Barry Lyndon (1975)

Based on William Thackeray's novel, The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844), an unseen and unknown narrator (Michael Hordern) tells the story of how a penniless 18th Century Irishman named Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) acquired the Lyndon name, despite some damn fool decisions along the way.
I've watched BL twice only. Both times I was awed by how beautiful it was but bored by how slow it was. (I've not read the novel, so don't know how faithful it is or isn't to the source.) I agree with the critics who say that Kubrick's decision to shoot much of it with an often shallow depth of field makes the world look like a masterful 18th Century painting brought to quiet life, but the story doesn't grab hold of me in the same manner. The use of music, however, is a highlight; that part of it is rarely anything less than perfect.

3 prudent departures out of 5