drama
Studio: Hawk Films / Warner Bros
Influenced: Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Béla Tarr, Lucrecia Martel, Yorgos Lanthimos
Adapted from the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray, Kubrick's 10th feature film Barry Lyndon is a period drama set in 18th century Europe. The story follows the life of a young Irishman Redmond Barry, later to be known as Barry Lyndon (Ryan O'Neal), and the film is divided into two parts. In the first part, Barry falls in love with his cousin Nora Brady but, after her English suitor Captain John Quin challenges Barry to a duel, Barry flees Ireland to avoid arrest. He joins the British Army, participates in the Seven Years' War, and eventually deserts. Barry then joins the Prussian army and becomes a spy. Afterward, he meets and marries Lady Lyndon, a wealthy widow, in an attempt to gain social status.
The second part focuses on Barry's life as Lord Lyndon. Despite achieving aristocratic status, Barry faces numerous challenges, including his wife's infidelity, his stepson's animosity and his own growing paranoia. Eventually, his actions catch up with him, leading to his downfall and exile from society. The film ends with a reflective voiceover (provided by the mellifluous Michael Hordern) suggesting the futility of Barry's quest for power and status. Kubrick's initial plan was to make a film about Napoleon, but instead he used the research from that project to make Barry Lyndon instead, exploring similar themes of ambition and social climbing. The historical setting of the film offered Kubrick an opportunity to immerse himself and the audience in a meticulously recreated world, recreating the period's opulence and the unbridgeable gap between the aristocracy and commoners.
Kubrick employed several groundbreaking methods to achieve the film's distinct visual style, most notably natural lighting, often relying on candlelight or natural sunlight to illuminate the scenes. This required specially adapted lenses – notably the Zeiss f/0.7 lenses typically used by NASA – and high-speed film stock. Kubrick and cinematographer John Alcott also filmed long, carefully composed shots using wide-angle lenses to capture the grandeur of the period. The film's meticulous attention to detail is also reflected in the production design and costumes, with Kubrick calling on designers Milena Canonero and Ulla-Britt Söderlund to recreate the 18th-century setting and fashion so accurately, and their work was rewarded with the Oscar for Best Costume Design.
Also of note is the Oscar-winning classical music score by Leonard Rosenman, which gives the film an added layer of authenticity and emotion, featuring classical pieces by composers such as Handel, Schubert and Vivaldi. Key moments in the film include the duel between Barry and Captain Quin (Leonard Rossiter), which sets in motion Barry's journey and his decision to leave Ireland, and Barry's encounter with the Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee), a skilled gambler who becomes his mentor and initiates him into the world of high-stakes gambling. Barry courts and eventually marries Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson), but their deteriorating relationship is marked by infidelity and emotional distance, leading to their ultimate separation and Barry's sad but inevitable downfall.
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