Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Barry Lyndon


Also Known As:
Unknown ()…
Year:
1975
Countries:
United Kingdom… United States…
Predominant Genre:
Drama
Director:
Stanley Kubrick…
Outstanding Performances:
None…
Premiss:
Rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband’s aristocratic position.
Themes:
Alienation | Destiny | Emotional repression | Friendship | Loneliness | Political Correctness | Self-expression | Social class | White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown ()…
Review Format:
Cinema

Excellent movie about an opportunist and adventurer who renounces love to marry for money.

Beautiful to look at, superbly acted and well scored, this film palls towards the end because it cannot find anything to match the brilliance of its first half. Like the central character, it eventually dissipates the wealth of the imagination behind the camera that made it.

The style is as stately as the music and becomes a character in its own right as it tells the picaresque story of a lowborn rogue who desires to become a gentleman – and succeeds.

Throughout there is ample ironic humor, as only Stanley Kubrick can mount it, with sly, satiric nods towards the essentially materialistic nature of the modern, Western world.

This is a movie to savor because of its flair and audacity. Still cutting edge cinema – even by today’s standards.


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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.