History Film / BarryLyndon

* ShootTheShaggyDog: The second part of the movie geometrically ''undoes'' every bit of luck Barry has enjoyed during the first part of the movie, and he ends up with ''less'' than he began with. In the end, [[spoiler:Barry ends up back where he started with nothing to show for himself, maimed, banned from England for life, and with his son with Lady Lyndon dead, more or less ending any hopes of his family line becoming part of the aristocracy. The only succor is a check paid to him and his mother monthly]].

* NervesOfSteel: For all his faults, Barry could never be accused of cowardice. Whereas each of his duels feature opponents nearly overcome with terror, Barry is able to face his mortal danger with a cold, unflinching, steely glare.

* DownerEnding: Barry ends up losing everything: his son is dead, he's lost a leg, he is separated from his wife, his fortune has been reduced to a meagre monthly allowance from Lady Lyndon, and if he ever sets foot in England again, Lord Bullingdon will see him thrown in debtor's prison.

** According to the narrator, Sir Charles Lyndon died in the Kingdom of Belgium. Belgium was not an independent nation until 1830.

* MilesGloriosus: Captain Quinn plays the part of the dashing army captain in order to impress Nora, but when he actually faces Barry on the dueling ground he can't stop quaking in his boots.

->''"It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now."''

** Zig-zagged with Captain Quinn. He's clearly terrified throughout the entirety of his duel with Barry, visibly shivering with anxiety as they raise their pistols, in contrast to Barry's cold, steely glare. His terror is that much more egregious compared to Barry's courage considering [[spoiler: Quinn ''knew they were firing blanks'', whereas Barry was kept in the dark and genuinely believed he was facing death. Turns out he was just acting afraid to really sell it and make Barry think it was real.]]

--> At the close of the 7 Years War, the army, so renowned for its disciplined valor, was officered by native Prussians; but it was composed, for the most part, of men from the lowest levels of humanity, hired or stolen from almost every nation in Europe.

* AnachronismStew: According to the narrator, Sir Charles Lyndon died in the Kingdom of Belgium. Belgium was not an independent nation until 1830.

The film is based on the 1844 novel ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'' by William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of ''Literature/VanityFair''.

* RagsToRiches: Redmond Barry, irish commonner, ends up a rich English nobleman married to beautiful woman. [[spoiler:Then subverted: Barry dies "poor and childless" as prophesised by the narration]].

* RearingHorse: Barry's son tries this at home. He falls off. [[spoiler: With fatal consequences.]]

* SceneryPorn: The film was was shot on custom-made NASA lenses that allowed Kubrick to film nighttime scenes by sheer candlelight, evoking the {{chiaroscuro}} period technique, while zooming away from the central action in order to frame the shots as if they were period paintings. Not only that, but a good portion of the film was shot during a few precious moments of golden sunrise/sundown. Sure enough, cinematographer John Alcott won an Award for his work.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: The second part of the movie geometrically ''undoes'' every bit of luck Barry has enjoyed during the first part of the movie, and he ends with ''less'' than he began with. In the end [[spoiler:Barry ends up back where he started, injured, with nothing to show for himself, his son with Lady Lyndon died, more or less ending any hopes of his family line becoming part of the aristocracy, and the only succor is a check paid to him and his mother monthly]].

* SocialClimber: Barry is a clinical deconstruction of a social climber and his drive to fit in with the "social betters" and the hypocrisy that keeps social barriers in place.

-->''Chevalier... though I cannot say how... I believe you have cheated me.''

* UndyingLoyalty: Barry's mother. [[spoiler: She ends up caring for him after he's lost everything.]]

** During the final duel, [[spoiler:Barry has Lord Bullingdon at his mercy, but chooses to spare the younger man. Bullingdon, however, is unmoved and gleefully shoots a defenseless Barry.]]

** Captain Quinn is clearly terrified throughout the entirety of his duel with Barry, visibly shivering with anxiety as they raise their pistols, in contrast to Barry's cold, steely glare. His terror is that much more egregious compared to Barry's courage considering [[spoiler: Quinn ''knew they were firing blanks'', whereas Barry was kept in the dark and genuinely believed he was facing death.]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Done with Lord Bullingdon, who looks down on his stepfather in part because he's an Irishman; at the time the film was set, Irish people were classified in Britain as nonwhite and were discriminated against in much the same way that black people were (right down to the disparaging comparisons to monkeys and apes).

* DidNotGetTheGirl: Barry loses Nora's affections to Captain Quinn, causing him to give up on love altogether.

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: The Prussian army, as it is desribed by the narrator:

* AwkwardlyPlacedBathtub: Lady Lyndon bathes in a clawfoot tub in the middle of a large room with no other furniture.
* BigBadWannabe: Lord Bullington (even though he's no more or less likable a character than Barry himself is) ends up a major antagonist, and goes back to his household at the end looking to settle the score... and is generally incompetent, smug, and pathetic. Barry, an expert duelist lost in booze and despair, barely even takes the guy seriously. [[spoiler: He has to fire his ''own gun'' at the ground during the climatic duel after Bullington misfires his own, [[DirtyCoward (and cowers with zero dignity the entire time when he thinks Barry has him dead to rights)]] with the implication being Barry just wants the guy to put him out of his misery. And he even screws ''that'' up in that, while he shoots Lyndon, the shot ''doesn't even end up being fatal.'']]
* BigBrotherBully: Lord Bullingdon barely tolerates his younger half-brother Bryan. He spanks him for raising a ruckus over a pencil and later uses him in creating a scene to humiliate both his mother and Barry. It is heavily implied that he resents Bryan for being his mother's son by Barry, whom he loathes with a passion.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Barry's mother. She is introduced as a sweet old lady who is devoted to caring for her son after her husband's death. Once she reappears in the second act, however, she treats Lady Lyndon and Lord Bullingdon ruthlessly in pursuing her ambitions for Barry.
* BookEnds: The film begins with a pistol duel, and effectively ends with one.

* CorporalPunishment: While Barry is serving in the Prussian Army, he witnesses corporal punishment. He later administers it himself upon his stepson, Lord Bullingdon, on two separate occassions.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Most period films of European settings before Kubrick, and after him as well (such as the films of Merchant-Ivory), tended to tell a RoseTintedNarrative of aristocrats living a life of sophistication and good manners. This was one of the first to show this period by emphasizing [[ValuesDissonance the strangeness]] of aristocratic social rituals as well as highlighting the ruthless class structure that they were intended to perpetuate. Kubrick moreover achieves this not by glorifying the struggle of his SocialClimber hero against evil aristocrats, but instead showing that however much an outsider can break in, he can easily be cast out with nothing to show for it.

* HormoneAddledTeenager: At the beginning of the film, Barry, who's regular described as being "just a boy", is quite hot-headed and infatuated with his cousin Nora, and is willing to fight a DuelToTheDeath with an English officer for her hand.

* RearingHorse: Barry's son tries this at home. He falls off.

* DullSurprise: Justified. Ryan O'Neill and Stanley Kubrick were panned at the American callowness used for Redmond Barry's portrayal, but that was ''entirely the point''. O'Neill was playing an emotional person who was forced to have a StiffUpperLip and more or less failing.

* VillainProtagonist: Some viewers take Barry's opportunist side and grant him the benefit of redemption [[spoiler: during the final duel]] while others identify with the Lyndons' pejorative view of the "upstart Irishman". He has, without a doubt, the ValuesDissonance of his times, but is he really any more villainous than the remainder of the cast?

* DirtyCoward: Lord Bullingdon challenges Barry to a duel with pistols, but is clearly out of his depth. The accidental discharge of his pistol means he is forced to stand and receive Barry's shot, which makes him physically sick with terror. Then, when Barry spares him by deloping, Bullingdon refuses the opportunity to consider the matter settled and wounds Barry with his next shot. ''Before the count of three''.

* DirtyCoward: Lord Bullingdon challenges Barry to a duel with pistols, but is clearly out of his depth. The accidental discharge of his pistol means he is forced to stand and recieve Barry's shot, which makes him physically sick with terror. Then, when Barry spares him by deloping, Bullingdon refuses the opportunity to consider the matter settled and wounds Barry with his next shot. ''Before the count of three''.

* TenPacesAndTurn: There's a twist in the "stand at your mark" version: the duelists ''take it in turns'' to fire, based on a coin toss. There's a memorable scene where [[spoiler:Lord Bullingdon]], having missed his shot, throws up in terror realizing that [[spoiler:Barry Lyndon]] now has ''carte blanche to shoot him in cold blood'',[[spoiler:though Barry opts to delope and shoot into the ground when it's his turn.]] This is actually how most duels of that period worked. Pistols were horribly inaccurate and many duelists deloped anyway; it was also considered very bad form to aim carefully. The point was more to test whether both parties cared enough about the issue to take the risk-- [[spoiler:not that this stops Bullingdon from shooting Barry in the leg when it's the former's turn again.]]

* TenPacesAndTurn: There's a twist in the "stand at your mark" version: the duelists ''take it in turns'' to fire, based on a coin toss. There's a memorable scene where [[spoiler:Lord Bullingdon]], having missed his shot, throws up in terror realizing that [[spoiler:Barry Lyndon]] now has ''carte blanche to shoot him in cold blood'', though [[spoiler:Barry opts to delope and shoot into the ground when it's his turn.]] This is actually how most duels of that period worked. Pistols were horribly inaccurate and many duelists deloped anyway; it was also considered very bad form to aim carefully. The point was more to test whether both parties cared enough about the issue to take the risk-- [[spoiler:not that this stops Bullingdon from shooting Barry in the leg when it's the former's turn again.]]

* TenPacesAndTurn: There's a twist in the "stand at your mark" version: the duelists ''take it in turns'' to fire, based on a coin toss. There's a memorable scene where [[spoiler:Lord Bullingdon]], having missed his shot, throws up in terror realizing that [[spoiler:Barry Lyndon]] now has ''carte blanche to shoot him in cold blood'', though [[spoiler:Barry opts to shoot into the ground when it's his turn]] This is actually how most duels of that period worked. Pistols were horribly inaccurate and many duelists deloped anyway; it was also considered very bad form to aim carefully. The point was more to test whether both parties cared enough about the issue to take the risk-- [[spoiler:not that this stops Bullingdon from shooting Barry in the leg when it's the former's turn again.]]