Great recreation of 18th Century Europe as well as human universal feelings

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2007)

The movie shows us the trip of adventures, misfortunes, and survival made by Irishman Redmond Barry. Forced to leave his country, Barry enlists in English Army and fights in Germany, and then deserted. He was caught by a Prussian high-command officer and had to join that Army. After a few years, he worked for the Prussian Government as a spy, and finally went free after a wise move against Captain Potzdorf. Redmond goes to England with the purpose of getting married with a wealthy, future-ensurer woman, and he accomplished his mission by marrying with Mrs. Lyndon, a rich and beautiful widow. From that moment on, Redmond was known as Barry Lyndon. The relationship was prestigious but loveless, and the friendship between Barry and Mrs. Lyndon's son was non existent. They conceived a child named Brian, and as time passed by, Barry was becoming a selfish, greedy person each time more, contrary of what he was like in his youth: brave and always honest. Because of a terrible accident, 9 year-old Brian died and Barry along with his wife went on a terrible depression, followed by a serious economic crisis. Mrs. Lyndon's older son challenged him to a duel, which was won by the young man (destroyed Barry's leg). He ended expelling Barry and his mother from the family and they returned to Ireland, where he probably ended the same way as he started: poor and unsatisfied. The brilliantness of another era's representation and costumes gets together with the well-known ability that Kubrick had to show human feelings and its issues to make a masterpiece.