#127: Barry Lyndon
Release Date: December 18th, 1975
Format: Criterion Collection on Blu-ray
Written by: Stanley Kubrick
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
4 Stars
It’s hard to say something about a Stanley Kubrick film that hasn’t been beaten to death already. His films are the type to inspire analysis and debate. They’re so rich in all the ways that make cinema special.
But Kubrick fans (I’m one of them) will tell you that what makes his films special is they seem to transcend cinema. They are more than the amalgamation of light and sound and music. They tap into deep parts of the human psyche. They carry suggestive subtexts that are just opaque enough to be challenging, even bothersome, but tantalizing.
I think part of what makes Kubrick so alluring is due to the fact that because he is so in command of the elements that do appear on screen (and for Barry Lyndon, the list is seemingly endless: stunning on-location shooting throughout Ireland, England, and Germany; immaculate costuming, makeup, and set dressings; groundbreaking photography that mimics 18th century European genre paintings, partly attributable to Kubrick’s use of a particular 50mm lens developed by NASA that allowed him and cinematographer John Alcott to shoot in incredibly low candlelight; and infamously Kubrickian performances from his actors, that he painstakingly gets through extensive rehearsal time and re-takes) that when something seems unusual or misfitting in one of his films, it seems guaranteed that it was intentional on Kubrick’s part.
Part One of Barry Lyndon, on its face, is about a young, fatherless Irishman, Redmond Barry, tramping around Europe after he kills a rival in a duel (or does he?). Through unexpected events, he joins multiple military campaigns, works as a spy, befriends a gambling hustler, and eventually marries a wealthy English woman.
Part Two is about how his life comes undone.
It’s a classic tragedy. The voiceover narration (by Michael Hordern, who is wonderful) says as much towards the end of the film as Barry’s life is unraveling: “Barry was born clever enough at gaining a fortune, but incapable of keeping one. For the qualities and energies which lead a man to achieve the first are often the very cause of his ruin in the latter case.”
Historically, a tragedy was a forewarning tale to the audience, of hubris or excess or greed. But I’m not sure Kubrick has much interest in this in Barry Lyndon. I don’t think he has much of a stance on the morality of Redmond Barry, and I’m positive that he’s not using his movie to try and impart some sort of moral influence on his audience (he openly mocks this sentiment in A Clockwork Orange, using media to influence the morality of the public for good).
I think Kubrick is much more interested in the larger, existential meaning of Redmond Barry. Redmond Barry isn’t the victim of hubris or excess or greed, in fact he’s not a victim at all. He’s just an low-class Irishman, traumatized by the death of his father, forced to fight in wars he doesn’t understand. He’s undereducated, but the world tells him that it is the poor who go hungry and die on battlefields. The rich win.
I don’t know Kubrick’s personal philosophies, but after this recent viewing of Barry Lyndon, he seems like a bit of a causal determinist. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature.” Redmond Barry’s actions are always driven by this need to run from his past (“antecedent events and conditions”) that he can’t escape.
I think Kubrick is using him as a microcosm. Redmond Barry is no different than English-occupied Ireland or the Seven Years’ War. They are things that exist in a certain moment in time because past events and conditions have foretold them to.
Do I think Kubrick absolves Redmond Barry for his actions? No. But I don’t think he blames Redmond Barry for his actions, either.
I feel like I’m getting closer to opening a whole other can of worms regarding Kubrick and his view of humanity, which I think he does have a distaste for, but this review is getting a little long winded. Like I said, there’s something special about Kubrick films that inspire analysis and debate.
Postscript: I love when an auteur gives you just a taste of something outside of their typical style, and it’s really good, and then you’re left wanting them to make a whole movie of that. The scene in Barry Lyndon where Redmond Barry is traveling through Germany on horseback and meets a beautiful German peasant is incredible. Her husband is away in the war, and Barry and her share a tender moment in her home over dinner. It’s a beautiful scene. Sign me up for a Kubrick costume romance genre flick.
