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Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Fascinating:
I'm presently fascinated by the harsh critical evaluation of this movie. Typically the criticism is focused on the "Pace" or boring lack of forward motion exhibited by the director. I agree, if after 30 minutes (right about the duel scene) you aren't 100% enthralled, you need to bag-out and turn off. By that critical moment if the pace is disturbing you, the remaining 3 hours will bring you to complete distraction.

However, if after this first 30 or so minutes you are still tuned in, you are fully prepped for an engrossing and completely artistic experience of absolute joy. Really, that's the breaking point 30 minutes. Kubrick takes his time to make his points. God bless the man. You either get it or you don't have the time. As my film critic friend put it, "Hey, at that point, go watch Bad boys or Scream 5". The point being, it's not pop culture, it's a piece of work (art work) and it required some development.

It's Okay if you have other things to do, simply go do them. This movie however should not be judged by Quick edit points and chop/chop depictions of every moment. All things are given their proper width and space.

Perhaps if you've ever read a book, this is a similar experience. It takes time. Characters are developed and moments unfold as though reality had a place in the thing. If you choose to review this film in a critical manner, do so on it's faults, not it's pace. I will leave the faults for you to discover, frankly they are few.

Enjoy.
Relax, have some tea. But for the sake of us all don't complain that this movie does not fit into your fast food world.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: Often underrated, this is Kubrick at his best. The cinematography is, of course, breathtaking, lavish and restrained at the same time. The Movie is a kind of orchestrated satire of the western formal rituals of violence and war, from the personal duel to the international battleground, where human beings are parading as cannon fodder. It's terribly appalling and terribly funny. Together with Paths of Glory (1957) and Full Metal Jacket (1987) it makes a monumental Kubrickesque War-trilogy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprise, a good film!
Review: I watched this film and like so much. The photograph is fanttastic, the estory is brilhant and havce a air of reality, and how Barry goes up in the social life and he goes down is much real too, excellent film, visit momentobaleia.weblogger.com.br for more.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WHEN ELSE HAVE YOU ENJOYED A 3-HOUR FILM.
Review: By turns drawn-out and ecstatically engagingly, Barry Lyndon's is a very different Kubrick endeavour. The gorgeous cinematography and the impeccable lighting that capture the lush greens & castles of Britain are a sight to behold. He places the viewer *into* the eighteenth century. You are living it.

The pace of the film may be somewhat sluggish, it's a 3-hour piece, and several scenes offer the viewer no dialogue at all because this was a time when the gesture, the look, the subtle formality communicated far more than the spoken word. A sharp contrast to today's "fast and furious" approach to film-making. But that's Kubrick for you -- much more to savour than to devour. A spectacle in a class by itself. Must-watch if you can lay your hands on it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Beautiful
Review: I've heard complaints that Barry Lyndon and other Kubrick films lack character depth and emotional involvement. Well, this may sound wierd, but this is the kind of movie I can watch purely for visual enjoyment. Every shot in this film is stunning, like a 17th century painting or something. Barry Lyndon is very much like 2001: A Space Odyssey; slow-moving, beautiful, and hypnotizing. And as far as the 'lack of depth' thing, Kubrick's recognizable and inimitable camera style says it all. The camera usually remains at a distance from the action (except for rare exceptions like fight scenes) , and simply observes. So I guess you could say that Kubrick's style is shallow, but I believe it's meant to be. We aren't supposed to know the motives and inner workings of every character, because after all, we're only observers.
Barry Lyndon is overlooked, underrated, and thoroughly deserving of your attention.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Barry Lyndon, we hardly know thee
Review: This film is a biography in the most straightforward sense: It simply recounts the events of this historical person's extrordinary life. Kubrick's goal, one supposes, was to bring this character to life, for us to bear witness to his troubled heart. Unfortunately, by focusing his efforts on the period sets and costumes, he misses the mark, and leaves us struggling to truly connect with or understand who Redmond Barry really was or how any of his myriad life-decisions were made. I suppose all those details were lost to the filter of History, and Kubrick does not exert his license to flesh out his historical protagonist with human characteristics. Redmond Barry's life involved many dramatic changes of circumstance and character, perhaps too many for even for a 3-hour movie to pull off convincingly. Also, contrary to other reviewers, I felt that casting all-American pretty boy Ryan O'Neal as the Irish-commoner-turned-English-nobleman was a poor choice. In other words, it's not all Kubrick's fault that we can't relate to the protagonist. Beautifully filmed eye-candy, but missing the emotional hook.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An 18th Century Painting Come to Life
Review: Maximum Kubrick moments abound as this 18th century painting comes to life. Title character is 18th century Irish rogue eventually finding his way into aristocratic English society. He is a stranger in a strange land(at one point dons Prussian Army officers uniform that leads to one of my favorite scenes with Hardy Kruger), and once Lyndon finds himself in new setting he must figure out what is the "right" behaviour. The story is actually a tragedy. All glory is fleeting applies here.
DVD transfer is as beautiful as the costumes, camerawork, music, and lighting(famous indoor candle-lit scenes are amazing).
Stanley Kubrick wanted originally to make a period film about Napoleon, but when "Waterloo" failed at the box office he abandoned it. Lyndon, I guess, became his period piece gem. He would not make another film until 5 years later with 1980's The Shining.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Victorian life shown like none other
Review: Barry Lyndon is a perfect example of a Kubrick film. It may not be as good as a clockwork orange, or 2001, but it is the most beautifully filmed movie ever made. Each set, each shot, is a victorian painting come to life. If you were to study the way kubrick made film's (which is very distinct, you notice them when you become a Kubrick coneseaur) Barry Lyndon might actually be the best place to start.
Barry Lyndon came out of the idea of Kubricks masterpiece. Kubrick deperately wanted to do a full scale napolean epic, only to find no studio would fund him ( he wanted epic battle scene's with thousands of extras). When he found he could not do this, he settle on William Thackery's victorian novel.
It is the story of an Irish lad who scams his way into English nobility. When he makes it to the top he slowly unravals through travesty and his own attitude (which blimps as the movie wains).
It is a great movie, and an Excellent Kubrick, and you should try it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Soundbites, 18th Century style.
Review: Compared to Kubrick's other formidable work you don't hear much about Barry Lyndon. Not surprising as it proves to be the most unAmerican of subject matters compared to all his other work. Kudos to him though in 'speeding up' the story of the film. People seem to forget that during the pre-industrial era we're dealing with here, life really was that slow. Before the commodification of time by the railways, the addiction to gadgets through the onset of modern technology and the obsession with the economy of words through the development of the mass media, most people I assume would have been much less concerned with the immediate passing of time. One day would have been much like the rest.

In fact Kubrick himself seems to embody these pre-industrial values through his time-consuming attention to detail and his search for idiosyncratic invention. He was a pre-industrial craftsman in a profession that proved to be the apex of industrial art. In this sense he is the opposite of the Hollywood 'factory' director churning out tried and tested formulas in predictable formats.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Underated Kubrick Film
Review: While it is not the best Kubrick film ever made it is an enjoyable film none-the-less. The 3 hour movie centers around the rise and fall of an 18th century Irish rogue who gambles and marries his way up the social ladder. While the acting is restrained (but still very good), it is not devoid of passion, it is merely reflecting society at the time.

The real star of the show here is the cinematography, the set designs and the costumes. The film looks so real that it seems that the viewer has stepped into an 18th century painting.

While Barry Lyndon isn't as shocking as Full Metal Jacket or Clockwork Orange or as funny as Dr. Strangelove or as weird as 2001; it is still a great, if delibrately paced film with excellent cinematography and sets.


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