I was twigged to re-watch Barry Lyndon by some recent great reviews here. My personal goal for this viewing was to try to reconcile why Barry Lyndon works. Not as a masterpiece, but rather how it works at all. After all, it’s a 3 hour and 4 minute period piece based pretty literally on a 19th century text ... that stars Ryan O’Neil.

Cinematography. Let’s get this out of the way first. Kubrick’s ... er, John Alcott’s photography is breathtaking. As beautiful as the paintings of the period. The use of technical and cinematic technique is well covered by some other great reviews here on Letterboxd. Does it make the film work? I don’t think so. It contributes to it…

Of all the classics that Stanley Kubrick crafted throughout his filmmaking career, Barry Lyndon was the one I was least interested to check out. Period dramas aren't really my thing for I find this genre far too preoccupied with its lush set pieces, period-specific make-up & antique costumes than the main story at hand and while this film does checkmark all those elements, there is something about it that sets it apart.

From the moment the famous classical composition, Sarabande, by Handel opens the film by accompanying that Warner Bros. logo, Barry Lyndon had my attention. But what eventually left me absolutely spellbound was just how extraordinarily beautiful its images were from the first frame to the last. It's the most…

Part of:
5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films – Round 1

I'm not sorry. And I'll not apologize. And I'd as soon go to Dublin as to hell.
-Redmond Barry

I think subconsciously I kept putting off watching this film till the end of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films project because deep down it was the one I was least looking forward to seeing. I had my doubts that I would even like it despite the fact that it was directed by Stanley Kubrick. The thought of watching a 3 hour long drama based on a 19th century novel staring Ryan O'Neal did not excite me in the least.

To make matters worse the protagonist of our story,…

Impatient people have no business watching a Stanley Kubrick film. The man likes to linger. He'll imprison you in a shot or a scene until you can goddamn smell what it's like to be in that place, at that time, with those people. Individuals who prefer to be told what's going on instead of being allowed to infer it, well, there are plenty of Muppet movies you might enjoy.

It's the lingering, though, that's precisely what makes Barry Lyndon work. Ryan O'Neal plays Redmond Barry with all the expression of a potato wearing a tricorn, but because Kubrick makes us stare at him for so long, we are somehow granted the ability to discern his perpetually vacant, queasy countenance from…