Pure Kubrick

Rating: 9/10 (1 September 2000)

I was really surprised at how much I ended up liking this movie, I watched it recently, and my mindset going into it was was "well, it'll be well-photographed and have the usual interesting Kubrick thematics, but it'll probably feel kinda long, and you probably won't have a big urge to rewatch it anytime soon, sort of like Eyes Wide Shut". Thankfully, I was wrong, I wouldn't call the 18th century costume drama my favorite type of film, but I found this one to be very absorbing. Even though it's a bit over three hours long, it never feels "slow" or "boring", there's a lot that goes on in it. Like all Kubrick films, there's a lot of different layers to it, and you probably have to watch it more than once to get everything out of it. The famous duel scene toward the end of the film is one of the best I've ever seen, right up there with the climax of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (even though they couldn't be much more different). The more ominous "duel version" of the film's main theme that starts before the actual duel and goes on for what feels like about 20 minutes (I didn't time it) works almost like the audio equivalent of Chinese water torture and helps to bring the tension to a nearly unbearable level. A great film, worth the investment of three hours.