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Barry Lyndon, 1975
I watched Barry Lyndon years ago and I was not a fan. But enough time had passed that I couldn't really remember the specifics beyond not liking Ryan O'Neal's lead performance. This time around I liked it better (I'd originally given it a 6/10 on IMDb, LOL), but it wasn't entirely smooth sailing.
Barry (Ryan O'Neal) is a young Irishman. The film follows his many adventures and misadventures as he fights for the affection of the woman he wishes to marry, serves in multiple armies, and seeks to find love and a title among English nobility.
This movie is three flippin' hours long. I was set to give a massage and I asked "Hey, do you mind if I put on this movie in the background?", and so that was how I watched the first 80 minutes of the movie. And honestly, it was probably to the movie's favor that I approached it that way. Watching from a more removed state, I was able to better set aside the things I didn't like (O'Neal still stinks) and focus more on what I did like.
This time around (and admittedly watching on a larger TV), I was much more taken with the painterly composition of many of the shots. The movie, whatever else my complaints, looks great. The colors are excellent, the sense of depth and scope. The movie feels epic and never more so than when Kubrick lets the land and the sky take over the top 2/3 of the frame. The locations and sets are also grand in color and size. It is a lush film that feels dimensional.
My struggle with the film is that Barry is just such a tool. He is selfish and impulsive and the film feels like three hours of watching him ruin other peoples' lives. Barry is a cad, and not a fun one. There are a handful of moments of genuine emotion from him that allow you to connect to his character, but it's not enough across the space of so many hours. By two hours I was done spending time with him . . . and then spent another hour with him.
Also, and I realize that this is a minor complaint, WHAT ON EARTH WAS HAPPENING WITH THE CROTCH OF HIS PANTS?!?! He spends so much of the film looking like he's wearing a diaper backwards under his pants, and at first I thought that it must just be the style of the clothes, but no one else in the film seemed to have diaper crotch!
I had a very mixed response to the pacing of the film, and this extends to individual scenes. The camera often lingers and sequences often go on for a long while as characters do things like drink a cup of water or walk down a hall. One part of me kind of appreciated that it was "the pace of life" and gave you a sense of how long these characters were interacting with each other instead of cutting it short with crisp edits. But the downside is that the film is very long and at a certain point I felt like "Okay I get it!! They are walking down a hall! NEXT! SCENE! PLEASE!"
The person on the massage table also had some hot takes, which I feel compelled to share:
1) (sitting up to look at the screen for a moment about an hour into the film) "Oh, god, is that Barry?! His face is so punchable!"
2) "Is this pipe music going to last much longer? I feel like it's been playing forever."
3) "Is this the same narrator who narrates Watership Down?!" (It was--she has a great ear for that stuff).
Then we come back to O'Neal in the lead role. I read that Kubrick had to cast a top 10 box office actor in the role to get funding and . . .fine. But whatever the reason--that's who is in the movie for all three hours. He is simply a black hole of charisma and so bland. It's hard to even feel strong emotions toward him, positive or negative. I would just feel irritation or annoyance or maybe a smidgen of pity. Give me someone I can love. Give me someone I can hate. Give me someone complicated. But don't give me a blank slate. I was willing to overlook the absurdity of everyone calling him a "boy" for the first half hour or so, but there is nothing to the performance and Barry just remains a faintly irritating, diaper-crotched enigma. O'Neal's smarm can work (as in Paper Moon), but not here.
I liked it more this time around, but the combination of a flat lead performance and a lengthy runtime still make it a less than stellar viewing for me.
Barry Lyndon, 1975
I watched Barry Lyndon years ago and I was not a fan. But enough time had passed that I couldn't really remember the specifics beyond not liking Ryan O'Neal's lead performance. This time around I liked it better (I'd originally given it a 6/10 on IMDb, LOL), but it wasn't entirely smooth sailing.
Barry (Ryan O'Neal) is a young Irishman. The film follows his many adventures and misadventures as he fights for the affection of the woman he wishes to marry, serves in multiple armies, and seeks to find love and a title among English nobility.
This movie is three flippin' hours long. I was set to give a massage and I asked "Hey, do you mind if I put on this movie in the background?", and so that was how I watched the first 80 minutes of the movie. And honestly, it was probably to the movie's favor that I approached it that way. Watching from a more removed state, I was able to better set aside the things I didn't like (O'Neal still stinks) and focus more on what I did like.
This time around (and admittedly watching on a larger TV), I was much more taken with the painterly composition of many of the shots. The movie, whatever else my complaints, looks great. The colors are excellent, the sense of depth and scope. The movie feels epic and never more so than when Kubrick lets the land and the sky take over the top 2/3 of the frame. The locations and sets are also grand in color and size. It is a lush film that feels dimensional.
My struggle with the film is that Barry is just such a tool. He is selfish and impulsive and the film feels like three hours of watching him ruin other peoples' lives. Barry is a cad, and not a fun one. There are a handful of moments of genuine emotion from him that allow you to connect to his character, but it's not enough across the space of so many hours. By two hours I was done spending time with him . . . and then spent another hour with him.
Also, and I realize that this is a minor complaint, WHAT ON EARTH WAS HAPPENING WITH THE CROTCH OF HIS PANTS?!?! He spends so much of the film looking like he's wearing a diaper backwards under his pants, and at first I thought that it must just be the style of the clothes, but no one else in the film seemed to have diaper crotch!
I had a very mixed response to the pacing of the film, and this extends to individual scenes. The camera often lingers and sequences often go on for a long while as characters do things like drink a cup of water or walk down a hall. One part of me kind of appreciated that it was "the pace of life" and gave you a sense of how long these characters were interacting with each other instead of cutting it short with crisp edits. But the downside is that the film is very long and at a certain point I felt like "Okay I get it!! They are walking down a hall! NEXT! SCENE! PLEASE!"
The person on the massage table also had some hot takes, which I feel compelled to share:
1) (sitting up to look at the screen for a moment about an hour into the film) "Oh, god, is that Barry?! His face is so punchable!"
2) "Is this pipe music going to last much longer? I feel like it's been playing forever."
3) "Is this the same narrator who narrates Watership Down?!" (It was--she has a great ear for that stuff).
Then we come back to O'Neal in the lead role. I read that Kubrick had to cast a top 10 box office actor in the role to get funding and . . .fine. But whatever the reason--that's who is in the movie for all three hours. He is simply a black hole of charisma and so bland. It's hard to even feel strong emotions toward him, positive or negative. I would just feel irritation or annoyance or maybe a smidgen of pity. Give me someone I can love. Give me someone I can hate. Give me someone complicated. But don't give me a blank slate. I was willing to overlook the absurdity of everyone calling him a "boy" for the first half hour or so, but there is nothing to the performance and Barry just remains a faintly irritating, diaper-crotched enigma. O'Neal's smarm can work (as in Paper Moon), but not here.
I liked it more this time around, but the combination of a flat lead performance and a lengthy runtime still make it a less than stellar viewing for me.