I can appreciate the stunning visuals and the dark comedy that this film offers but the appreciation for this film completely escapes me. It's a long, long, long way to go to see the fairly uninteresting story play out. I won't get that three hours of my life back. follow me at https://IHATEBadMovies.com or facebook IHATEBadMovies

It's no surprise that your attention is drawn to the cinematography and look of the film given it is Kubrick - it is a beautiful film to watch with every shot perfectly composed as if lifted straight from a painting, especially the night time scenes often lit in candlelight. What may surprise given Kubrick's (unfair) reputation for a cold detached style of filmmaking is how emotional the film is, especially in its second half. The narration of the film sets the tone immediately and lends the film a quaint charm and Kubrick mines a lot of humour from this too. With its three hour running time devoted to following one man's life, the central character is initially very difficult to sympathise with and care about as he has few redeeming qualities, but the audience's attention is held by an unpredictable plot and engaging secondary characters. Gradually as the film develops O'Neal's character becomes much more engaging, particularly in the latter half of the film. Not Kubrick's best film, but well worth the time.

Kubrick used the Zeiss 50mm f/0.7 lens, the fastest lens in existence (and only copy in civilian hands) to film the candlelight scenes naturally with no additional light. The other four copies belong to NASA.

Barry Lyndon is one of those Stanley Kubrick movies that gets better over the years and still doesn’t fail to amaze me to this day. The cinematography shot of the Irish and German location is beautiful and it feels like Kubrick took some random painting and use it for inspiration for these shots. The performance of the cast are pretty good and I thought Ryan O'Neal did a great job in his role and same with Leon Vitali. The scene from the duel to the meeting with an agent and finally the climax are really good and the scenes do take their time. The soundtrack that was arranged by Leonard Rosenman has great selection of tracks and really reintroduce me to the world of classical musics that some never heard before.

I shouldn't have picked this one last. By far the worst and most disappointing of Kubrick's movies. Pathetic performances in several scenes, sometimes it felt like an unintentional comedy. The story is unremarkable and how it's delivered only made the experience even more disappointing.