Sheer splendour

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 1999)

Barry Lyndon is as close to perfect as a motion picture can come. From the opening scene of the dueling figures in the distance, offset by glorious Irish countryside, the viewer is utterly engrossed in the experience.
The film moves with a pace that is both gentle and swift. The rambling adventures of the rouge Redmond Barry are comic, sad, exciting and desperate. It's 3 hour running time is not tribute to a complex plot, rather a complex character, who our perception towards constantly changes. In one moment he is the hero, the next the villain. This is not forced upon us though in obvious acts of bravery or treachery, rather it is more subtly realised by the viewer.
Kubrick's films usually deal with the dehumanising of mankind. This is certainly an important plot element in Barry Lyndon, especially in the second half, where Barry resigns to his fate, and the viewer with him. The script of the epilogue however, is perhaps the greatest redeeming example of Kubrick's love for humanity as well, as he describes all people of the era, whether rich or poor, handsome or ugly, as 'all equal now'. Kubrick, hailed as a genius, has now joined them, but testaments like Barry Lyndon will live as long as the cinema itself.