"You're a gallant soldier and have evidently come from good stock, but you're idle, dissolute and unprincipled...for all your talents and bravery, I'm sure you will come to no good."
A Prussian Colonel, to Redmond Barry

Credits

Director/Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, based on William Makepeace Thackery's The Luck of Barry Lyndon
Music: J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, G.F. Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Schubert, Frederick the Great, Giovanni Paisiello, (Irish folk) the Chieftains
Running time: 185 min
Cast: Ryan O'Neal (Redmond Barry), Leon Vitali (Lord Bullingdon), Marisa Berenson (Lady Lyndon), Murray Melvin (Rev. Runt), Patrick Magee (Chevalier de Balibari), Hardy Kruger (Capt. Potzdorf), Godfrey Quigley (Capt. Grogan), Marie Kean (Mrs. Barry), Gay Hamilton (Nora Brady), Philip Stone (Graham), Anthony Sharp (Lord Hallum), Michael Hordern (Narrator)

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Plot

The life and times of Irish rogue-hero Redmond Barry. After a duel forces him to flee home, Barry finds himself down on his luck and in the British army, heading for the Seven Years War. He fights, then growing quite weary of war, he deserts, only to be captured and pressed into service with the Prussian army. At the conclusion of the war, Barry's former commander takes him Berlin, to keep an eye on a suspected spy, the Chevalier de Balibari. Instead, Barry and his fellow Irishman, the Chevalier, escape Germany to lead a life as professional gamblers. They are moderately successful, but Barry aims higher: he marries the wealthy and shallow Lady Lyndon. In this manner does Barry add "Lyndon" to his name. All is not well, however. Lord Bullingdon, the Lady's son and the sole heir to Lyndon estate, despises Barry. Admist marital turmoil, Barry is borne a son, Brian, who tragically dies very young. Barry, by this time, has squandered much of the fine family fortune pursuing a peerage. Finally, Barry duels with Bullingdon, the former sparing his stepson, the latter shooting his stepfather in the leg. Barry loses the leg and the Lyndon fortune. And so, Redmond Barry leaves in the care of his mother, supported by an annuity from the Lyndon estate and bound never to return to England.

Commentary

This has been called Kubrick's most "artistically satsfying" film...

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