User:LancedSoul/sandbox/Stanley Kubrick

=Barry Lyndon= Barry Lyndon is a 1975 period drama film written, directed, and produced by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. It stars Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Leonard Rossiter, and Hardy Krüger.

Plot
Acclaimed adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel, in which a likeable young Irishman changes into a conniving, manipulative rogue. The protagonist finds himself homeless after taking part in a fake duel and is then captured by a Prussian highwayman, and meets up with a spy, but his fortunes change when he marries a wealthy titled woman in order to secure his future.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Filled with it. The soundtrack is really awesome. The Hohenfriedberger March is a notable one, though. Especially as the film version broke a tradition, started by the Imperial Germans, of adding a load of bombastic lyrics, horns, and other nastiness to it, which frederick the great would have loathed.
 * 2) *The Liliburlero on the fife and drum.
 * 3) *The famous Sarabande by Handel.
 * 4) *Deservedly, the score won an Oscar. This was back when adapted scores were eligible.
 * 5) One tear-jerker moment: The death of Bryan. Nuff said.
 * 6) Despite being rated PG, there are tons of intense moments throughout the movie. You would think that a costume drama would be largely devoid of it, but the descent of the Lyndons in the second half of the film is very unnerving in how much it echoes real-life dysfunctional households.
 * 7) Amazing visual effects. Not quite optical effects, but Kubrick had custom-built lenses made for him by NASA to shoot by candlelight.
 * 8) Despite being nearly-three hours runtime, the pacing is actually good at best.

Reception
Over time, the film has gained a more positive reaction. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cynical, ironic, and suffused with seductive natural lighting, Barry Lyndon is a complex character piece of a hapless man doomed by Georgian society." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert added the film to his 'Great Movies' list on 9 September 2009 and increased his original rating from three and a half stars to four, writing, "Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, received indifferently in 1975, has grown in stature in the years since and is now widely regarded as one of the master's best. It is certainly in every frame a Kubrick film: technically awesome, emotionally distant, remorseless in its doubt of human goodness."

=Eyes Wide Shut=

=The Killer=

=Spartacus=