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starring: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoffdirected by: Stanley Kubrick
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780790742090
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, Full Screen, NTSC
ISBN: 0790742098
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: June 29, 1999
Running Time: 185 minutes
Sales Rank: 23753
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: December 18, 1975
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
In 1975 the world was at Stanley Kubrick's feet. His films Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, released in the previous dozen years, had provoked rapture and consternation--not merely in the film community, but in the culture at large. On the basis of that smashing hat trick, Kubrick was almost certainly the most famous film director of his generation, and absolutely the one most likely to rewire the collective mind of the movie audience. And what did this radical, at-least-20-years-ahead-of-his-time filmmaker give the world in 1975? A stately, three-hour costume drama based on an obscure Thackeray novel from 1844. A picaresque story about an Irish lad (Ryan O'Neal, then a major star) who climbs his way into high society, Barry Lyndon bewildered some critics (Pauline Kael called it 'an ice-pack of a movie') and did only middling business with patient audiences. The film was clearly a technical advance, with its unique camerawork (incorporating the use of prototype Zeiss lenses capable of filming by actual candlelight) and sumptuous production design. But its hero is a distinctly underwhelming, even unsympathetic fellow, and Kubrick does not try to engage the audience's emotions in anything like the usual way.
Why, then, is Barry Lyndon a masterpiece? Because it uncannily captures the shape and rhythm of a human life in a way few other films have; because Kubrick's command of design and landscape is never decorative but always apiece with his hero's journey; and because every last detail counts. Even the film's chilly style is thawed by the warm narration of the great English actor Michael Hordern and the Irish songs of the Chieftains. Poor Barry's life doesn't matter much in the end, yet the care Kubrick brings to the telling of it is perhaps the director's most compassionate gesture toward that most peculiar species of animal called man. And the final, wry title card provides the perfect Kubrickian sendoff--a sentiment that is even more poignant since Kubrick's premature death. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Masterpiece
The film portrays an unusual young Irish man, Redmond Barry, and his endeavours as he is forced to leave his home and tries to make good his life elsewhere. His life away from home starts out as a career in the British Army; only to evolve in surprising ways and lead to as different places as a position of trust within the Prussian Army and later a title of nobility, gained by what our time can only measure as rather disgraceful means. "Barry Lyndon is", amidst Kubricks' many masterpieces, a film ... Read More
Rating: - Great Story, Great Director, Great Movie
No problems here with this release. No real special features, but at least it's not one of those crappy snap cases.
Anyway, cinematography is A+, as well as the acting. This is one of the greater films from Stanley Kubrick because of its incredible story telling. It's long, but it's all good content. Watch this if you wanna see somethin' good.
Rating: - Time to correct and enhance the DVD
It would be nice if someone could reissue the DVD with enhanced, repaired color and grain. Kubrick wanted Barry Lyndon to have a 'washed out' look but the DVD displays the clearly visible degradation of the original film negative.The same could be said for the 2001 DVD. Perhaps HD versions are already on their way!
Rating: - MASTERPIECE
YES ONE OF THE GREATEST FILMS EVER. AFTER ALL ITS KUBRICK. THE ONLY FLAW EVIDENT IS THAT ITS NOT IN BLU-RAY...YET.
Rating: - I saw BL twice(!) the month it came out - in 1975...
I was already a devoted Kubrick fan - after all, "Dr Strangelove", "2001" and "Clockwork Orange" all debuted within the previous 10 years (my teens). In the months preceeding the release of Barry Lyndon I read about several aspects of the filmmaking that piqued my anticipation - and ultimately contributed to my lifelong appreciation for this film: 1. The fact that Kubrick assisted in the development of lenses of heretofore unequaled sensitivity in order to film numerous interior scenes by natural ... Read More
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