A cold but beautiful work of art

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2010)

While not for all tastes, this is an excellent film
It has been filmed as if each individual frame of film is a painting.
The story is archetypal but interesting, telling the story of the rise and fall of an anti-hero. Ryan O'Neal in the title role is a real surprise and is engaging despite being a character that is deliberately dislike-able. In fact as the character rises up the social ladder, with setbacks on the way, I began to sympathise with the character more. When the character makes it, the film then shifts to be a study of hubris and the character becomes deliberately dislike-able again. Even when the character undertakes a surprising redemptive turn, it is appropriate, and perhaps inevitable that the character becomes subject to the very type the act that he would be more than happy to meat out to other individuals, and certainly does to his stepson, played well by Leon Vitali as his older form, but absolutely brilliantly by in the younger form by child actor, now TV director Dominic Savage. The young Bullingdon comes across as more mature than some of the adult characters that surround him. Other performances are all good and appropriate for the story. Kubrick again makes use of performers he has worked with before, notably Philip Stone as the Lyndon's family lawyer, Leonard Rossiter and the cowardly Captain Quinn, Anthony Sharpe as Lord Hallam, and and excellent Godfrey Quigley as Captain Grogan, the only character with genuine warmth and integrity in the story.
The plot progresses at a steady pace. As a viewer, you have to be patient to be rewarded by it. Less patient viewers will see it as boring but then Kubrick as a director expects you to be patient. He was patient with actors in his films, as evidenced by very long shooting schedules and working with actors not to rush when planning their performances; he was patient putting his films together is post production. He therefore expects audiences to be patient.
The story is in effect a series of rises and falls of fortune, culminating in a fall at the end of the film. In fact, this major fall is the character's own making, and I did feel frustrated that the character started making a series of wrong choices, not helped by the hubristic attitude of Lyndon's mother, who is well played by Irish actor Marie Kean. Therefore, it was clear that the film had succeeded in drawing me in despite the objective, observational style of the film, with an effective narration by Michael Hordern.
Technical credits are outstanding, which is typical for Kubrick films of this period. John Alcott's photography gives great realism to the period, lighting scenes to suggest natural light sources, rather than more typical feature film compositional lighting. Camera-work is more subtle than in previous Kubrick films. However, Kubrick does make very effective use of slow zooms to help tell the story. It is no surprise that Alcott won an Oscar for his work. Design by Ken Adam (as production designer), Roy Walker(as art director), Vernon Dixon (as set dresser) frequent Kubrick collaborator and 3 time Oscar winner Milena Canonero(costumes), and Ulla-Britt Söderlund (costumes) is nothing short of brilliant and totally convinces you of the time period the film takes place in. They all deservedly won Oscars. Composer Leonard Rosenmann also won an academy award for his excellent work adapting existing classical pieces, but huge credit has to go to Kubrick for his choices, that totally suit the film.
Kubrick marshals everything with his usual panache. While the film is a tragedy, the few action scenes, which hinge around Napleonic type warfare with muskets, is brilliantly executed, but doesn't come across as the director showing off, but as being entirely integrated into the story.
Be patient, open minded and you'll throughly enjoy it.