Social study disguised as 18th century painting

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2015)

Barry Lyndon has always been a curious film in Kubrick's filmography and is rarely mentioned as anyone's favourite. Even for his small amount of films, Kubrick has been known for his variety, but even audiences back in the day must've been surprised to see him tackle a costume drama. But since it's Kubrick, we're obviously not dealing with just any costume drama After being treated to a particularly dramatic performance of Handel's Sarabande, the film opens with protagonist Redmond Barry's father being shot in a duel. Barry falls in love with his cousin Nora, but though she shows interest in him, she plans to marry a rich English Captain. Frustrated, Barry shoots the Captain and is forced to flee to Dublin. The film follows his trials and tribulations as he roams the countryside in search of fortune, eventually makes a name for himself, but by that time the demeaning sides of his personality ensure his inevitable ruin.
A curious thing indeed to see Kubrick tackle the costume drama genre. The trick, however, is to remember what Kubrick's all about. What is one of the key themes that defines pretty much every one of his films? I'd say a cynical, yet still sympathetic view at the folly and arrogance of man. Seen from this angle, you start to understand Barry Lyndon a little bit better. Once you literally peer beneath the incredibly shiny veneer and look at the inhuman underbelly of the world of Barry Lyndon, you can see what Kubrick's trying to do. When you think about it, it's actually a stroke of genius, Kubrick applying his notions of human indecency and arrogance to what is literally the most beautiful time period in human history.
The film's central character, Barry, is also curious in that the film always seems to maintain a certain distance from him even though he's almost in every scene. But this hides the fact that his development is crucial to understanding Kubrick's intent. It's not for nothing we find Barry constantly frustrated in love in the film's first half and then see him neglect his wife in the second half. It's not for nothing he shoots his cousin's marriage prospect, the Captain, when he finds out she wants to marry him for reasons of wealth, only for him to do something similar when he marries Lady Honoria Lyndon. In a sense, Kubrick structures his film like Full Metal Jacket: in two halves. Just like how Full Metal Jacket first shows the dehumanization process the recruits are forced to undergo followed by its inevitable consequences, so does Barry Lyndon first portray Barry's struggle for success which is inexorably accompanied by his losing some of his humanity, the consequences of which are shown in the second half.
The film's combination of period style and cynicism is also what lends the film its own particular brand of humor as seen in scenes like the early robbery scene. It's actually a tragedy and an injustice that Barry is being robbed, but the robber's polite manner lends it a strangely humorous quality. All the trauma and indecency is buried for the sake of appearance. Indeed, it's how everything looks that rules the minds of the characters and the particular time period. Kubrick was definitely trying to show how, despite it being a time of great beauty (who can forget the groundbreaking candlelight scenes?) and despite humans attempting to create a veritable fortress of beauty and blocking out all manner of cruelty, cruelty isn't something that can be so simply removed from human nature, but is inextricably bound to it.
Of his most famous films, Barry Lyndon is also probably the most underrated which is a shame, because it contains many of the familiar themes we associate with Kubrick. I'm not going to pretend I loved it from the start. When I first saw it in my late teens I was quite underwhelmed. I couldn't see how the Kubrick of 2001 and Clockwork Orange could make such aslow, long, almost boring (for my teen spirit) film like Lyndon. But once I familiarized myself with Kubrick's style, I started to realize I seriously needed to reevaluate my opinion of it. The film's deliberately slow pacing and the 'artsy' distance it maintains from its characters not only hide, but are also part of, the film's focus on the toxic relationship between the superficial surface beauty of the 18th century and the unhappiness and immorality it tries to hide.