Barry Lyndon allows us to travel back to the Old World and visit an era where a man can go from being an Irish farm boy to European aristocracy based on pure bullshit. There's no claim or heredity. Just bullshit from the title characters stand point.The film stars Ryan O'Neal as Redmond Barry, who falls in love with his cousin, but she finds him to be but a boy and shuns him for an older British officer. This situation sets off a chain of events that leads Redmond into fighting for two armies and eventually becoming British nobility under the name Barry Lyndon after marrying the Lady Lyndon (the beautiful Marisa Berenson). Barry becomes the typical 18th century nobleman by pissing away his wife's money and whore mongering, leading to a slow and painful downfall.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon is yet another technological achievement for the legendary director. Now before you ask what in the hell I'm talking about and assume I've gone crazy since this is a film set in the 18th century let me explain. The film was shot with specially designed cameras so that natural light can be used instead of the arc lamps typical in Hollywood productions. What does this achieve? Kubrick gets a look that feels primitive because it's bathed in natural light. There's a sense of going back to the old days where there was no electricity or running water.
The film does get dull from time to time and Ryan O'Neal isn't great as Lyndon. What the film is really good at is expressing Kubrick's inspiration- paintings of the era. The film is shot like multiple paintings, beautifully detailed and lit. For this, the film is a work of genius, even though the story is a bit blah. This is one of Kubrick's forgotten films, sandwiched between A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. It's an OK period piece that is polished up with the Stanley Kubrick magic.
