Barry Lyndon (1975) My Thoughts!

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Based on The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray, Produced by Stanley Kubrick, Cinematography John Alcott, Edited by Tony Lawson, Starring Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee,  Hardy Kruger, Diana Körner, Gay Hamilton. Narrated by Michael Hordern. (Run Time 185m)

This is a tragically under-seen and underappreciated masterpiece in the Kubrick Canon.

I confess that I put off seeing this “Long, Stuffy, Slow, Period Piece” myself while there were so many  “more exciting” Kubrick films to buy and watch… How wrong I was!

This may be a period piece and it does tell a wonderful story at an undoubtedly deliberate pace but the film is far from stuffy.  It does clock in at 185-minutes but Kubrick being a considerate man did make this film with an Intermission around the 100-minute mark! 

Something that desperately needs to come back into vogue. 

The Plot.

Part I: By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon

Redmond Barry our young protagonist (portrayed throughout the film by American actor Ryan O'Neal) loses his father when he is killed in a duel. The young man unfortunately  falls in love with his busty cousin Nora who likes to tease Redmond and encourages his affections, Redmond is heartbroken when Nora begins courting an eligible English military captain 

John Quin (played by English actor Leonard Rossiter) feeling slighted teenage Redmond challenges Quin to a duel. Redmond shoots Quin and is informed the captain has succumbed to his wound. Redmond must flee the area until things blow over so his mother gives him all of her savings, his father's sword and pistol and a Horse and he heads out to travel to Dublin. En route he is robbed by highwaymen leaving him destitute. Penniless and unable to return home Redmond Barry enlists in the English Army.

While at camp completing his training a family friend Captain Grogan informs him that Quin is not dead: because the duel was staged, Barry’s pistol was not loaded with a lead ball only wadding. The ruse was so Nora's family could get rid of Barry and improve their finances through Nora marrying the successful Quin.

Soon Barry is shipped over to Europe to fight in “The Seven Years' War” against the French.

He deserts after his friend Grogan is fatally wounded in a skirmish against the French. After stealing the uniform, documents and horse of a British lieutenant he flees the front lines.

While riding into Germany he has a brief affair with Frau Lieschen, a married peasant woman whose husband is away fighting. While riding to Bremen, Barry encounters the Prussian Captain Potzdorf, who sees through his ruse and pressgangs him into the Prussian Army instead of shooting him for being a deserter. Later in battle Barry saves Potzdorf's life and receives commendation from Frederick the Great. When the war ends in 1763, Barry is employed by Potzdorf's uncle who is the head of the Prussian Ministry of Police.

The Prussians suspect the Chevalier de Balibari (Played by Patrick Magee), a dandy,  professional gambler is spying for the Austrians. They arrange for Barry to become his valet. Barry is under instructions to make regular reports informing the Prussians of The Chevalier’s comings and goings and who he talks with. Instantly upon meeting the Chevalier de Balibari, Barry confesses all since he knows The Chevalier is really a fellow Irishman. They become confederates with Barry only passing on false information to the Prussian authorities. 

Barry also facilitates The Chevalier to cheat at cards but when they cheat the Prince of Tübingen, the Prince refuses to pay his debt, and the Chevalier demands satisfaction.

The Prussians, still suspecting the Chevalier of espionage, arrange to have him expelled from the country, but he and Barry take the opportunity to allow Barry, disguised as the Chevalier, to leave the country as well.

Barry and the Chevalier then travel across Europe, perpetrating gambling scams, with Barry forcing payment from debtors with sword duels if challenged. While the two are in Spa, Belgium Barry sets eyes on the beautiful and very wealthy Lady Lyndon (Played by the stunning Marisa Berenson). 

Barry proceeds to seduce her. When her elderly husband Sir Charles Lyndon confronts Barry about his intentions towards his wife Barry's goading and verbal repartee causes Sir Charles to die from apoplexy on the spot.

Part II: Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon

Barry marries Lady Lyndon, takes her last name and settles in England. Lady Lyndon has a ten-year-old son by her late husband Sir Charles, the child is Lord Bullingdon, The young Lord despises Barry and the two’s verbal sparring regularly ends with Barry dishing out severe corporal punishment on the child.

The Countess bears Barry a son, Bryan Patrick, but the marriage is an unhappy one.

Barry openly cheats on the Countess with domestic maids and prostitutes and squanders his wife's fortune while keeping his wife indoors looking after the children.

A few years into the marriage Barry takes his mother from Ireland to live with them in the castle. She tells Barry if his wife died young Bullingdon would inherit everything and he would be left without a penny. She advises him to obtain a title of his own to protect himself.

Barry receives advice on the matter and goes about cultivating a friendship with the influential Lord Wendover and spends large sums of money to ingratiate himself with high society trying to attain a title. 

Lord Bullingdon is now a young adult and disrupts a party Barry has thrown for Lady Lyndon. Bullingdon makes a scene and publicly declares his hatred for his stepfather and declares he is leaving the family estate as long as Barry remains there. Barry proceeds to savagely physically assault Bullingdon until he is physically restrained in front of all their society friends. Barry is completely ostracised by high society and plunges further into financial ruin.

Barry remains a doting father to his own boy Bryan and gives him a full-grown horse for his ninth birthday this gesture leads to the untimely death of the child in a riding accident. Barry turns to alcohol, while Lady Lyndon sinks into a deep depression and seeks solace in religion, assisted by the Rev. Samuel Runt (played by Murray Melvin) who had also been a tutor to Bullingdon and Bryan. Barry's mother sacks Runt, for fear that his influence is actually having a negative effect on Lady Lyndon.

Separated from her spiritual adviser and confidant Lady Lyndon attempts suicide by imbibing poison. Rev. Runt and Graham the family solicitor, seek out Lord Bullingdon, who returns and challenges Barry to a duel.

Being inexperienced with firearms Bullingdon nervously misfires the first shot, Barry magnanimously just fires his pistol into the ground to end the face-off but Bullingdon refuses to end the duel and demands satisfaction. Bullingdon then shoots Barry in the left leg below the knee the shot smashes the bone forcing the leg to be amputated.

While Barry is recovering, Bullingdon takes control of the Lyndon estate. He offers Barry 500 guineas a year on the condition that he leaves England forever. With his credit exhausted, Barry accepts and returns to his native Ireland he resumes his gambling profession, though without his former success. The film ends with the scene of a now middle-aged Lady Lyndon pausing before signing Barry's annuity cheque as Bullingdon looks on.

The film ends with the title card.

The cast is stunning in this. Even the child actors are pitch-perfect. Ryan O’Neal’s accent holds in there by a thread at times but it does hold in there. 

There are notable performances from, 

Marisa Berenson as Lady Lyndon, Murray Melvin as Reverend Samuel Runt, Patrick Magee as the Chevalier de Balibari, Leonard Rossiter as Captain John Quin, Godfrey Quigley as Captain Grogan, Wolf Kahler as Prince of Tübingen, Steven Berkoff as Lord Ludd, Pat Roach as Corporal Toole and Leon Vitali as Lord Bullingdon.

The film features one of the best uses of a narrator ever in a film performed by the legend Michael Hordern. 

What Kubrick presents us in Barry Lyndon is 1700's Europe through the eyes of the great painters of the time.

With his meticulous eye for detail, Kubrick created a film that looks like 18th-century paintings in a grand gallery have burst into life.

With extensive location scouting, taking full advantage of natural light and a colour palette influenced by paint pigments from the period Kubrick made a film that is as much of a masterpiece as any canvas in the National Gallery. 

By studying the works of painters such as William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, Stanley perfectly devised the blueprint that gave Barry Lyndon its stunning aesthetic, informing the sets, locations, production design, costume, hair and makeup.

Kubrick was such a well respected filmmaker he actually borrowed actual museum pieces of actual period clothing and military uniforms. 

We don't know how much of any painting comes from the imagination of the artist but these works of art are our only windows into this period of history so they have indelibly shaped our perception of that time period and by immersing us in the iconography of these portraits and landscapes he crafted a film that is not only beautiful but looks unquestionably authentic to 20th-century eyes. 

Here is a link to a video on YouTube that will demonstrate what I'm going on about!

Kubrick went to such great lengths to create the period look for the film he chose to score the film with music that would have been contemporaneous to the events of the film using works by Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Schubert.

The piece most associated with the film is Handel's “Sarabande” from the Keyboard suite in D minor. That Kubrick used as the main title theme.

Originally written by Handel for solo harpsichord, the versions for the main and end titles are performed on harpsichord accompanied with strings and percussion.

The score also includes Irish folk music and "The British Grenadiers" also featured in scenes with the Redcoats marching.

On the subject of going to great lengths to maintain a period look, I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the candles! This story is the only thing some film fans know about this film and it can cause eye rolls when you bring it up but this element of the production is well known and discussed for good reason. 

As I said… Kubrick took full advantage of natural light during the shooting of this film and wanted to create a period-accurate look. This approach created challenges when it came to interiors especially interiors after the sun had set since in the 18th century interiors would have been lit with candles in holders, candelabras or chandeliers. 

Rooms being lit by candle flames do have a unique look that is next to impossible to accurately replicate with electric lights on a movie set even today let alone in 1974.

The reason is that light is important for shooting film that's why movie sets are usually filled with big electric lights even when filming outside. 

So to shoot interior scenes lit by candles Kubrick along with his director of photography John Alcott had to undertake a long period of research and development at Kubrick's home workshop. 

They experimented with different lenses, cameras and film stock until they identified how close they could get to the desired look but it wasn't until Kubrick managed to source three (Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lenses) Carl Zeiss lenses are basically the best they are the Patek Philippe watch or Aston Martin car of lenses. 

These specific “Planar 50mm f/0.7 lenses” were developed by Zeiss with NASA for the Apollo Moon landings (Yes! and that’s not even a joke!)

They are what is known as a “Super-Fast lens” with a huge aperture to let as much light in as possible. Unfortunately, this meant they were not able to be mounted onto a standard movie camera. So these beautifully crafted scientific quality lenses needed extensively modified by “Cinema Products Corp.” for Kubrick to use. The Camera also had to be modified so the rear of the lens would only be 2.5 mm away from the film plane. 

All this work is what allowed Kubrick and Alcott to shoot scenes lit in candlelight perfectly capturing the glow of a pre-electrical age.

Believe it or not!

This film was not very well-received by critics at the time. The general vibe in reviews was that Kubrick was a great filmmaker but Barry Lyndon was perceived as cold, overly arty and slow.    

The film was not a huge commercial success but it did perform better in Europe than it did in the US and Canada and by the end of its theatrical run worldwide it managed to gross $31.5m on a budget of $11m.

But with so much truly great cinema they are not fully appreciated at the time they are made and Barry Lyndon has enjoyed and benefited from Re-evaluation from critics and movie fans all over the world.