Actually, my vote could be considered "9 1/2....

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 1998)

Actually, my vote could be considered "9 1/2." This film has the epic flair of Kubrick's prior SPARTACUS (1960). Still, inasmuch as it didn't take home the coveted Oscar it was nominated for (Best Picture), the cinematography (which it did win for) is excellent and the costuming superb. My only problem is--and I know the French New Wave purists would chide me for saying it--is the 'literariness' of the adaptation of Thackeray's novel. The counter to that, and what really saves it for me, is what Kubrick does with the mise-en-scene of the film--much as he did with the Stephen King novel THE SHINING (1979)--in the embedded class issues that are explored in this film.