2001 for the 18th Century

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 1999)

I have long since admired the work of Stanley Kubrick because he was able to capture the essence of every idea that he took on. In "2001" we, the viewer, got the chance to glimpse at the future as if the film where a documentary. In "Dr. Strangelove" Mr. Kubrick had us laughing all the way to the end of the world. But what Mr. Kubrick was able to achieve with 1975's "Barry Lyndon" is every bit as breathtaking and haunting as "2001" or any of his other films for that matter. It's not so much that one watches "Barry Lyndon" as the film washes over you, truly making you feel that it is 18th Century England. "Barry Lyndon" is not an easy film to watch for those with short attention spans or are unfamiliar with the works Mr. Kubrick because the film is a long, labourous journey. The film, which is 185 minutes long, is about a young man named Redmond Barry (played by a rather stiff but effective Ryan O'Neal) who yearns to crawl out of his poor Irish home and seek fame and fortune aboard. A duel fought over a women with a British officer forces Barry to flee and so his adventure begins. He ends up in both the English and the Prussian armies, fights in the Seven Years War, works as a spy and then marries the lovely Lady Lyndon. But this upwordly-mobile young man is doomed from the start and slowly his plans of grandeur dissolve into an abyss of despair and shame. Mr. Kubrick went to painstaking details in order to recreate the feel of the times (he used real costumes from the period, natural candlelight and actual houses of the age) and he passes with flying colors. This film embodies all that Mr. Kubrick had to say about about human nature and man's destiny (see "2001", "A Clockwork Orange" and "Full Metal Jacket"). The former Redmond Barry was doomed from the start to end up at the beginning. Rest in peace, Stanley.