Welcome to Oh, Classic!, a monthly series dedicated to highlighting films from before the year 2000 that are considered some of the best films ever made (in my eyes at least). I intend to focus on classics that aren’t talked about enough, or more people should see. Films like Back to the Future, Die Hard, and Rocky for example, are films that everyone has already seen time and time again and there’s no reason to dedicate time to a film in this series that everyone already has. I hope to inspire you to actively pursue some of the films I highlight if you haven’t seen them already, or to inspire you to actively pursue other classic pieces of cinema that paved the way for the medium as we know it today.
With that being said, let’s get into Stanley Kubrick’s underseen historical epic, Barry Lyndon.
Clocking in at 187 minutes as a historical epic and sandwiched in between two of the most beloved films of all-time, Barry Lyndon really stood no chance of achieving such prestige much like the rest of Kubrick’s filmography. The controversial A Clockwork Orange released four years prior and the Razzie nominated, The Shining released five years later, and Barry Lyndon got stuck as the middle child. It wasn’t challenging like Clockwork and terrifying like The Shining, but Barry Lyndon may have benefitted from being stuck in between two titans.
Despite it’s seven Oscar nominations and four wins (Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, Costume Design) to come in 1976, Lyndon didn’t make a splash with audiences on it’s 11 million dollar budget and uhm...let’s just say...very little in return. It’s near-Christmas release date may have affected that, but films like The Shining, Clockwork, and 2001: A Space Odyssey still made an impact culturally even if the films aren’t really made for everyone.
Anyways, enough history talk, how about we start getting into what makes Barry Lyndon one of the best films ever made.
Front to back, this movie is the epitome of film-making on an epic scale, and a filmmaker tapping into his talent and mastering it on every level. It’s patient, deliberate, sprawling, powerful, and Kubrick’s most precise work yet. There were days when he would practice a shot 60+ times and if he liked the first shot the best, then that would be the one they used. Kubrick is known for grueling sets from the infamous Shelley Duvall mental deterioration on The Shining, to the overly perfect shoot for Barry Lyndon. Kubrick has been a perfectionist of the craft, and Lyndon might be his most precise and it pays off in glamorous ways.
It’s no secret that anyone who has seen the film could probably convince any random citizen that some of the frames in this movie are straight out of a museum. The use of natural light beaming down onto dazzling costume design and a beautiful set makes every inch of the film worth visiting and completely lived in. The color palette shines naturally and the world comes to life like a few chapters in a social studies textbook. What really opens up the film is the Oscar winning cinematography from John Alcott. What will start as a focused shot on an object like a pistol, chair, or table, the camera will slowly zoom out to reveal more beyond the initial frame of the scene. Characters wander about or prepare for a duel to win the heart of a sought after woman, and you feel the world of Barry Lyndon living and breathing just as we do. There are also times when the camera will linger on a marching line of troops winding throughout the frame to draw in our gaze right to the central point as Kubrick fills each corner of the film with something new to see. There’s a bookending of frames with something like a tree or a person standing right at the edge of your screen or just barely peering in to lock in our focus to the primary subject of the shot. Barry Lyndon is poetry in motion as a static camera can seem alive due to the blocking of a shot, and the themes, story, and characters resonate even wider because of the power of this tool.
A common criticism here is the lack of engaging characters and performances, and I have to disagree. I’ll mostly shine a light on Ryan O’Neal here as the titular Barry Lyndon, but the entire cast is so wildly diverse in what they bring to the table for this Shakespearean tragedy. O’Neal’s minimal performance gives this film such an intimate heart to it. Lyndon as a character isn’t the most perfect embodiment of a leader, husband, or father, but the movie wants to capture broad landscapes and buildings, that his journey may seem unimportant compared to the grandeur, but the emotions that O’Neal conveys elevates the material because it’s smaller strokes compliment the larger ones.
With all this being said, why haven’t you found a way to acquire this film yet? I would recommend the Criterion of the film as it’s transfer is absolutely stellar, but if you can’t purchase that, then any viewing of the film would suffice. From the awe inspiring cinematography, to the delicate character beats keeping the film focused on it’s intentions, Barry Lyndon is a must-see classic that gives a new perspective on Kubrick’s filmography and the beauty of historical epics. It may not have the visceral, epic battles that we see in Braveheart to keep our attention, but it’s love for the art drives this film home as a moving and powerful epic that will etch it’s frames into your head for the rest of your life. It’s a long film, but the pacing makes this three hour epic feel like 30 minutes, and you’ll walk away having a newfound appreciation for all that this medium has to offer.
Barry Lyndon is a bonafide classic.