Barry Lyndon

Don’t have enough words to explain myself. Feels like a video game: the dialogue, acting, background music, visuals, even the narration — lots of fun.

Epic experience, would’ve been great in theater.
Very pretty (but a tad overrated in that regard)
Second half slowed down a bit

“Mr Lyndon. We were very fond of Sir Charles Lyndon.”

My 900th Review On Queue

What an extraordinary watch, like holy shit, this is so well made it felt like I was watching an actual memory of history from someone who was actually there. Like the scale, the accuracy, practicality everything about this is so well done and amazing.

—SPECIAL TREATMENT—

Part One - "By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon"

(An absolute masterpiece of an act. It’s beautiful in both visual and dialogue senses, Barry develops incredibly well and it’s so accurate and so well made I’m angry I didn’t get around to this sooner. 11/10)

Part Two - "Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon"

(And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, not only does it, but it excels to a point of no return. Obviously in a different manner, but tbf the manner is just more my taste. 11/10)

Plot 11/10 (An impossible task would be to out do Kubrick when it came to this.)

Soundtrack/Score 10/10 (Beautiful, absolutely fucking beautiful.)

Acting 9.9/10 (Not a single bad performance, but we needed more actors the same level as both Ryan O’ Neal and Leon Vitali.)

Pacing 10/10 (It’s a beast, and yet every second couldn’t be more worth it.)

Cinematography 13/10 (The Greatest cinematography of all time, without a shadow of a doubt. You may be wondering how something can get 13 out of 10, the answer is the fact that top 3 of all times get 12s, if something overtakes then I subtract from other movies, however, a 13 is equal to the one and only GOAT.)

Character Development 10/10 (Barry is many things, a dick, an arsehole but he is not a man who kicks someone while they are down.)

Writing 10/10 (Based off a book and adapted by Kubrick, what did you think was going to happen?

Ending 9.4/10 (Not perfect, but it’s still amazing and satisfying.)

Direction 11/10 (KUBRICK’S GREATEST MOVIE DIRECTION WISE.)

SPECIAL CATEGORY SPECIFICALLY FOR MOVIES THAT VARY IN ACT STRUCTURE

Emotional Impact 8.7/10 (It got me invested and really into Barry’s character, but this wasn’t one of those movies where you feel any kind of strong emotional impact.)

Overall
125/120
10/10
(Note with films like these where it excels in one specific category, like the dark knight, it’s best to go off the /10 rating then the /120.)

I couldn’t get through the whole thing cuz I have an attention span of a goldfish but what I watched was good

9.3/10

Visually stunning!

It’s nothing new being added to discussion, but it’s baffling how a film can, consistently, look this pretty…

It’s easy to mention virtually any exterior shot as being stunning, but what impressed me most was those set interior; their composition, staging, lighting - of which reminded me a lot of the more recent Amadeus in its usage of natural candle light. Everything about them and how they were captured feels so intentional, and I actually appreciated how “un-fancy” it was with the shots on a whole, regardless of location, the placement of the camera almost always feeling distant and unobtrusive to the story taking place.

The story is actually really simplistic (complimentary) - a tale of the rise, and the inevitable fall of falsely acquired wealth and power. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it was all just so impressively told. I can’t say everything in the early stages of the last hour worked for me, although soon recovering my interest with that excellent finale, but for the rest of it - it’s remarkable how a such a slow burn can remain so engaging.

Ryan O’Neal was really special here, I think it’s easy to dismiss the performance, especially within the first hour, to undersell it all - but I think that’s entirely the point. O’Neal portrayed Barry as I believe Kubrick intended; passive, unmotivated, almost unbothered frankly. You get a sense of the character and his want for everything, but reluctance to work for it, rather to have it all simply unfold for him - which it does, but it’s really effective in setting up a character so naturally.

Not my favourite Kubrick, and I think a lot of the relentless glaze of people hailing it as a “hidden masterpiece of Kubrick’s filmography” hurts it for those who’ve bared witness to it. But a fantastic film nonetheless, one that I fully intended to revisit.