FILM
REVIEW - BARRY LYNDON
Stanley
Kubrick’s lavish groundbreaking 1975 costume drama about the rise and fall of
Barry Lyndon is one of cinema’s greatest achievements.
Kubrick
had hoped to follow A Clockwork Orange with a film about Napoleon, but the film
about waterloo had been a box-office failure, and the studios refused to invest
in another film dealing with the same territory. Kubrick decided to film Thackerey’s Vanity Fair, but the
BBC beat him to the rights. Kubrick
fell back on a lesser-known Thackerey novel, 1844’s The Luck Of Barry Lyndon,
which was set in the period of the Anglo-French Seven Years War 1756-63).
Lyndon,
played by Ryan O’Neal, begins the story as a naive working class Irishman, who
falls for a lovely farm girl, who is unfortunately betrothed to an English army
captain, played by Kubrick favourite, Leonard Rossiter. The betrothal is a
loveless one, but promises to gain the girl’s family some financial security.
Lyndon
rashly ruins the plans by challenging the captain to a duel (one of several
superbly and tensely staged duels in the film). He is led to believe that he
has shot the Captain dead, and advised to flee the country (duelling being
illegal at the time0. Lyndon will earn
too late that the death of The Captain was faked in order to get rid of Lyndon
and restore the family’s potential fortunes).
Lyndon
heads to England, incredibly polite and gentlemanly highwaymen steal where what
little money he has. Lyndon is forced to join the English army as an
alternative to starving, but seeing the death of a good friend, he deserts, and
ends up posing as a Prussian cavalry officer. A real Prussian Commander
discovers his ruse, played by Hardy Kruger, who forces Lyndon to join the
Prussian army. Here, Lyndon excels, even saving Kruger’s life, and gains a
great deal of respect, but as the war ends, Kruger sends Lyndon to spy on a
Chevalier, played by Patrick Magee, a gambler and a spy. Recognising the
Chevalier as a fellow Irishman, Lyndon double crosses the Prussians, and
embarks on a hedonistic rise to fortune with the Chevalier.
Lyndon
soon falls for a married French Countess, Marrisa Berenson), and marries her
soon after her husband dies, which gives great offence to her son from the
first marriage, Lord Bollington, especially as Lyndon womanises and cheats on
his new wife. Such will lead to his
nemesis in the second part of the film, which runs for over three hours and
carries an intermission. Many critics find the film too long and ponderous, but
I found it captivating throughout.
While
part one shows Lyndon’s rise to fame and fortune, part two is concerned with
his tragic downfall.
His
affairs are discovered, and realizing that he has upset his wife, he begins to
genuinely love her, but his gambling luck has run out and he has plunged the
estate into serious debt. He has a son of his own to his wife, and genuinely
loves him, fuelling further hatred and jealousy from Lord Bollington, who tries
his best to take his frustrations out on the second child, until Lyndon beats
him savagely in front of everyone. Lord Bollington leaves home, threatening
never to return, but he will.
Lyndon
dotes on, and spoils his own son, but fate takes a terrible turn when he buys
the boy a horse for his birthday. Riding the horse unsupervised, the boy falls
and dies. Lyndon and his wife become
inconsolable. Lyndon descends into alcoholism, while his wife seems solace in
religion.
Lyndon’s
own mother, who he has invited over to stay with him, now intervenes, and dismisses
her daughter-in-law’s religious advisors. They retaliate by inviting Lord
Bollington to manage the affairs of the crumbling estate he stands to inherit.
He arrives intent on revenge, and challenges his stepfather to a duel – one of
the best gunfights ever seen outside of a western. Lyndon loses, and he is shot in the leg, which has to be
amputated. The estate is saved by Lord
Bollington, but only at the cost of Lyndon and his mother being sent away into
exile. His wife is allowed to send him
an allowance but never to see him again. The film ends with her tearfully
writing out a cheque for his future….
The
cine-photography won Oscars and has never been bettered. Kubrick makes each
frame look like a Gainsborough painting, and the film is wonderful in many
respects, funny at times, and harrowingly sad at others. Lyndon’s story remains
English Cinema at its finest. The battle sequences are astonishing and a
powerful anti-war statement in every respect.
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