All equal now

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2009)

The story of Redmond Barry becoming Barry Lyndon in the social circles of 18th century England is a story of romance, war, fatherhood, betrayal, conflict, death, luck and...stillness. As if he leaved in a moving painting, Kubrick's hero tries to evolve and prosper in a totally still world. All of his misfortunes, most of which are told to the viewer from a distant, neutral and ironic narrator before Barry himself is aware of them, seem to be a natural outcome of his motionless environment. The great film maker decides to emphasize this in the very end, when he delivers his hero to his predetermined end and offers a single freeze frame only to let Barry finally be part of this era that just ended (in the unforgettable last sequence of the film, the final check that lady Lyndon signs has the date of the beginning of the French revolution).
Stanley Kubrick's three hour obituary is excellent in every aspect, it is a rare cinematic jewel that captures the very sense of cinematography and has all the magic ingredients of an epic story telling. It is absolutely magnificent how the director captures the melancholy of his figures under the candle lights, in the gambling tables, in the duels or even on a romantic encounter under the fine classical sounds of a piano or a violin piece. It is a story for a man and an era long passed and forgotten, an oil painting that decided it would look prettier on film and perhaps, in this way, it would be easier to hide its dark and sad character, only to figure out that, like Barry, it had no choice whatsoever in any of life's crossroads and unfortunately at the end, slow and premeditated, it run out of luck.