Who is the Audience for This Movie?

People who like movies set in the 18th century.

What I Liked About This Movie

Using an effective zoom out technique, along with some impressive framing, the majority of the scenes in Barry Lyndon end up looking like moving 18th century paintings. When you first see one of the intended “painting” like shots it is quite jarring. The amount of depth/detail in them makes you want to pause the movie just to take in how perfectly constructed they are. To go along with the “painting” like aesthetic there are a handful of scenes lit only by candle light that are equally as impressive.

Since it is a story of a mans life there is obviously going to time period jumps, a voice over is needed to make the jumps in time periods a little smoother. Voice over was implemented sparingly to ensure that it was used only when needed.

As for the story structure goes, it is well constructed with great story arc payoffs throughout. I was worried in the beginning that it would be a one note movie but there are numerous climaxes in the life of Barry that are quite interesting.

What Didn’t Work For Me

Although it looks the part for the period it is set in I was never really engulfed in the aesthetic/time period until the war section ends (which is a sizable amount of the running time). The biggest downer though is that it’s somewhat a chore to make it to the end due to slow pacing.

Should You Watch This Movie?

It is hard to recommend this movie to everyone even though I liked it. If you can put up with its pace you will enjoy it.

My Rating (Out of 13)