Completely avoids the obligation to entertain

Rating: 2/10 (27 March 2008)

A slow movie isn't necessarily a bad movie. Often when viewing a slow movie, it's still possible to detect and enjoy a director's intent. In outwardly dull movies such as Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Conversation,' Kubrick's own '2001,' and 'Being There,' the movies are actually teeming with subtext, and exciting ideas which afford a view of what the director intended to explore. I cannot find any such quality in Barry Lyndon. I am unable to even guess why Kubrick wanted to make this. It's difficult to see what excited him about the project. How does the social rebellion of 'A Clockwork Orange' and '2001' dissipate into this constipated movie by 1975? Kubrick foregoes both entertainment and camera movement to a Puritanical extent here.
The movie is also homophobic. It's filled with sophomoric tableaux lifted from Hogarth's 'A Rakes Progress,' which still don't answer the question, "What's the point?" If I don't care about the obvious level of a movie, I don't feel any compulsion to look for symbolic or thematic value. Most of the establishing shots in this movie are beautiful, as are some settings which are photographed like paintings. It's just not enough.