Ambition goes up against Determinism !!!

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2017)

'Barry Lyndon' has a connection with '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Just like each character in 2001(who represent their species), Barry is shown to be someone who is willing to do anything to survive and prosper. His instincts generally revolve around his selfish desires of survival. In 2001 the desperate measures to survive at all cost end up being insignificant and inconsequential because of the implied presence of a higher power represented by the monoliths. This presence of a higher power is possibly meant to imply the concept of determinism and subversion of the idea of free will. In 'Barry Lyndon', Barry's father was killed in a duel right at the beginning of the film and Kubrick adds no feeling to that scene whatsoever. Clearly losing his father at a very young age had to have determined the life that Barry was going to lead. Having seen his life get shaped for him at a very young age without him having any influence, everything Barry does subsequently in his life in nothing but to achieve success, wealth and prosperity by asserting his own will instead of having to march to the beat of fate's tune. It is remarkable how similar Barry's sensibilities are to Charles Foster Kane's in 'Citizen Kane'. Kane was another man whose future was decided by someone else at a very young age and everything that Kane did subsequently in his life was to ensure that his life never revolved around anyone else's whims.
The constant zoom-outs in the film are deliberate and thematically relevant. In Act 1, we see Barry embark on adventures, visits various places, fights in duels and wars,etc. and does everything else to ensure he looks out for himself and also to ensure he achieves material gains and an elevation in social status which he gets by marrying into wealth and class. He achieves temporary success through the sheer power of his will. This is why I think the zoom-outs in Act 1 are supposed to be premonitory. All of Barry's assertive actions are undermined by Kubrick's camera. Kubrick constantly zooms out to expand the visual field which makes Barry and the other characters look very small in the respective frames. But making Barry look miniscule in the shots, Kubrick is visually driving home the philosophical notion that no matter how hard Barry tries to willfully determine his future, in the end his actions won't matter in the bigger picture. What fate holds for him in the future will materialise whether he likes it or not. This is how Kubrick brings in determinism in the story. In Act 2, the zoom- outs are meant to show the characters completely frozen in time like the classic-era pictures on the walls.
There is a scene where Barry views a picture on the wall and decides to buy it. There is a scene that comes up later which is significant because the framing is very similar to the aforementioned scene but the important thing is, this time Barry takes the place of the picture and King George III is checking him out. Barry as a person holds as little a significance as the characters in the painting.
Although in Act 1 a number of the shots look like paintings too, but it is in Act 2 that the painting motif gets its thematic poignancy. This is because the majority of Act 2 takes place inside the palace walls and the actual pictures on the wall are constantly in view. The actual pictures on the wall themselves allow Kubrick to draw the comparison between them and his picture-like frame compositions. The purpose of the characters in the pictures on the wall is defined not by them, but by the person who drew them. Similarly the purpose of Barry's life and where it goes and how it crystallizes won't be determined by Barry, but by something/someone else, maybe God, maybe some other higher power, or mere chance(from a nihilistic standpoint) or maybe the society itself that Barry is a part of. Even though, he became Barry Lyndon, a lot of people in his surroundings never saw him as anything other than Barry Redmond. In the end all his achievements went in vain. The masterful thing is that the last time we see Barry in the film, he has his back to the camera. But the significant thing is, instead of zoom-outs, we get a zoom- in. Hence at this moment, instead of expanding the visual field, Kubrick contracts it to convey that Barry's ambition has been put in its place by fate.
The cinematography of the film as has been mentioned time and again is jaw-dropping and coupled with the meticulous production design, 'Barry Lyndon' ends up being one of the most authentic, convincing and fully developed recreations of a period setting in the history of motion pictures.
Although Kubrick again sets an emotionally distant tone, just like his other films, however the Act 2 of 'Barry Lyndon' contains some of the most emotionally charged scenes, moments and shots of Kubrick's entire career. Losing his father at a very early age, one aspect of Barry's life involved moving from one father figure to another. But when he himself becomes a father, he tries his level best to have the most loving relationship with his son and Kubrick actually upholds the purity of this father-son relationship by treating it with humanism without judgement.
I have heard that 'Barry Lyndon' is Martin Scorsese's favourite Kubrick film. I find that interesting because on examination one can find that 'Barry Lyndon' and 'Goodfellas' feature an exceptionally similar arc of 'rags to riches to rags' revolving around two immensely ambitious men with the drive to break the class restrictions and rise to the top with the sheer power of their will and persistence. However, fate in the end reigns supreme and makes all their achievements and adventures seem pointless. Determinism plays a joke on them.