Review of Barry Lyndon (1975) by Cole P — 04 Jun 2011

This film was particularly difficult for me to watch, but when I serendipitously found the right time to ingest the three hours, good grief, was it rewarding. Barry Lyndon is like any other of Kubrick's artistic films. It is heavily saturated in naturally lit cinematography, shrouded in ambient classical music, and even ponderously real in its dead-on dialogue. Barry Lyndon is also one of Kubrick's great accomplishments in filmmaking as it is beautifully crafted and aesthetically designed to immerse moviegoers in a tangible recreation of the 18th century era. It's unfortunate that less people know about it than those other period piece films; that is what differentiates Barry Lyndon so. Unlike the numerous Pride and Prejudice movies, Godsford Park adaptations, or even the BBC home theater mini series--this movie is literally "framed" like an 18th century painting and told thus so. Because of that, the pacing may not be to everyone's taste. Nevertheless, the film is just like jumping into a chapter of a history textbook and interacting with all of the people as they existed in that said time.

Barry Lyndon is easily one of Stanley Kubrick's most ambitious projects, evidenced in the literal recreation of 18th century Europe, the unbelievably stark phonetics, the costumes, the lighting, and all the way down to the cultural mannerisms of these characters. It's a movie experience not to be missed, as many of us living in today's society, have already missed that broad, detailed, Victorian time several hundred years ago.