YMMV / Barry Lyndon

• Alternate Character Interpretation: More so in the film, but Barry is a deceptively complex character. Is he a Villain Protagonist who deserved everything that came to him, an Anti-Hero who was corrupted by an immoral upper class, or a Jerkass Woobie whose selfish actions were undeserving of such a Trauma Conga Line? His decision to not shoot Lord Bullingdon during the final duel comes off as particularly ambiguous. Is it a moment of grace for Barry, a sign of his contempt for the boy, or a despairing man's gambit to bring about his own death?
  • When he saves Captain Potzdorf, the Prussian officer who blackmailed him into joining the Prussian army under threat of execution, did Barry do it out of the kindness of his heart, or did he do it knowing that he will be rewarded for his efforts?
• Awesome Music: Filled with it. 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.
  • The Liliburlero on the fife and drum.
  • The famous Sarabande by Handel.
  • Deservedly, the score won an Oscar. This was back when adapted scores were eligible.
• Heartwarming Moments: Barry breaks down into tears when encountering the Chevalier de Balibari, a fellow Irish exile and likely the first Irishman he's met in years, and cannot bring himself to spy on him like his Prussian masters ordered him to do. The Chevalier, who is a part of a high society that shuns emotional expression of all kinds, embraces him and does his best to console Barry in this surprisingly vulnerable moment.
  Narrator: Those who have never been out of their country know little what it is to hear a friendly voice in captivity, and there's many a man who will not understand the cause of the burst of feeling that was about to take place... The Chevalier was as much affected as Barry at thus finding one of his countrymen, for he too was an exile from home, and a friendly voice, a look, brought the old country back to his memory again.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Barry's feud with his stepson is nothing compared to Ryan O'Neal's conflicts with his own children.
  • Barry ends up banned from England for the damage he causes, just like A Clockwork Orange was.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Redmond Barry does some genuinely awful things in the course of the film, but you have to wonder if he genuinely deserves all that happens to him.
  • Similarly, Lord Bullingdon is often arrogant, rude, and angry towards both Barry and his son, and ultimately ruins Barry's life, but Barry is running their household into the ground and mistreating his mother.
• Just Here for Godzilla: There are many who watch the film simply to see the well-known battle scenes^note Notable to history buffs because they present a quite accurate depiction of 18th century warfare, all of which are fairly short and take place within the first half of the film.
• Memetic Mutation: A popular edit of this film set to "A Lot" by 21 Savage took the rounds in 2022, which resulted in a small Colbert Bump for this film due to how the film matches the song.
• Realism-Induced Horror: The descent of the Lyndons in the second half of the film is very unnerving in how much it echoes real-life dysfunctional households.
• Spiritual Successor: This film can be seen as a successor to Kubrick's failed biopic of Napoleon. Like Napoleon, Barry Lyndon is an emigrate (Corsica for Napoleon, Ireland for Barry) who rose out of poverty to become a man of success, only for all of it to collapse due to his own personal impulses. It helps that Kubrick made use of his research material from his Napoleon biopic for Barry Lyndon.
• Tear Jerker: The death of Bryan.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Some feel this given Barry's jerkass behavior and his abuse towards Lord Bullingdon, who in turn is a cowardly jerkass in and of himself. Bryan, Barry's son who was the one person he was half-decent to ends up dead. And it's not exactly a fast death either. Pretty much anyone else worth sympathizing with ends up dying except for Lady Lyndon who ends up poisoning herself (in a botched attempt to commit suicide) while under the reign of terror her abusive husband and stepmother bring down upon her.
• Vindicated by History: Like pretty much every Stanley Kubrick film after 2001: A Space Odyssey. Other than winning four Academy Awards, public reception toward the film was cold. It has since been often labelled as Kubrick's most underrated masterpiece, with some such as Martin Scorsese arguing that it is his best film.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Not quite optical effects, but Kubrick had custom-built lenses made for him by NASA to shoot by candlelight.
• The Woobie: Lady Lyndon. After the death of her first husband, she falls for and marries Barry, who ultimately cares more for her fortune and social status than for the woman herself. This new husband is shown to be domineering, neglectful, and unfaithful, not to mention so frivolous with her money that he leads the family into financial ruin. She also gets bullied and manipulated by her mother-in-law who too only cares for her fortune. Then her son Bryan dies in an accident, which leads to her spiraling down into depression, and when Barry's mother fires Reverend Runt, her only emotional support, she attempts suicide by poisoning, but only takes enough to make her ill in an extremely disturbing sequence where we see her writhing in agony from the poison. In the end, her son Lord Bullingdon forcibly separates her from her husband—though perhaps this is the best thing for her in the long run, seeing as she no longer has an abusive husband and mother-in-law to ruin her life anymore.

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