Review of Barry Lyndon (1975) by Danny R — 04 Sep 2015

The late great Stanley Kubrick's tenth feature film is a lavish visually ravishing adaption of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel. Barry Lyndon, played superbly by Ryan O'Neal, who is a young devious Irish rogue that gambles, duels, and seduces his way through the parlors, palaces, and battlefields of eighteenth-century Europe.

Born into a poor rural family, Lyndon constantly transforms himself donning different guises and personas as he drifts through the currents and courts of European gentry in constant pursuit of two prizes that prove most ephemeral: wealth and happiness.

He finally achieves this after his marriage to a rich widow, nicely played by the beautiful Marisa Berenson, who is exquisitely photographed at every turn. Lyndon is now a socially fashionable peer. Ryan O' Neal's brand of unemotional stoicism lends itself perfectly to his role of the naive fledging who learns quickly to become a successful opportunist.

Brilliantly directed by Stanley Kubrick, with outstanding supporting performances by Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, and Marie Kean. Kubrick's technical virtuosity is what makes this film so audacious as the picaresque exploits of its anti-hero.

The film's justly famous visual richness is the result of Kubrick's meticulous attention to historical and detail, including wigs made of real hair courtesy of an Italian convent. The film's exquisite outdoor scenes bathed in natural light and crisply registering shifts in air and sky were based on a careful study of the era's landscape paintings.

Special lens that originally were developed by NASA for use on satellites was adapted for a film camera so that cinematographer John Alcott could shoot most of the film's indoor scenes solely by candlelight.

Alcott won a well deserved Academy Award for his breathtaking cinematography. A fascinating motion picture that constructs the world of the past and brings it back to vivid life. Highly Recommended.