Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and I just finished a revisit of this film, somehow also coincidental with hearing again
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Barry Lyndon
kenny-164 — 10 years ago(March 16, 2016 01:01 PM)
Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and I just finished a revisit of this film, somehow also coincidental with hearing again the following quote:
To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Putting aside, since it is not my point, how much that is true of everyone, or to an extent true of people in general, it made me think about the character of Redmond Barry.
First of all some might say he did not have a heart, which is patently absurd. Of course he did. He loved his son, his mother, Captain Grogan, etc But let's move beyond that.
It is fair to say Redmond Barry did not have a reflective, certainly not melancholy, nature. He believed that application of his efforts would achieve the goals he sought, and to an extent the world rewarded that view. But in the end, as the quote recites?
The film ends before we actually see Barry in exile, living on a relatively meager allowance, and minus one leg. And minus his wife, his only son dead. Did the world break his heart? Probably.
But did he know it, and in that connection to what extent are we to view Barry's Irishness as central to his character?
And why did Thackeray set his novel's first third in Ireland, and his main character as from there? What is the relevance of such things as Bullingdon's virtually racist prejudicial remarks? -
dannieboy20906 — 9 years ago(July 03, 2016 06:51 PM)
According to Wikipedia, William Thackeray based the novel on the "life and exploits" of a real person, Andrew Robinson Stoney who was an "Anglo - Irish rake and fortune hunter." I haven't read the novel, but I think that being Irish is just part of his background. I don't think it is intended to be central to his character. More important is that his mother has raised him to feel as though he is a gentleman and destined for the life of someone born to a higher class.
I think you need to make what you will of Barry's character from the film. I think he broke his own heart because he was too focused on his own goals and did not treat others honestly.
Maybe Thackeray liked Ireland and most English viewed the Irish with disdain, many still do.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank. -
nephihaha — 9 years ago(July 26, 2016 04:17 PM)
There are a lot of Irish aspects to the film.
Redmond must leave Ireland for success.
He fulfils various Irish stereotypes - gambler, fighter, drinker, gift of the gab.
His life depends a lot on his rrlationship with the English.
But he also seeds his own destruction.
It's not "Sci-Fi", it's "SF"!
"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker