Barry Lyndon (1975)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the book "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" by William Makepeace Thackeray (author of "Vanity Fair"), this film was released on the 18th of December 1975 and, at the time, gained a mixed reaction from critics after Warner Bros. referred to it as 'not the success [they] had hoped for'.

Even though many critics and audience members did not really take a shine to the movie, Roger Ebert did. In fact, after calling it one of the most beautiful movies ever made, he stated that "Barry Lyndon":

"...is almost aggressive in its cool detachment. It defies us to care, it forces us to remain detached about its stately elegance."

Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, as did Gene Siskel, his close friend and critic. Siskel stated:

"I found 'Barry Lyndon' to be quite obvious about its intentions and thoroughly successful in achieving them. Kubrick has taken a novel about a social class and has turned it into an utterly comfortable story that conveys the stunning emptiness of upper-class life only 200 years past."

Los Angeles veteran film critic Charles Champlin stated that the film was adapted from a book that was 'only seen on coffee tables'. In fact, I have read his review of the film a number of times and it never fails to give me a good smile just because of its wording, check this out:

"...the motion picture equivalent of one of those very large, very heavy, very expensive, very elegant and very dull books that exist solely to be seen on coffee tables. It is ravishingly beautiful and incredibly tedious in about equal doses, a succession of salon quality still photographs—as often as not very still indeed."

Of course, after winning four Academy Awards, the film was re-evaluated and since has become a stand-alone piece of incredible satire of the damnation of Georgian Society as it declines, falls and crumbles to the dust. It is empty and brilliant with the film being one of the best things about Kubrick's career.

Personally, "Barry Lyndon" is my third favourite Kubrick film after my second being "2001: A Space Odyssey" and my favourite being "Dr. Strangelove". I personally love it because it demonstrates the true power and genius of Kubrick in being able to take this much-loved satirical novel of the olden times and turn it into something we, of the modern day, would recognise. And in fact, this film is Martin Scorsese's favourite Kubrick movie.

After I had seen it a couple of times, there was an obvious pull to it. I think that you have had to watch all the films of Kubrick’s career to truly appreciate this one since it is so different to the rest. It is just not like Kubrick at all when it begins, but as you watch and re-watch it, there is an obvious Kubrick-ness to the whole situation.