COMMENTS:

The scene begins with a slow, studied camera movement, from left to right, that reveals a small chamber orchestra playing a concerto. Lady Lyndon is at the piano, while Reverend Runt plays the flute. All seems proper, orderly and civilized as the camera reveals about forty guests. Barry is seated in the front row with his mother at his side. The highly structured music perfectly reflects the ordered state of the aristocratic society. Moreover, a recital is the perfect event for Barry to stage in his quest for a peerage. It shows him to be cultured and the epitome of the "civilized" moneyed class he so desperately wants to penetrate. But the tranquility of the scene is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Barry's two sons.

Lord Bullingdon, Barry's antagonist since his marriage to Lady Lyndon, and little Bryan walk in from the back of the room through the guests to the area where Lady Lyndon plays the piano. What ensues is a domestic drama (or melodrama), played out as if on stage to an audience. Lord Bullingdon kneels down to speak to little Bryan. He insults both Barry and Lady Lyndon. She leaves the room in tears, and Barry begins to beat Lord Bullingdon uncontrollably. It is the only liberating gesture he can make. He jumps on his stepson, and the sequence immediately reverts to hand-held camera and rapid montage. The viewer is plunged into the event by the tactile physicality, rapid editing and shot composition. It is a vicious attack, yet there is an exhilaration about it.

The immediacy and physicality of this sequence are absent from much of the rest of the film. Barry abandons the pretense and artifice of his new station in life, losing all sense of decorum and of how to behave in society. He is no longer the lifeless mannequin of earlier scenes. When he pummels Lord Bullingdon, he is reacting not only to the immediate provocation but also to years of the constraints and penalties of this society. He abandons all sense of order and control. Aesthetically, this is echoed in the violence of the montage, the hand-held camera and the sound. Barry's rebellion is extreme but authentic. His real crime is not that he has inflicted bodily injury on his stepson, but that he has transgressed against the rules of behavior and decorum of his society.

Barry Lyndon relies on complex spatial strategies of camera movement, slow zooms, long takes, camera position, long shots, rhythmical editing and character placement within the frame for much of its impact. The framing devices, the precise use of the zoom and the careful camera movements call attention to the spatial and temporal rigidity and orderliness of this world. The film's characters are trapped within the two-dimensional space of the image.

[ By Mario Falsetto • November 11, 2004 ]

There is far more brilliant about this scene that what can be demonstrated in this short clip. The scene opens with a shot of the members of the orchestra all of whom are dressed in green. Behind them, the wall and curtains are made up of the complimentary color of red. (Red and Green are opposites on the color wheel.) The piano is also green. When Lord Bullingdon and his brother Brain enter, they are also dressed in this same red-green color scheme. Redmond Barry, on the other hand, is dressed in blue, being the outsider of the family and of the society in which he resides. Red, Green and Blue are the primary colors in the additive system of color. Lady Lyndon, someone who continues to remain neutral in the on-going family conflict, is dressed in the neutral color of white.

In addition, the use of reaction shots in this film adds a great deal to the scene. Prior to the fight the reactions of Redmond Barry and Lady Lyndon are all that we are allowed to see. Once the fight starts, only then do we begin to see the reactions of the guests who are responding to Redmond Barry's behavior. Prior to that we are simply left to guess what their initial reaction was to Lord Bullingdon. Kubrick also has Lady Lyndon re-enter the room with Brian so that he may show us their reactions as well. The brutality of Barry is told as effectively through these reaction shots as it is with the use of the hand-held camera.

[ By Eric Maconaghie Rogers • December 23, 2004 ]