The vicious circle of human greed and naivité

Rating: 10/10 (20 April 2020)

This life story of an insignificant Irishman is one in which the winners are losers and vice versa, in which formal beauty, decency and status can only be acquired with a refined yet remorseless skill and in which only the movements of the hands and eyes reveal what the icy faces want to hide. The formal beauty of the shots masks the actual ruthlessness, sadness and greed of the characters. Rather than giving a historical account on how this life was like, Kubrick reminds us how Barry's rise and fall is just one example of the vicious circle of human cunning for opulence. Barry was not the first to be called Lyndon, but he is certainly not the last.
10/10.