Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Barry Lyndon
1975
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Runtime: 184 min
These days, a movie that runs 184 minutes seems like more like a trailer, not an epic adventure. Still, I was afraid to watch Barry Lyndon for years because of the commitment towards what I considered a potentially agonizing movie experience, Kubrick or no Kubrick. My delay in watching the film was weak and shallow: it's a period piece, people are speaking French and British, there are men with wigs and knickers involved...SCARY.
But my reluctance in the film also made me a prime candidate for giving an honest review. Barry Lyndon would have to prove itself to me as a viewer: keep me interested, intrigued and attentive despite it's fluffy and overtly formal look and feel, show me that it's a work of art, not a work of pretention. I soon realized that Stanley Kubrick had once again seduced me, like Barry Lyndon's main character played by Ryan O'Neal. Flooded by magical imagery, lush and extravagant settings and the most mesmerizing use of light, I started to forget that I was watching a period piece. As snooty as it sounds, I truly felt that I had walked into a painting from the 1700s. As powerful as the cinematography of 2001: A Space Odyssey, every frame of Barry Lyndon can stand on it's own as a beautiful and extremely intense snapshot.
The story of Barry Lyndon is by itself fable-like. It is narrated from start to finish by a beautiful, perfect British voice, who is as calm as he is indifferent to the drama created by the life and scandal of an Irishman (Lyndon) scorned by love and practically forced into a number of different roles to survive: a soldier, a spy, a traitor, a thief, a gambler, a gigolo obsessed with revenge, lust and indulgence. The characters, actions, situations and adventures were presented more like a classic adventure story than a boring drama.
Deep down inside, though, there is a feeling of sympathy for Lyndon. Behind his misuse of human beings and need to fill his life with extravagance, there is an emptiness and tragedy that is familiar to all of us. In a simple twist of fate, the characters who outlive Lyndon's lies and deceit end up exactly as miserable as they began, Barry included.
The story is a brilliant yet simple one, framed by Kubrick's vision of beautiful landscapes, costumes and grandiose extremes. Barry Lyndon gave me a new outlook on the period piece genre. As long as it's done by Kubrick, I've got 184 minutes to spare.
