Rotten Tomatoes
Submit search Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Barry Lyndon

Play trailer Poster for Barry Lyndon PG 1975 3h 4m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
78% Tomatometer 156 Reviews 92% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
How does an Irish lad without prospects become part of 18th-century English nobility? For Barry Lyndon (Ryan O'Neal) the answer is: any way he can! His climb to wealth and privilege is the enthralling focus of this sumptuous Stanley Kubrick version of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel.
Watch on Fandango at Home Stream Now

Where to Watch

Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Visually astonishing and placid as a pond in the English countryside, Stanley Kubrick's maddening and masterful Barry Lyndon renders a hollow life with painterly poise.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More
Jeff Millar Houston Chronicle Mar 5
4/4
The film is a comedy in that devious, oblique, droll way that is characteristic of Kubrick films. There isn't a laugh in the whole film that would work anywhere else. Go to Full Review
Martin Knelman Globe and Mail Mar 5
You feel no expense or effort has been spared in exhibiting things with formal correctness. You feel called upon to murmur approval of the extreme decorum and esthetic detail, yet the over-all effect is excruciating. Go to Full Review
Kevin Maher The Times (UK) Jul 22
4/5
[Lyndon] is very Gen Z, essentially sympathetic but aware that he’s perpetually at the mercy of aristocrats, scoundrels, brigands and army captains alike. Go to Full Review
Ciaran Carty Sunday Independent (Ireland) Mar 5
Barry Lyndon is 2001 in reverse -- a visual poem of haunting beauty which, through its freedom from the rooted-in-time artifice of dialogue, magically evokes the sensation of being in the past in the same way 2001 evoked the future. Go to Full Review
Mary MacGoris Irish Independent Mar 5
A good deal of the laughter comes from the director's pictures with their majestically paced evocation of the stilted artificiality of the period -- the whole film is a visual delight, in camera work, costumes, scenery, colour. Go to Full Review
Matthew Rozsa Democracy at Work (Substack) Dec 12
3.5/4
Watch the movie, then read the book, as I was lucky enough to have done. If you do it the other way around, you might be disappointed. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
Advik 05/15/2025 The equivalent of touring an art gallery. See more Jay W @RT52162311 2d Stanley Kubrick is a legendary director. His filmography is admired by film critics everywhere. But I have never met anyone who would put "Barry Lyndon" as their favorite film of his. This story mirrors what would become the go to formula for music biopics. It's a rag to riches story, followed by a riches back to rags story. In typical Kubrick form, it is very well shot. But no way around it, this movie is long and you feel that runtime. There is a lot of narration through the story, which normally I would mark down as a negative for a movie. But here, the narrator was my favorite character, because he moved the story along. See more Smith D. @RT30928287 4d Kubrick seemed to have a tremendous ear and instinct for music, and it’s his choice of pieces and where he uses them that make the lush set pieces and beeswax lighting truly come to life. The existential doomed antihero and detached narrated melodrama paradoxically make for the Kubrick film with the most heart. See more Rafi M @RT61647557 May 21 Barry Lyndon is in a class by itself. It's an extended, stately immersion in a lush, bygone world of English green and luxury, with breathtaking settings and score, and a plot centered on an unscrupulous, 'flaky' anti-hero. Ryan O'Neal, like Tom Cruise in "Eyes Wide Shut," is an ingenue, stumbling through life, but with a much longer decline into a miserable, well-deserved ignominy. He encounters a fascinating cast of characters along the way, all of whom don't miss him a bit when he's gone. So full of detail, that even after a multiple viewings, I'll catch something I didn't notice before. Another Kubrick masterpiece. See more Russ W. @rawcott May 18 A most masterful film, done at a pace where it can be appreciated. See more Skyler W. @danslevide Apr 22 Beautiful movie that shows the rise and fall of a man and the journeys he goes through. See more Read all reviews
Barry Lyndon

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 92% 81% Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore Watchlist The Emigrants 94% 87% The Emigrants Watchlist The Last Tycoon 33% 40% The Last Tycoon Watchlist Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes 79% 61% Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes Watchlist Julia 73% 71% Julia Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis How does an Irish lad without prospects become part of 18th-century English nobility? For Barry Lyndon (Ryan O'Neal) the answer is: any way he can! His climb to wealth and privilege is the enthralling focus of this sumptuous Stanley Kubrick version of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel.
Director
Stanley Kubrick
Producer
Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter
Stanley Kubrick, William Makepeace Thackeray
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co
Warner Bros., Hawk Films, Peregrine
Rating
PG
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 18, 1975, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 31, 2007
Runtime
3h 4m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.66:1)