CGiii Rating
Public Rating
Barry Lyndon
Country: UK, Language: English, 184 mins
- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Writer: Stanley Kubrick; William Makepeace Thackeray
- Producer: Jan Harlan; Stanley Kubrick
CGiii Comment
It won 4 behind-the-screen Oscars.
Beautiful to look at, painful to listen to - it's like an allegory on the Irish economy, a nihilistic support of the opportunistic Irish idiocy - no wonder the IRA put Kubrick on their hit list.
The technical aspects of the film upstage the directorial - the lighting in particular.
The writing is almost shambolic - the first part of the film is camp comedy with performances to match - the river scene with the gay officers is reprehensible.
There are no heroes, only wholly deplorable characters who will evoke no sympathy and, hopefully, no empathy.
But for film-makers with an eye for detail, this is a feast.
For an audience, it is a 3 hour slog without a satisfactory resolution.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
In the Eighteenth Century, in a small village in Ireland, Redmond Barry is a young farm boy in love with his cousin Nora Brady. When Nora gets engaged to the British Captain John Quin, Barry challenges him to a duel of pistols. He wins and escapes to Dublin but is robbed on the road. Without an alternative, Barry joins the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War. He deserts and is forced to join the Prussian Army where he saves the life of his captain and becomes his protégé and spy of the Irish gambler Chevalier de Balibari. He helps Chevalier and becomes his associate until he decides to marry the wealthy Lady Lyndon. They move to England and Barry, in his obsession of nobility, dissipates her fortune and makes a dangerous and revengeful enemy.
Cast & Characters
Ryan O'Neal as Barry Lyndon / Redmond Barry;
Marisa Berenson as Lady Lyndon;
Patrick Magee as The Chevalier;
Hardy Kruger as Captain Potzdorf;
Steven Berkoff as Lord Ludd;
Gay Hamilton as Nora Brady;
Marie Kean as Barry's Mother;
Diana Korner as German Girl;
Murray Melvin as Reverend Runt;
Frank Middlemass as Sir Charles Lyndon;
Andre Morell as Lord Wendover;
Arthur O'Sullivan as Captain Feeny, the Highwayman;
Godfrey Quigley as Captain Grogan;
Leonard Rossiter as Captain Quin;
Philip Stone as Graham