Barry Lyndon (1975) ***½

Barry Lyndon is a well-crafted tale about a Irish man whose life continues to take one disastrous turn after another despite his attempts to improve his circumstances. When he finally does achieve the level of wealth and power to live in comfort, he squanders his good life until he is left with nothing and is worse off from when he started his adventures at the beginning of the film. Barry is unfortunately constantly falling prey to his horrid set of circumstances which drives his transformation from a cocky young idealist to a hardened, emotionally suppressed man who can find no real joy in his life. He goes from being used by the people around him to the one one who uses others for his own purposes and serves as living proof that people become the sum of their experiences. Halfway through the film, the struggling, sympathetic protagonist that the audience has spent the previous ninety minutes feeling sorry for and cheering on, begins to take a dark turn leading to his own fall from grace.

There is very little action in the film aside from some battles that Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) participated in as a member of the British and Prussian armies during the Seven Year's War and two duels which both start and end Barry's journey in the film. Even for a dialogue heavy film, the pace never drags as Kubrick has populated his film with quirky and interesting characters and the resonant themes of unrequited love, loneliness, desperation and tragedy permeate throughout the film. The motif of cause and effect courses throughout the film as well and it seems that each new event sets into motion another which will continue to add to the burden and detriment of poor Redmond Barry.

The first duel between Barry and Captain John Quinn (Leonard Rossiter) for the love of Barry's cousin, Nora Brady (Gay Hamilton), sets the journey of Redmond Barry into Barry Lyndon into motion. Even if he had backed out of the duel, he would still have been forced to go to Dublin which signifies that his fate was sealed before he even pulled the trigger in that first duel. We've already seen that Barry is headstrong and stubborn because he is governed by his emotions and only takes those into consideration when making his decisions. Despite the fact that Nora is not in love with him, he allows his love for her to control his actions. I question whether it truly was love as he was young and inexperienced when Nora seduced him and he simply may just be allowing his hormones to determine his challenge to Captain Quinn. We later find out the duel was always rigged in Quinn's favor. He either would have killed Barry or Barry would only wounded Quinn as his pistol was loaded with tow, which is what did happen. Circumstances have never been under his control even at this early stage as he is being pushed onto the ultimate path his life will take. It's as if the film promotes a theory that there is no free will and our fates are destined and cannot be changed no matter how hard we struggle to change them.

The second duel serves as a bookend to the film as now Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), Barry's stepson challenges his stepfather to a duel to obtain satisfaction for his earlier dishonorable attack on him. The roles are now reversed and Lord Bullingdon is now the frightened young man facing off in a pistol duel against a more experience opponent. His fear, hesitance to take his place and ultimate decision to go through with the face-off mirrors Barry's own actions in his first duel. This duel is much more suspenseful as the duel towards the beginning of the film had a much more foregone conclusion as the title character was not likely to be killed off so quickly. This duel at the end of the film could favor either character. After a misfire by Bullingdon, Barry decides to spare his life in a moment of mercy. Bullingdon decides to continue with the duel and gravely injures Barry. He has suffered so much, largely due to his open hostility with Lord Bullingdon causing his downfall in high society, that he could have easily taken his stepson's life had he wanted to. His choice to spare him ends up costing him his leg and now he must return to Ireland less of a man than when he left. Barry is a tragic character of epic proportions and was never from the start allowed the opportunity to improve his lot in life.

Favorite moment: The seduction of Barry by his cousin Nora at the beginning of the film is a tasteful and still erotic courtship between an infatuated young man and a woman willing to exploit those feelings for her own pleasure. She is well aware that Barry has strong feelings for her while she is only interested in a physical relationship. Right from the beginning, she starts Barry on the destiny he was to fulfill throughout the film and had she not taken the opportunity to bed Redmond, it's quite possible none of what happens in the film would have ever occurred.