Barry Lyndon

Another movie on my DVR that's coming up again soon on TCM is Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Barry Lyndon, which will be on overnight tonight, or early January 5 if you want to look at it that way, at 2:00 AM. (Of course, in the Pacific time zone that will still be before midnight on January 4.) With that in mind, I sat down to watch the movie so I could do a post here.

Ryan O'Neal stars as Barry, although as the movie opens he's not yet Barry Lyndon, but Redmond Barry. Redmond lives in Ireland in the late 1750s in an era when it was still a territory of England. He's hoping to marry his cousin Nora, but events conspire against him as his father is killed in a duel. Not only that, but Nora's parents want to marry her off to a British army officer. So Barry and the officer fight a duel of their own, which Redmond "wins" when he shoots the officer dead. Of course, he'll be a wanted man now, so he flees to Dublin. However, Barry gets accosted by father-and-son highwaymen on the way there, having his horse and all his money taken from him.

Barry is in a bit of luck, however, in that in the next town the British army is looking to recruit men to be soldiers, which at least will give Barry a stable income and a chance to escape his past. The bad news is that this is the time of the Seven Years' War, so he's going to have to go off to the Continent to fight. He even serves under an old friend, Grogan, at least until Grogan is killed in action. Some time later, Barry comes across an officer bathing in the river, which Barry sees as an opportunity to steal the officer's identity and cross over to the Prussian lines, the Prussians being allies of the English.

Barry's plan is to figure out a way to get to a port city, from there to Holland, and then from Holland to Ireland. Hopefully, he can also get rich along the way, as Barry's biggest desire is to live a life of luxury. Unfortunately, all of these plans are dashed when Barry runs across a platoon of Prussians led by Captain Potzdorf (Hardy Krüger). Potzdorf realizes Barry is lying and forces Barry into service with the Prussian army until the war ends. At that point, Barry, with his knowledge of languages, is asked to spy upon a Chevalier de Balibari (Patrick Magee), who is ostensibly an Austrian envoy but believed by Prussia to be a spy of Irish origin. Barry, always willing to work himself up to try to become more wealthy, decides to work with Balibari. The two eventually go across Europe fleecing rich gamblers, until meeting Sir Charles Lyndon and his wife (Marisa Berenson). Barry and Lady Lyndon immediately fall in love, and Barry is able to drive the elderly and already sick Sir Charles to a slightly earlier grave!

Barry and Lady Lyndon go to England and get married, which allows Barry to become Barry Lyndon. He's also got access to all of Lady Lyndon's money. But there's a catch. Lady Lyndon already has a son by Sir Charles, a son now known as Lord Bullingdon, even though he's still quite young. Because Barry is not of noble birth, all of Sir Charles' holdings, which nominally became Lady Lyndon's, will become Lord Bullingdon's at such time as Lady Lyndon dies. And the young Lord Bullingdon absolutely hates his stepfather. Even more so, he hates the fact that stepdad seems hellbent on driving the family into the poorhouse.

Barry Lyndon is based on a story by Thackeray, who also wrote Vanity Fair. That was turned into the movie Becky Sharp, and while I was watching Barry Lyndon I couldn't help but think of Becky Sharp as they have common themes in main characters wanting luxury but meeting tragedy. Moviemaking technology advanced in the 40 years between the two movies, and some of that works to the advantage of Barry Lyndon, as many of the more technical aspects of it are gorgeus, from the location shooting (Ireland as not just itself but also England and Prussia) to the costumes and set design.

Unfortunately, one change in filmmaking that doesn't work is how it became more common to have longer, epic-length movies. Barry Lyndon clocks in at a shade over three hours, and with Stanley Kubrick directing, those three hours are sure to go by slowly. Also not helping is the fact that Ryan O'Neal is horribly miscast as Barry Lyndon, looking as out of place as many of MGM's stock players in the 1930s version of Romeo and Juliet.

Barry Lyndon is another of those movies that for some inexplicable reason gets ranked ridiculously high by critics and people in the industry. It's not a terrible film, but it's not without its flaws and certainly not a "Top 50 of all time" movie. But watch and judge for yourself.