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On
the Final Scene in Barry Lyndon
This was written
in a thread discussing Kubrick's much-maligned masterpiece
BARRY LYNDON, which I consider to be quite possibly the greatest
of all his films. The original message text to which I responded
to is in italics:
May 23, 2003
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While Redmond
will, no doubt, have further adventures on "the continent"
and will experience a few "victories" and a heck of a lot
of "defeats" before he dies, Lady Lyndon will be forever seated
at that table, mechanically signing cheques. In the end, I
think Redmond will have a far better life than Lady Lyndon,
if for no other reason than he will be able to experience
real human emotion, whereas she will constantly have to keep
her emotions "in check" because that is what is expected of
her.
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I don't quite like
this strict divide between Barry being "alive" and Lady Lyndon
being "dead", neither do i think it is truly representative
of what Kubrick is after -- if it is, then I think that's
a point against him and one in favor of those who consider
his view of humanity limited and two-dimensional compared
to the likes of Renoir. But I don't think that's the case,
not in this film at least (can't say the same for DR. STRANGELOVE
or CLOCKWORK ORANGE). First, what has "real human emotion"
left Barry except for a lot of heartache and disappointment
to go along with the "adventure"? So is it really something
that Kubrick holds up above the likes of Lyndon and her ilk?
I don't think Kubrick is coming down on any strong moral judgments
-- he's just presenting the way he thinks the world works
and lets us come to our own conclusions, and I think there
can be something more to those conclusions than "it's better
to have lived and lost than to have never lived at all". Otherwise
this film is no better than DEAD POETS SOCIETY. I happen to
think that the ending of the film has a very complex feeling
towards Lady Lyndon; it' s not quite condescension, not quite
pity, there's also a bit of "shock and awe" at how powerful,
almost goddess-like this woman is, how naturally she occupies
her seat of power, and how her power and her beauty are beyond
anyone's grasp. You see all this reflected in the way Lord
Bullingdon looks at his mother -- she is unfathomable even
to him. To understand the humanity and heartache of this film,
perhaps one's gaze needs to move from Barry to the final images
of Lady Lyndon in that enormous white room, consigned forever
to signing those checks, an image as evocative as the warehouse
in CITIZEN KANE, and with just as much human mystery enclosed
in its spaces.
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