Like a fine wine, improves with age....

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 1999)

I tried to watch this movie on video back in 1980, but unfortunately, it failed me.
I was 15 years old at the time and had just witnessed Kubrick's wonderful movie "The Shining" in the theaters that year. I quickly became infatuated with Kubrick and quickly searched out his other films to watch.
I soon rented "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001". I couldn't get enough of this director! Everything I watched that he created was fantastic and I knew that I would love everything that this man made. That was until I rented "Barry Lyndon" during that same time, and witnessed what I thought was his first triumphant failure....
I couldn't get into the movie at all and I distinctly remember not watching the entire thing. I considered it the cost of a rental thrown down the drain.
How young and stupid I was....
I tried the film again, sometime around 1993 (13 years later). I had seen every one of Kubrick's movies by then and loved them all, except this one. I still remembered the experience I had in trying to watch "Barry Lyndon". I rented the tape again, to try and watch the film once more. And am I ever thankful that I did!!
It was upon this second viewing (me being older and wiser now and able to understand the messages that Stanley was conveying in his films) that the film made it's wonderful impact on me!
I loved every second and frame of this movie:
Its slow, deliberate pace to allow the viewer to savor every image, just as one would do with a beautiful photograph or painting,
Its beautiful cinematography, for which it won the coveted Oscar for,
It's wonderful blend of Irish and classical music,
The use of authentic 18th Century costumes (another Oscar winner) and settings,
and of course, it's terrific direction by Kubrick to convey the message of man's continued mistreatment of his fellow man in order to gain wealth and power.
The last line in this movie says it all!!
Along with "2001", (IMHO) "Barry Lyndon" is Stanley Kubrick's best movie!! A+
If you tried to watch this movie at a young age and it didn't sit well with you, please wait a few years and give it another try. I'm sure you'll be as astounded as I was!