|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780790742717
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Live, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 0790742713
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 29, 1999
Running Time: 185 minutes
Sales Rank: 47448
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: December 18, 1975
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: - Aspect Ratio was KUBRICK's choice!
Since I love this movie I'll limit myself to the issue of the aspect ratio. In summary: Kubrick wanted the film to look this way--a decision he made while preparing the now out-of-print "Collection" of his films.
According to an Editor's Note on the 1999 release (found here (Amazon doesn't allow URL-insertion, so you'll have to copy-paste): [...] the Aspect Ratio is exactly the way The Master intended.
According to the WB spokesperson quoted on the above ref'd page, "In ... Read More
Rating:  - Another Kubrick film that manages to leave a visual impression
Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon is a spectacle, full of luscious visuals, extraordinary costumes, and a very aggressive underlying theme of cheating, and losing at life. This is not a contender for Kubrick's top five films of all time, and for good reason, but regardless, this film put me in a trance from beginning to end. I had not read William Makepeace Thackeray's novel beforehand, so I honestly cannot add to the discussion of whether or not this is a proper adaptation, or if O'Neal's performance ... Read More
Rating: - Exquisite underappreciated masterpiece
An enchanting film. Endlessly watchable. Meticulously captures the melancholy beauty of a lost time.
Brilliant photographed. Very good reflexive performances. Striking directorial style. Completely absorbing. Among Kubrick's best work, if not his very best.
A sometimes forgotten masterpiece whose legacy should only increase over time.
Only perceived flaws are based on the viewer: If you are not in the mood for a leisurely paced film with unusual style and rhythm, ... Read More
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 so easily ... 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.
|
|
