My 5 favorite observations & details about Barry Lyndon

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2016)

My 5 favorite observations & details about why the movie Barry Lyndon is so intriguing. (Although most of these are not mine, they helped me appreciate my favorite film.)
1) The narrator is unreliable: different because he is not first person like in the novel, but similar by not telling the exact truth.
Barry Lyndon is very much in a passionate struggle to shape his life yet the narrator dismisses him as a heartless womanizer doomed ("as fate would have it") for his unsuitability for polite society- which itself acts accordingly to its own fixed playbook ("fine family fortune!") In fact, both Lord Bullingdon and his father mock Barry's non-Lord-liness with the metaphor of stepping "into my shoes".
Also, the women do in fact care about Barry and he does care for them (and of course his numerous father figures)- it is the NARRATOR who lacks heart. The second half is very much about Lady Lyndon grappling with the heartbreak of trying to be happy while in love with this very imperfect Irishman- (namely, regarding his interactions with her first son, other women, and his mother.) So.....The narrator tells us what to think about, but not what to think; so the viewer has to question (& re-question) his judgement as well as the characters'.
2) Lots of moments happen offscreen (his father's quarrel about purchasing horses, cousins falsifying the ammunition, Barry mentioning a commander O'Grady, his son sneaking off to the horse stable; there are countless key events described but not witnessed; all of which refocuses the significance of what Kubrick DID intentionally put in front of the camera) Like Richard Schickel said, critics bicker about what Kubrick didn't do; Kubrick lovers enjoy his films in an uncomplicated fashion for what he DID present.
Thus the viewer has to actively filter through the narrator's misdirection to appreciate the characters quietly reacting to the impact of missing moments.
3) The scene where Barry meets Lady Lyndon at the gambling table is easily encapsulated by two quiet details which communicate so much; 1) Reverend Lunt's eyes as he espies the other two making eye contact, 2) how she is breathing on the terrace. (Note: there is only one substantial line in this whole scene; "Samuel, I'm going outside for a breath of air.") (It is also poignant to note that Barry's profession is rigging games of chance.)
4) No offense to Schubert and Haydn, but Leonard Rosenman's music arrangements are unmistakable; nobody does these tunes like him because remarkably he has seamlessly sewn them to the MEANING of the images and narrative.
5) When you consider the theme of three duels by firearms, also include the boxing match and the fencing match; and possibly all three abuses of Lord Bullington; and possibly even the robbery; they are all head-to-head confrontations that shape Barry's fortunes, character, & competence (dramatically!), ...but only the final climactic duel tells us who he has become.
This is the key reason I offer these insights: Spielberg is correct in saying every time one repeatedly views a Kubrick film one gets something new; BUT Kubrick himself probably intended a singular perspective: so it is ideal for viewers to appreciate all these enigmas the first (few) times viewing -while being overwhelmed by this flip book of fine art paintings set to classical music.
This is NOT a heated epic saga of inner personal thoughts breathlessly rendered by method actors in bravura theatrical performances amid iconic scenes to be parodied on the Simpsons. Most contemporary moviegoers should not dig this film the first time. (Cinema had a specific audience before Star Wars & Jaws.) Self-proclaimed Kubrick fans should NOT expect Clockwork Orange or Strangelove, nor 2001 or The Shining. The stars of this movie are the camera, the era, the universal shortcomings of humans ...and the tacit intrigue of the audience; in other words, the star is purely Kubrick.