I like to believe I’ve seen a lot of movies, and out of all I’ve seen, I can’t think of another character who is as excruciatingly unlikeable and boring as Barry Lyndon. He’s an arrogant, pathetic, self centered conman / psychopath. Imagine the Catch Me If You Can guy without the fun, wit, and naivety that makes him so charming and likable in a sense. As far as the movie itself goes, it wasn’t all that terrible. The pace was very slow, I had to watch 30 minutes here and there over two days to stay interested. The natural lighting is a novelty that wears off after about the first twenty minutes, though every now and again there will be a beautiful painting-like shot. But let me tell you, I reallllly enjoyed that last hour of the movie featuring Barry’s colossal downfall. It felt like payback for having to withstand the previous two hours. It was a bit like Hamlet in the sense that Barry ruined everyone’s lives around him, but no one dies, they all just have to live on suffering. It leaves you with a really depressing feeling but you also don’t really care that much because honestly all of these characters were annoying and unlikeable in their own way. I usually don’t have problems with unlikeable characters, I usually like them actually, but when you make them like almost painfully boring, I lose all interest and just hate them relentlessly. Anyway… I only watched this movie because it was an obstacle on my quest to watch all Kubrick movies. I’ll never watch it again but at least I can feel more cultured because I can say I’ve actually watched this film. In all seriousness though, I think this movie would be very interesting and enjoyable to people who are into history and have a better understanding of the context of the time period.
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May Featured Movie QuoteBarry B. Benson: Yellow-black, yellow-black, yellow-black, yellow-black... Oh, black and yellow. Yeah, let's shake it up a little.
Yeah, I have letterboxd now
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