Kubrick's epic on the irony and absurdity of humanity

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2002)

The first time I saw this film I was intrigued. The second time I was blown away. Barry Lyndon is a gripping story of debauchery and eventual redemption. However, it is Kubrick's subtle crescendo of irony, contingency, pacing, direction, and cinematography that makes this film a masterpiece. Like all of Kubrick's films, Barry Lyndon benefits from repeated viewings. The detailed and meticulously constructed universe of each of Kubrick's works are nothing short of astoundingBarry Lyndon included.
Kubrick is rumored (and documented) to routinely shoot 30, 40, up to 50 retakes of a single scene. You can tell, and the quality, action, and aesthetic he achieves through this practice is completely unique. One of the most memorable scenes was the first interaction/contact between Lady Lyndon and Redmond (at the candle lit gaming table next to the Reverend). So much is communicated without any spoken lines. This is not that profound or even uncommon, but the portrayal of unfiltered humanity, in all it's uncomfortable fallibility, absurdity, and clumsy, unabashed emotion is uniquely Kubrick. The action and actors seem to enter a sublime deliberateness full of subtlety and meticulous detail. It's hard to describe but every scene and every shot seems encumbered by some varying degree of `heaviness' and import. Kubrick somehow captures the absurdity of humanity in every shot. Action is belabored, paced, and deliberate-some people find this unique quality of Kubrick's films painful and slow. It is painful at times, but when it is, that is the point being affected. In such films as 2001 or The Shining, this dynamic strengthens the affect of later scenes and is part of the creshendo of the film's entirety. The same is true of Barry Lyndon. Kubrick has said that any subject worth consideration can not be viewed head on. The audience must make it's own discoveries rather than the film making the action or concept explicit.
SPOILERS
Kubrick is noted as a master of contingency and irony. As one of Kubrick's mid-career films, Barry Lyndon is one of the simpler expositions on this theme. Though Barry starts his life as a hard-headed but seemingly noble, romantically idealistic, and perhaps somewhat misguided youth, he soon learns a hard series of lessons which imbue him with a resolution to never be treated less than a gentlemen. To achieve this, Barry spends most of his life perpetuating exploitative lies, schemes, and general debauchery to further his social and economic position. However, Barry eventually begins to acquire more redeeming characteristics. He gives up womanizing, becomes an excellent father to his son, and channels his energies (and his wife's savings) into more socially accepted and expected forms of cheating (bribery) to acquire social positioning. A delicious reversal or mirroring (Kubrick loves these) appears as Lord Bullingdon begins to closely resemble (in character and action) a young Redmond Barry's redemption leads to his eventual downfall and is crystallized in the duel between Barry and Bullingdon. Interestingly, the uncertainty of the film's ending perhaps illustrates Lady Lyndon's ignorance of the scheming of her own son and a semblance of remaining devotion to Barry. This implies that the only thing separating them is a sheen of lies contrived by her own son.