#3
Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon
1975
Written and Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Based on the novel by: William Makepeace Thackeray
Cinematography by: John Alcott
Starring: Ryan O'Neal and Marisa Berenson
It is my steadfast belief that Stanley Kubrick is the greatest film director to ever live and this also may be my favourite movie of his. I go back and forth between Barry Lyndon and 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's tragic though, because Barry Lyndon has always been one of Kubrick's lesser known movies and in my opinion has not received the praise that it deserves. I think that people are beginning to look back though and examine Barry Lyndon more closely now. When I first looked at it's user rating on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb) website it was around 7.5 but looking at it now it's got a rating of 8.1 which is significantly higher. Martin Scorsese has also recently claimed that this is also his favourite Kubrick film. All of this I hope will lead to further re-evaluation of this movie and into the canon of classic twentieth century films.
The movie is divided into two parts. The plot of part 1 follows a Irishman named Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) from a petty upbringing who lies and cheats his way into the English nobility in the mid to late 18th century. On the run from the law, he joins the English Army and heads to Europe to fight in the Seven Years War. The historical accuracy and Kubrick's attention to detail is one of the things that make this such an amazing movie. The narration provides the viewer with background of the setting and conflict. At the same time the battle scenes and scenes of the war are not overly embellished like they tend to be in modern films for stylistic purposes. This is just straight up battle the way it used to be done. Check out this scene of Barry's first taste of battle and you'll see what I mean:
The camera work is straightforward and maybe even stale on purpose. Kubrick doesn't think it's necessary to use tricks like fast editing or shaky camerawork to make the conflict any more intense. Watching it and thinking about what all the participants are going through does the job just fine. He doesn't even show the result of the two battalions reaching each other and engaging in combat, you just hear the sound coming from off screen at the end of the clip. That's the way it was for participants like Redmond and that's the point of view we are seeing the conflict through.
Kubrick is a perfectionist. According to legend it was not uncommon for him to demand hundreds of re-shoots of scenes from his crew and actors in order to pick out the most perfect take afterwards. This conceivable too as the shooting of the movie took about three hundred days. Everything has to be perfect for him. That is why he made sure to double check his facts and make the movie as historically accurate as possible. Prior to working on Barry Lyndon he had planned on making a historical epic about Napoleon Bonaparte so he was able to use much of that research in making this movie set during the Seven Years War.
The Seven Years lasted from 1756 unit 1763. Although the main battleground was Europe there were also battles in North American, West African, and Indian soil leading many historians to label this as the real First World War. The war was born out of national rivalries and a changing of the European balance of power. Longstanding rivals England and France were fighting long before the war officially began in North America over influence and land in parts of what is now the United States and Canada. The main catalyst though was the rise of Prussia under the leadership of Frederick the Great and the fear that it instilled in it's neighbours and rivals of France, Austria, Russia and Sweden. Previously enemies, all of these kingdoms formed an alliance against Prussia while Britain joined the war on the side of Prussia. It was a highly destructive war in which between 900,000 and 1,400,000 people lost their lives and many prominent cities like Prague were laid to ruin. Battles were won and lost on both sides and for a time it looked like the alliance of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden would win. This is when what is known as the 'Miracle of the House of Brandenburg' happened which was when Russia's Empress Elizabeth died suddenly in 1762 and her pro-Prussian successor Peter III came to power and withdrew his troops from the war. Following this tide shifted and Prussia and Britain won the war within the year. Prussia would continue to rise as a powerful nation and be the founding member of the unified Germany a century later. Meanwhile France, Austria, Sweden and Russia all began to decline in their standing.
So that is the highly compressed background of the Seven Years War which serves as the backdrop for the first part of the movie. As in most large scale wars like this, it was borne out of power politics and run by ambitious men. Redmond was no different than these men of a higher standing. Joining the British Army out of necessity he later abandoned the army but was forced to recruit into the Prussian army when he was found out. Here he climbs the social ladder by gaining the trust and betraying high ranking officials. He becomes a travelling gambler, cheating princes and other European nobles of their money by taking advantage of their greed. Eventually though his own ambition and greed lead him to marry the widow of a nobleman, the Countess of Lyndon, and he acquires the name and noble title of Barry Lyndon. This begins the 2nd part of the movie. The second half consists mainly of Barry's attempt to rise the ranks of nobles and the misfortunes that follow him as he does this. Misfortunes that are entirely his own fault and which he deserves.
The scene in which he seduces the Countess is one of the greatest ever in any movie and you really have watch it, so click on it now:
This is such a great scene. It shows that one of the strong points of the movie is really it's cinematography. Kubrick insisted that as much of the movie as possible be shot with natural light so as to resemble a scene from the era as closely as possible. While he had to use electric light in some circumstances he still sought to achieve the look seen in the paintings of the era. However a painting is one thing, photography is completely different. It's very difficult for example to shoot night scenes without electric light. Kubrick insisted that the night scenes had to be shot with only candle light though and in the previous scene at the gambling table shows how much that decision paid off as it was a beautiful shot. This is where his technical genius was put to use. In order to shoot in the candle light Kubrick attained some super-fast 50mm camera lens with a focal ratio of 0.70 which were developed for NASA to use specifically to record the moon landings. The aperture of the lens (the hole which the light travels through) was and still is the largest in the history of film. I'm not quite clear on the technical details but basically I understand that it allowed for a sharper picture in low light scenes whereas normally the image would be blurred. Now I'm sure that obtaining these lens were not very easy and just stresses how much of a perfectionist Kubrick really was.
All of his hard work paid off. The whole movie is an incredibly accurate and realistic portrayal of life in the eighteenth century. By watching the movie you don't just get a feeling of entertainment or joy from the aesthetic beauty, but you feel enriched from learning more about a time long ago that you might have not known anything about before. It's a movie for people interested in both film and history and that's why it's one of my personal favourites.
The movie is divided into two parts. The plot of part 1 follows a Irishman named Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) from a petty upbringing who lies and cheats his way into the English nobility in the mid to late 18th century. On the run from the law, he joins the English Army and heads to Europe to fight in the Seven Years War. The historical accuracy and Kubrick's attention to detail is one of the things that make this such an amazing movie. The narration provides the viewer with background of the setting and conflict. At the same time the battle scenes and scenes of the war are not overly embellished like they tend to be in modern films for stylistic purposes. This is just straight up battle the way it used to be done. Check out this scene of Barry's first taste of battle and you'll see what I mean:
The camera work is straightforward and maybe even stale on purpose. Kubrick doesn't think it's necessary to use tricks like fast editing or shaky camerawork to make the conflict any more intense. Watching it and thinking about what all the participants are going through does the job just fine. He doesn't even show the result of the two battalions reaching each other and engaging in combat, you just hear the sound coming from off screen at the end of the clip. That's the way it was for participants like Redmond and that's the point of view we are seeing the conflict through.
Kubrick is a perfectionist. According to legend it was not uncommon for him to demand hundreds of re-shoots of scenes from his crew and actors in order to pick out the most perfect take afterwards. This conceivable too as the shooting of the movie took about three hundred days. Everything has to be perfect for him. That is why he made sure to double check his facts and make the movie as historically accurate as possible. Prior to working on Barry Lyndon he had planned on making a historical epic about Napoleon Bonaparte so he was able to use much of that research in making this movie set during the Seven Years War.
The Seven Years lasted from 1756 unit 1763. Although the main battleground was Europe there were also battles in North American, West African, and Indian soil leading many historians to label this as the real First World War. The war was born out of national rivalries and a changing of the European balance of power. Longstanding rivals England and France were fighting long before the war officially began in North America over influence and land in parts of what is now the United States and Canada. The main catalyst though was the rise of Prussia under the leadership of Frederick the Great and the fear that it instilled in it's neighbours and rivals of France, Austria, Russia and Sweden. Previously enemies, all of these kingdoms formed an alliance against Prussia while Britain joined the war on the side of Prussia. It was a highly destructive war in which between 900,000 and 1,400,000 people lost their lives and many prominent cities like Prague were laid to ruin. Battles were won and lost on both sides and for a time it looked like the alliance of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden would win. This is when what is known as the 'Miracle of the House of Brandenburg' happened which was when Russia's Empress Elizabeth died suddenly in 1762 and her pro-Prussian successor Peter III came to power and withdrew his troops from the war. Following this tide shifted and Prussia and Britain won the war within the year. Prussia would continue to rise as a powerful nation and be the founding member of the unified Germany a century later. Meanwhile France, Austria, Sweden and Russia all began to decline in their standing.
So that is the highly compressed background of the Seven Years War which serves as the backdrop for the first part of the movie. As in most large scale wars like this, it was borne out of power politics and run by ambitious men. Redmond was no different than these men of a higher standing. Joining the British Army out of necessity he later abandoned the army but was forced to recruit into the Prussian army when he was found out. Here he climbs the social ladder by gaining the trust and betraying high ranking officials. He becomes a travelling gambler, cheating princes and other European nobles of their money by taking advantage of their greed. Eventually though his own ambition and greed lead him to marry the widow of a nobleman, the Countess of Lyndon, and he acquires the name and noble title of Barry Lyndon. This begins the 2nd part of the movie. The second half consists mainly of Barry's attempt to rise the ranks of nobles and the misfortunes that follow him as he does this. Misfortunes that are entirely his own fault and which he deserves.
The scene in which he seduces the Countess is one of the greatest ever in any movie and you really have watch it, so click on it now:
This is such a great scene. It shows that one of the strong points of the movie is really it's cinematography. Kubrick insisted that as much of the movie as possible be shot with natural light so as to resemble a scene from the era as closely as possible. While he had to use electric light in some circumstances he still sought to achieve the look seen in the paintings of the era. However a painting is one thing, photography is completely different. It's very difficult for example to shoot night scenes without electric light. Kubrick insisted that the night scenes had to be shot with only candle light though and in the previous scene at the gambling table shows how much that decision paid off as it was a beautiful shot. This is where his technical genius was put to use. In order to shoot in the candle light Kubrick attained some super-fast 50mm camera lens with a focal ratio of 0.70 which were developed for NASA to use specifically to record the moon landings. The aperture of the lens (the hole which the light travels through) was and still is the largest in the history of film. I'm not quite clear on the technical details but basically I understand that it allowed for a sharper picture in low light scenes whereas normally the image would be blurred. Now I'm sure that obtaining these lens were not very easy and just stresses how much of a perfectionist Kubrick really was.
All of his hard work paid off. The whole movie is an incredibly accurate and realistic portrayal of life in the eighteenth century. By watching the movie you don't just get a feeling of entertainment or joy from the aesthetic beauty, but you feel enriched from learning more about a time long ago that you might have not known anything about before. It's a movie for people interested in both film and history and that's why it's one of my personal favourites.
For being such a beautiful, innovative and accurate portrayal of life in the eighteenth century, Barry Lyndon is in my opinion the 3rd greatest movie of the 1970s.
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