Like a lot of people, I have a complicated relationship with Stanley Kubrick’s filmography. I’m not a Kubrick auteur nor am I a hater. I haven’t seen all of his films—I just can’t convince myself to watch Lolita—but I have seen most of them and I enjoy most of what I have seen. However, I have been left cold on occasion when watching some of his work. I can assume that with repeated viewings I will see more than the initial watch did not provide, but the nature of what I am doing with this blog doesn’t always give me the luxury of those repeat watchings, especially when the film in question exceeds three hours in length. I am told I may have to keep that heavily in mind when I inevitably review 1971’s The Emigrants, which, paired with the second half, The New Land, exceeds four hours.
Sheer length isn’t necessarily a stumbling block for me when examining a film, though; Lawrence of Arabia was a fascinating motion picture that pushes four hours, and Gone With the Wind is pure brilliance, if a bit outdated in its view on the South and slavery. But if I am feeling the length and it is trying my patience, that can be a major stumbling block. A slow two-hour movie is dreary. A slow three-hour film can be torture. Barry Lyndon is right in the middle of that. It feels its length and, especially in the first half, it tried my patience. But the second half redeemed itself, and I came out of the experience enjoying the film overall but wishing it had been cut judiciously to a more palatable length.
The film is based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray, a British novelist and illustrator. Stanley Kubrick settled on this novel after his original plan to make a film about Napoleon collapsed due to a similar film, Waterloo, which bombed at the box office, leading Kubrick’s financiers to back out. He then set his sights on Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair, which also fell through because a television series based on that novel went into production. The Luck of Barry Lyndon finally became the novel Kubrick latched onto and secured funding to go into production.
Kubrick, being Kubrick, didn’t so much adapt the novel as recreate it in his own sensibilities. The novel is farcical, a comedy of sorts. Very little of that tone is carried over into the film. Instead, it takes on a more dramatic tone as we follow the title character through a series of events, all of which feel predestined. In fact, Barry does very little in this film but gets carried from situation to situation as if fate dictates the events. At one point, for instance, he makes a decision to avoid what would surely be him getting robbed only to actually get robbed by someone else a short time later. When he is actively doing anything, it usually leads to his own downfall, especially in the second half of the film.
Barry is also a man in search of a father figure. He loses his real father early on and spends a lot of the first half of the film looking for a substitute, attaching himself to various father figures. In the second half, he gets an opportunity to be a father himself. This comes in the form of a stepson and, later, a natural-born son. The natural-born son he spoils, unable to say no to, whereas the stepson he abuses and neglects. This creates a power dynamic that ultimately leads to his undoing.
The film is split in half with title cards clearly defining that split. The first half is titled: By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon. In that half, we expect to see a meteoric rise in social status for Barry (Ryan O’Neal), and that does eventually happen, but it is not until nearly the end of this section. Most of this part is Barry going from bad situation to even worse. It starts out with him being seduced by his cousin, who enjoys flirting with him but really has her eyes on someone who has money. This leads to Barry having a duel with that man, John Quin (Leonard Rossiter). Through deceit, Barry is led to believe he has killed Quin and that he will be subject to arrest for the murder, so he flees the scene with a small inheritance from his mother that he immediately loses to robbers, forcing him to enlist in the British Army.
During this time, he fights in the Seven Years’ War but eventually deserts in the face of the French Royal Army, stealing a lieutenant’s horse, uniform, and papers. He is quickly captured by the Prussian Army, who ascertain that he is a deserter and force him into their service instead. Prussian service is even more difficult, and he looks for opportunities to escape them, too. Still, he manages to save the life of his captain and receives a commendation from Frederick the Great, the monarch of Prussia.
At the end of the war, he is recruited as a spy against the Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee), an Austrian diplomat and professional gambler who is suspected of being an Irishman and a spy himself. Immediately, though, Barry confesses to de Balibari and provides useless information to the Prussians. Through his time with de Balibari, Barry meets the Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson), a woman married to a wealthy man of poor health. Through his goading, Barry causes the man to have a heart attack and dies, paving the way for Barry to step in and marry the widow.
The second half of the film is titled: Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon. This part of the film shows how Barry, unaccustomed to having wealth, squanders the fortune he has married into, wasting it away on excessives, mounting debts, and building up animosity with his stepson, Lord Bullington (Dominic Savage as the boy in youth and Leon Vitali as the young man). Barry also spends his time having numerous affairs. His only true love, though, is Bryan (David Morley), his son with Lady Lyndon, but the narrator (Michael Hordern) tells us almost immediately that this son is not going to make it out of the story alive.
A quick way to sum up this film is to call it a rags-to-riches-to-rags story. Barry ends up even worse off in the end than he was at the beginning when he has nothing but a few scraps of money and no prospects in life. This is a miserable existence that is all to his own doing. When he initially marries Lady Lyndon, Lord Bullington already doesn’t like him. We can see that in the way the boy is glaring at him during the wedding ceremony. Barry does nothing to try and get in the boy’s good graces. Instead, he bullies him and treats him like an undesirable outcast in the family. He also squanders the boy’s inheritance. Once Bryan is born, things get even worse as Barry is heavily favoring Bryan, punishing Bullington while showering gifts on Bryan.
So much hatred is built up over this unjust treatment of Bullington that, even though we don’t particularly like him, we sympathize with him. Still, when things come to a head and Barry attacks him in front of a large group of people, it is going too far and everyone turns on Barry. Bullington leaves the house, refusing to return so long as Barry is there and alive. Later, he will return and ends up in a duel with Barry. It is in this scene that the tensions of their whole relationship boil over and we as an audience have no idea how it will play out. Barry shows, for the first time in the entire film, a level of maturity and compassion, but it is not returned by the bitter Bullington.
While I cannot place this on the list of the best films Kubrick has made, I can appreciate it on another level. It is a well-made film that is often very beautiful to look at. The use of authentic uniforms from the time period sells the realism of mid-1700s Europe, and Kubrick, with his manic eye for detail and perfectionism, has made something so impressive that it was honored in the technical categories at the Oscars. Stanley, himself, was nominated three times for his writing, directing, and producing of the picture, but lost in all three categories. He went over-budget by quite a bit, but all that money made it up on screen. It received mixed reactions from audiences and critics at the time but has only grown in esteem in the years since.
Ryan O’Neal was not Kubrick’s choice for the title role. That was forced upon him by the studio. Ryan is competent in the role but nothing more. His reserved form of acting makes the first half of this film feel longer than it needs to be. Still, when he does shine, he really shines. His scene after Bryan has his accident is harrowing and is reminiscent of a similar scene in Gone With the Wind. The overall performance, though, is merely serviceable.
As a whole, Barry Lyndon is a good film. It just feels too long, overall, and needed a stronger actor as the protagonist. Ryan elicits no sympathies from us, the audience, and when that happens, we don’t really care about the journey he is on. On top of that, the journey ultimately goes nowhere, which makes it unsatisfying. This wouldn’t be a problem if we liked Barry, but it is not that kind of a movie. Barry Lyndon is Kubrick through and through; interesting as a concept, full of well-produced set pieces, but cold overall. I like it and I appreciate it from a production standpoint, but I don’t love it as a whole.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Stanley Kubrick
Best Director: Stanley Kubrick
Best Adapted Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick
Best Art Direction: Ken Adam, Roy Walker, and Vernon Dixon (won)
Best Cinematography: John Alcott (won)
Best Costume Design: Milena Canonero and Ulla-Britt Söderlund (won)
Best Music, Scoring - Original Song Score and/or Adaptation: Leonard Rosenman (won)
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Release Date: December 18, 1975
Running Time: 185 Minutes
Rated PG
Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Diana Körner, and Gay Hamilton
Directed By: Stanley Kubrick
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