VividSimon
Simply Perfect
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
TheBigSick
Despite the length of the film being more than three hours, my eyes have never stayed away from the screen. The production design, visual effects, cinematography, hairstyle and makeup, costume design, music score, are just marvelous and breathtaking. Kubrick simply proves again why he is one of the greatest directors of all time. The elegant two-act structure and the beautiful long double shots ending with a slow backwards zoom were groundbreaking in filmmaking. If you want to learn filmmaking, just watch Kubrick.
E. Catalan
Finally, after 42 years of neglect I got to watch Stanley Kubrik´s period masterpiece BARRY LYNDON. It´s a film best watched with a cup of red wine by your side. Although it moves at slow pace action wise, it is never boring. The costumes, the fine details of the era (the 18th century) are stunning to watch even in this age of high tech movie warfare. Still, as visually gorgeaus as this movie is, it is never really engaging. A lot of it, I think, comes from Ryan O'Neil's stiffer-than-a-corpse portrayal of Barry Lyndon. I don't know if his emotionless portrayal was done on purpose or if it's inherent of Mr. O'Neil's acting skills (think Keanu Reeves but much stiffer). BARRY LYNDON would've been much suited for a short mini-series. In that format, BARRY LYNDON's story would've been much more engaging.Humor is very present in a very subtle way, in the narration and in the story itself, yet in never borders on comedy at all. Despite being a 3 hour long movie, BARRY LYNDON goes by pretty quickly without ever being boring. Unlike other Kubrick films, there's little hidden meaning behind BARRY LYNDON with a very straight forward story and an ending that feels rather inclomplete.Still, BARRY LYNDON is a marvel to watch and an overall satisfying Kubrick film, but certainly not his pinnacle.
classicsoncall
Lavish period detail, gorgeous costuming and inspiring cinematography could do nothing for me when it actually came down to the story being told. Except that everything in the picture looked great, this is one of the most boring pictures I ever managed to sit through. One has to wonder whether Ryan O'Neal was miscast, simply bad in the role of Barry Lyndon, or directed to appear virtually clueless in most of his significant scenes. It's understood by this viewer that he was supposed to be a lout, but one didn't need three hours to figure it out. I'm trying hard to come up with something positive, realizing that I stand diametrically opposed to many critics and fans of Kubrick who have marvelous things to say about the film. So I'll just state it once again - it's got lavish period detail, gorgeous costuming and inspiring cinematography. For that, you could watch it with the sound turned off.
JLRVancouver
"Barry Lyndon", William Makepeace Thackeray's tale of the rise and fall of young Irish ne'er-do-well Redmond Barry in late 18th century Europe is brought to the scene by legendary auteur Stanley Kubrick. The cinematography is outstanding as Kubrick was experimenting with a number of high-aperture lenses originally developed for NASA to allow filming in minimal light, allowing him to shoot candle-lighted interiors in ambient light. There are also extremely long-distance wide-angle shots of the English countryside and long-distance pull-back zoom shots. There was some criticism of Ryan O'Neil's limited range as an actor when tasked to play such a complicated and central character and the long film (184 min) moves at a very languid pace (ultimately, not a lot happens), but I found the story interesting and the character development superb. Overall, "Barry Lyndon" is a beautifully crafted 'costume drama' and if a bit of patience is required to see the story through, it is well rewarded.
