The main character deserved worse

Rating: 6/10 (25 October 2005)

I have to give credit to Stanley Kubrick for being the only director to never make the same film twice. If one were to watch all of his movies, one would never know they were made by the same man. This is incredibly hard to do and very few filmmakers have undertaken that risk. Even fewer filmmakers have undertaken that risk and were successful at it. Kubrick was both and that might be one reason why he is loved by so many film lovers all over the world. Although I can give him credit for that, I also feel his films are deeply flawed and some are quite boring.
'Barry Lyndon' is a lot like many other Kubrick films. It is directed in stunning fashion, with several brilliant sequences throughout. It is beautiful to look at and the costumes great. At the same time, the film fails in creating a character the audience can like watching for over three hours. I doubt many film lovers can possibly like the main character of this film. He is a user and an opportunist; he has almost no sympathy for the people he has hurt and used throughout his lifetime. Something bad happens to him at the end of this story. Although it is bad, I felt that he deserved much worse than what he got. He hurt and abandoned too many people in his life to receive something that was the equivalent of a slap on the wrist.