Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon (1975)

  • 94% of critics liked it
    (50 reviews)

  • 90% of users liked it
    (42,060 ratings)

With ornate imagery reminiscent of paintings from the story's 18th century period, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel depicts the rise and fall of a sensitive rogue in the British aristocracy. Young Irishman Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) leaves home to… More

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PG,
Directed By
Written By
Stanley Kubrick
Genres
Drama, Classics
In Theaters
Jan 1, 1975 Limited
On DVD
Jun 29, 1999
Warner Bros.

Critic Reviews

  • Wally Hammond, Time Out

    One of cinema's most heartfelt and sustained (it runs over three hours), if cynical, visions of an individual's powerlessness.

  • Jim Ridley, Village Voice

    Stanley Kubrick's magisterial Thackeray adaptation now stands as one of his greatest and most savagely ironic films, not to mention one of the few period pieces on celluloid so transporting that it seems to predate the invention of cameras.

  • , Variety

    Ryan O'Neal's excellent performance captures the shallow opportunism endemic to the title character who is brought down as much by his own flaws as by the mores of the ordered social structure of 18th-century England.

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    All of Stanley Kubrick's features look better now than when they were first released, but Barry Lyndon, which fared poorly at the box office in 1975, remains his most underrated. It may also be his greatest.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    Barry Lyndon isn't a great success, and it's not a great entertainment, but it's a great example of directorial vision: Kubrick saying he's going to make this material function as an illustration of the way he sees the world.

Read all 21 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Dan S


    A sprawling, flawed, but still ultimately successful epic about a drifter (Ryan O'Neal) in the 18th century who goes from poverty to riches after serving in the Seven Years' War and coming out a hero after saving his captain's life, and how he marries into wealth and… More

  • Graham J


    One of the greatest period pieces, this is Kubrick's most underrated

  • Daniel L


    Barry Lyndon is a fantastic epic helmed by Stanley Kubrick that boasts great performances and revolutionary and beautiful direction.

  • Jonathan H


    Is anyone better at skewering bourgeois culture and plumbing the depths of the inevitability of loss?

  • Universal D


    Visually as close as you'll get to seeing an masterpiece brought to vivid realization, the story concerns an impressionable young man who desires a better social class for himself after a cowardly lout wins his lady love due to position and wealth. Class struggle, in spades,… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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