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Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon
Barry Lyndon
horse, and identication papers. En route to neutral Holland he encounters the Prussian Captain Potzdorf, who,
seeing through his disguise, oers him the choice of being turned back over to the British where he will be shot as
a deserter, or enlisting in the Prussian army. Barry enlists
in his second army and later receives a special commendation from Frederick the Great for saving Potzdorfs life
in a battle.
After the war ends in 1763, Barry is employed by Captain Potzdorfs uncle in the Prussian Ministry of Police to
become the servant of the Chevalier de Balibari, a professional gambler. The Prussians suspect he is a spy and send
Barry as an undercover agent to verify this. Barry reveals
himself to the Chevalier right away and they become confederates in cheating at cards. After he and the Chevalier
cheat the Prince of Tbingen at the card table, the Prince
accuses the Chevalier (without proof) and refuses to pay
his debt and demands satisfaction. When Barry relays
1 Plot
this to his Prussian handlers, they (still suspecting that the
Chevalier is a spy) are wary of allowing another meeting
1.1 Act I
between the Chevalier and the Prince. So, the Prussians
arrange for the Chevalier to be expelled from the counBy What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the
try. Barry conveys this plan to the Chevalier, who ees in
Style and Title of Barry Lyndon
the night. The next morning, Barry, under disguise as the
Chevalier, is escorted from Prussian territory by Prussian
[7]
An omniscient (though possibly unreliable ) narrator ocers.
states that in 1750s Ireland, the father of Redmond Barry For the next few years, Barry and the Chevalier travel the
is killed in a duel over a disputed horse sale. The widow, spas and parlors of Europe, proting from their gambling
disdaining oers of marriage, devotes herself to her only with Barry forcing payment from reluctant debtors with a
son.
duel. Seeing that his life is going nowhere, Barry decides
As a teenager, Barry becomes strongly attached to his to marry into wealth. At a gambling table in Spa, he enolder cousin, Nora Brady. Though she charms him dur- counters the beautiful and wealthy Countess of Lyndon
ing a card game, she later shows interest in a well-o En- (Marisa Berenson). He seduces and later marries her afglish Captain John Quin, much to Barrys dismay. Nora ter the death of her elderly husband, Sir Charles Lyndon
and her family plan to relieve their poverty with an ad- (Frank Middlemass).
The lm, which had a modest commercial success and
a mixed critical reception on initial release, is now regarded as one of Kubricks nest lms. In numerous polls,
such as Village Voice (1999), Sight & Sound (2002), Time
(2005) and BBC, it has been rated one of the greatest
lms ever made.[3][4][5][6]
vantageous marriage, but Barry refuses to accept the situation and shoots Quin in a duel. Barry ees to Dublin,
but en route is robbed of purse and equipment by Captain
Feeney, an infamous highwayman. Broke, Barry joins the
British army, whereupon he reunites with Captain Grogan, a family friend, who informs him that, in fact, he did
not kill QuinBarrys dueling pistol was loaded with tow.
The duel was staged by Noras family to get rid of Barry
so that their family nances would be secured through the
marriage of Nora and Quin.
1.2 Act II
Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and
Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon
CAST
and enjoys spending his wifes money in self-indulgent While Barry is recovering, Bullingdon takes control of the
spending sprees while keeping his wife in dull seclusion. estate. He sends a very nervous Graham to the inn with
Some years later, Barrys mother comes to live with him a proposition: Bullingdon will grant Barry an annuity of
at the Lyndon estate. She warns her son that his position 500 guineas per year for life on the conditions that he
is precarious: If Lady Lyndon were to die, all her wealth leave England forever and so eectively end his marriage
would go to her rst-born son Lord Bullingdon, leaving to Lady Lyndon. Otherwise, with his credit and bank
Barry penniless. Barrys mother advises him to obtain accounts exhausted, Barrys creditors and bill collectors
a noble title to protect himself. To further this goal, he will assuredly see that he is jailed. Defeated, Barry accepts. The narrator states that Barry goes rst to Ireland
cultivates the acquaintance of the inuential Lord Wendover and begins to expend even larger sums of money with his mother, then to the European continent to resume his former profession of gambler (though without
to ingratiate himself to high society. All this eort is
wasted, however, during a birthday party for Lady Lyn- his former success) and that he never sees Lady Lyndon
again. The nal scene (set in December 1789) shows the
don, where Lord Bullingdon announces his hatred of his
stepfather and his intention to leave the family estate for middle-aged Lady Lyndon signing Barrys annuity cheque
as Bullingdon looks on.
as long as his mother remains married to Barry. Angered,
Barry assaults Bullingdon before the guests. This public
display of cruelty loses Barry all the powerful friends he 1.3 Epilogue
has worked so hard to make and he is shunned socially.
Bullingdon makes good on his announcement and leaves
It was in the reign of George III that the aforethe estate and England itself for parts unknown.
said personages lived and quarrelled; good or
In contrast to his mistreatment of his stepson, Barry
proves a compassionate and doting father to Bryan, with
whom he spends all his time after Bullingdons departure. He cannot refuse his son anything, and succumbs
to Bryans insistence on receiving a full-grown horse for
his ninth birthday. The spoiled Bryan disobeys his parents direct instructions that Bryan ride the horse only in
the presence of his father, and is thrown by the horse.
Bryan dies a few days later from his injuries.
2 Cast
3.2
Principal photography
3
project when a serialised version for television was produced. He told an interviewer, At one time, Vanity Fair
interested me as a possible lm but, in the end, I decided
the story could not be successfully compressed into the
relatively short time-span of a feature lm...as soon as I
read Barry Lyndon I became very excited about it.[10]
Having garnered Oscar nominations for Dr. Strangelove,
2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange,
Kubricks reputation in the early 1970s was that of a
perfectionist auteur who loomed larger over his movies
than any concept or star.[9] His studioWarner Bros.
was therefore eager to bankroll his next project, which
Kubrick kept shrouded in secrecy from the press partly
due to the furor surrounding the controversially violent A
Clockwork Orange (particularly in the UK) and partly due
to his long-standing paranoia about the tabloid press.[9]
Having felt compelled to set aside his plans for a lm
about Napoleon Bonaparte, Kubrick set his sights on
Thackerays 1844 "satirical picaresque about the fortunehunting of an Irish rogue, Barry Lyndon, the setting
of which allowed Kubrick to take advantage of the copious period research he had done for the now-aborted
Napoleon.[9] At the time, Kubrick merely announced only
that his next lm would star Ryan O'Neal (deemed a
seemingly un-Kubricky choice of leading man[9] ) and
Marisa Berenson, a former Vogue and Time magazine
cover model, and be shot largely in Ireland.[9] So heightened was the secrecy surrounding the lm that Even
Berenson, when Kubrick rst approached her, was told
only that it was to be an 18th-century costume piece [and]
she was instructed to keep out of the sun in the months
before production, to achieve the period-specic pallor
he required.[9]
The cast featured Leon Vitali as the older Lord Bullingdon, who would then become Kubricks personal assistant, working as the casting director on his following
lms, and supervising lm-to-video transfers for Kubrick.
Their relationship lasted until Kubricks death. The lms
cinematographer, John Alcott, appears at the mens club
in the non-speaking role of the man asleep in a chair near
the title character when Lord Bullingdon challenges Barry
to a duel. Kubricks daughter Vivian also appears (in an 3.2 Principal photography
uncredited role) as a guest at Bryans birthday party.
Kubrick stalwarts Patrick Magee (who had played the Principal photography took 300 days, from spring 1973
handicapped writer in A Clockwork Orange) and Philip through early 1974, with a break for Christmas.
Stone (who had played Alexs father in A Clockwork Or- Many of the lms exteriors were shot in Ireland, playange, and would go on to play the dead caretaker Grady ing itself, England, and Prussia during the Seven Years
in The Shining) are featured as the Chevalier du Balibari War.[9] Drawing inspiration from the landscapes of
and as Graham, respectively.
Watteau and Gainsborough, Kubrick and cinematographer Alcott also relied on the scrupulously researched
art direction" of Ken Adam and Roy Walker.[9] Alcott,
3 Production
Adam and Walker would be among those who would win
Oscars for their amazing work on the lm.[9]
3.1
Development
4
Palace, Castle Howard (exteriors of the Lyndon estate),
Huntington Castle, Clonegal (exterior), Corsham Court
(various interiors and the music room scene), Petworth
House (chapel, and so on.), Stourhead (lake and temple), Longleat, and Wilton House (interior and exterior) in England, Dunrobin Castle (exterior and garden as
Spa) in Scotland, Dublin Castle in Ireland (the chevaliers
home), Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart and Frederick
the Great's Neues Palais at Potsdam near Berlin (suggesting Berlins main street Unter den Linden as construction
in Potsdam had just begun in 1763). Some exterior shots
were also lmed at Waterford Castle (now a luxury hotel
and golf course) and Little Island, Waterford. Moorstown
Castle in Tipperary also featured. Several scenes were
lmed at Castletown House outside Carrick-on-Suir, Co.
Tipperary, and at Youghal, Co. Cork.
PRODUCTION
focal length" were problematic to mount, and were extensively modied into three versions by Cinema Products Corp. for Kubrick so to gain a wider angle of
view, with input from optics expert Richard Vetter of
Todd-AO.[9][12] This allowed Kubrick and Alcott to shoot
scenes lit with actual candles to an average lighting volume of only three candela, recreating the huddle and
glow of a pre-electrical age.[9] In addition, Kubrick had
the entire lm push-developed by one stop.[12]
Hogarths The Country Dance (c.1745) illustrates the type of interior scene that Kubrick sought to emulate with Barry Lyndon.
4.1
Awards
5
one of the most beautiful lms ever made.[14]
through the windows, but it also protected the historic locations from the damage caused by mounting the lights on
walls or ceilings and the heat from the lights. This helped
the lm t... perfectly with Kubricks gilded-cage aesthetic the lm is consciously a museum piece, its characters pinned to the frame like butteries.[9]
3.4
4.1 Awards
Music
5 Source novel
Kubrick based his adapted screenplay on William MakeThe score also includes Irish folk music, including Sen peace Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon (repub Riada's song Women of Ireland, arranged by Paddy lished as the novel Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.), a
picaresque tale written and published in serial form in
Moloney and performed by The Chieftains.
1844.
Reception
9
eect of Thackerays rst-person story-teller
could not be repeated on the screen. It might
have worked as comedy by the juxtaposition of
Barrys version of the truth with the reality on
the screen, but I dont think that Barry Lyndon
should have been done as a comedy.[17]
EXTERNAL LINKS
Notes
See also
List of American lms of 1975
References
9 External links
Barry Lyndon at the Internet Movie Database
Barry Lyndon at Rotten Tomatoes
Barry Lyndon
Screenonline
[3] 100 Best Films of the 20th Century: Village Voice Critics Poll. Village Voice Media.
[4] Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll 2002. British Film Institute.
10
10.1
10.2
Images
10.3
Content license