Barry Lyndon

Loved-up “Redmond Barry” (Ryan O’Neal) has a crush on his cousin “Nora” (Gay Hamilton) but her family are in need of the £1,500 a year from “Capt. Quin” (Leonard Rossiter) so they engineer a situation that sees this young man heading off for the bright lights of Dublin.  Along the way, he encounters a highwayman and that necessitates him joining the army. That has it’s advantages, though, as it takes him on a few adventures on the continent where he espies the fabulously wealthy “Lady Lyndon” (Marisa Berenson). She is married to a decrepit British parliamentarian, already has a young son, and isn’t exactly fulfilled. With an opportunity beckoning, the unscrupulous “Barry” steps up his game and is soon living the life of luxury with a wife, their own son “Brian” upon whom he dotes and a stepson who increasingly manages to see through his venal and profligate step-father. This latter character is too young, and too spineless, to take any action, but with his inheritance being squandered at an alarming rate, how long before he is compelled to take action? This is a slow burn of a film, and at times is a little too episodic, but in the main it allows O’Neal to demonstrate his skills portraying a lovable rogue kind turned nasty piece of work and it also sees Berenson on great form depicting a woman treading on the eggshells of sanity with less and less confidence. When a true tragedy befalls their family, the toxicity reaches a palpable level and Stanley Kubrick attains then sustains that without excess or violence as the psychology, jealousy and fear come into play. The production design is pristine, with authentic looking costumes and sets ranging from the hovel to Blenheim and Chatsworth really helping to bring the photography alive. The story in a Pitney hybrid of green-eyed monster meets be careful what you wish for, and is well worth three hours on a big screen if you can.