Exquisite cinema

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2006)

Having just watched this movie on DVD for the first time in years, I've come away in rapture.
Not only is this one of the finest pieces of cinematography ever made, but it is accompanied by beautiful music, sumptuous costumes, subtle lighting and an indefinable something that raises it to the status of art.
And as a history nut who often finds himself screaming at the screen "no, no, no!", this is a movie where I sat nodding with satisfaction and saying "yes, yes, yes." The battle scenes, though brief, are superbly done, conveying a true sense that history is another country, and in this one men marched and fought shoulder to shoulder, loading and firing at preposterously close range with an indifference to death and maiming that we would find unspeakable. But thus it was, and Kubrik does it *properly*, with superb attention to detail, rendering some of the most realistic 18th century battle scenes ever filmed, leaving movies like Waterloo or the Patriot in the dust.
There's an elegance and rhythm to this movie that draws you in, intrigues you, and keeps you watching long past bedtime. How often can you watch three hours of movie, then find yourself checking your watch to see if it would be really preposterous to just hit the 'play' button again? Ein Meisterwerk, as one of the ill-fated Lyndon's Prussian officers might have said. And they would have been quite right.