Barry Lyndon

Once I Hated It, Now I Think It's Freaking Brilliant

Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director. Simple as that. Not a complete list but … Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket - and 2001: A Space Odyssey which is probably my favorite film of all time.

But Barry Lyndon - I saw it when it first came out and really disliked it. I disliked it to the point that it’s one of the few Kubrick films I only watched once.

To make a short story long …

Anyone who has been following me for awhile knows that from 1976 to 1980 I worked for director/cameraman Bob Gaffney. Bob worked on Lolita, Strangelove, 2001 and was the producer for the Kubrick’s never-completed Napoleon film. He also designed, or helped design the lenses used in Barry Lyndon that could shoot by candle light.

But I didn’t know this about Bob until one day when I answered the office phone. ‘Bob Gaffney please.” “Who can I say is calling?” “Stanley Kubrick.” Uh, what the fuck? So later that day Bob told me the whole story - including the fact that Napoleon was the reason he stopped working on feature films and that every time Kubrick started a new film he tried to get Bob back to work with him.

The reason Kubrick was calling this time was to tell Bob that he had decided his next film would be The Shining. He absolutely hated the book but felt that after the disappointing box office results for Barry Lyndon, he needed a sure-fire hit so that he wouldn’t lose creative control and final cut over his films.

First we were told that we all had to read the book and suggest new endings because Kubrick felt if he shot it as written (topiary animals coming to life in the pre-CGI error) people would run out of the theater laughing. We got to meet Garrett Brown, who brought his Steadicam up to the office for us to check out. Kubrick also considered moving back to the US to shoot this and I was gathering up all sorts of information for him, but of course he never made the move.

The few times I spoke to Kubrick on the phone, mostly all I got to say was, “Hi Stanley, he’s not here, what’s your phone number today?” (because Kubrick had his phone number changed every other day). I never had any sort of actual conversation with him. It wasn’t appropriate.

Our office became a stopping point for the second unit crews going between London and the US North West exterior locations. I met many people who’d worked for Kubrick for years. I remember telling one that the only Kubrick film I didn’t like was Barry Lyndon. He asked me why and I answered it was Ryan O’Neal’s acting in that film, that he always seemed so blank. He replied, “How do you know Stanley didn’t specifically direct him to act that way?”

Anyway ….

Tonight I watched Barry Lyndon for the first time since I saw it in 1975. It’s been on my watch list ever since it appeared on the BFI’s once-a-decade top-100-films-of-all-time poll last year. 2001 is #6. Barry Lyndon is #45. The Shining is #88. Dr. Strangelove is #196. A Clockwork Orange is #243.

Meanwhile, in the BFI Director’s Poll, 2001 is #1. Barry Lyndon is #12. Dr. Strangelove is #46.

I had to watch it again because I couldn’t stop wondering how the hell did Barry Lyndon rate so highly? The answer is that almost 50 years since its original release, there’s a new generation of critics and filmmakers who reappraised it, loved it and were even deeply influenced by it. Martin Scorsese once said it was his favorite Kubrick film. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that John Woo’s entire style might have been based on the final duel between Lyndon and Lord Bullingdon.

It’s late. I wanted to get something up because I’ve been working on another piece that’s taking me a lot longer than I expected. So I’m not going to go into depths of detail. I’m just going to say that I was riveted to the screen for the entire 185 minutes. There isn’t a thing I would change. The photography, the production design, the costumes, the music, the acting - even Ryan O’Neal’s acting (aside from him not even attempting an Irish accent, which I found vaguely distracting at times). What struck me as odd was that I remembered almost nothing, it was as if I had never seen the film before - well, it was almost 50 years since the last time I watched it, so maybe that’s understandable. But it’s sure as shit not going to be 50 years until the next time I watch it. There’s so much on the screen that I now know makes it worth repeated viewings and more careful study.

Alamo Drafthouse is doing a month-long Kubrick retrospective. I’d love to watch this again and on a big screen, but it’s only showing a few times and it’s pretty much sold out. I guess a lot of people in Austin know what I have just learned - that this is unquestionably one of Kubrick’s greatest films.

Okay, here’s the trailer:

Here’s a 32 minute Criterion bonus feature on the making of the film, which I will be watching soon.

And a 56 minute long critical review of the film

And a discussion of the Academy Award-winning cinematography

Last but not least, here’s Ryan O’Neal talking to Malcolm McDowell (!!!) in 2012 about what it was like working with Kubrick.

(These clips are here for me as much as you - it’s too late for me to watch them tonight but tomorrow’s another day.)