choice of actor

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2011)

I don't have much to add to the assessments made by the other reviewers except to say that Barry Lyndon is one of my favourite films. There is just one point about it that I'd like to comment on, and that is Kubrick's choice of Ryan O'Neal as the actor to play Barry. O'Neal was a good actor but he was not suitable for this part. Few Americans can play the role of a European well. Someone like Malcolm McDowell or Richard Harris or some other Irish or English actor would have been a much better choice. Kubrick may well have picked O'Neal as a draw for the movie-going public. Having said that the film is otherwise a brilliant creation.