Barry Lyndon - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[wesley]

With a running time of three hours and five minutes, this is Stanley Kubrick's second longest movie. His Spartacus (1960) has a running time of three hours and seventeen minutes.

[lynn]

Hardy Krüger replaced Oskar Werner after a few weeks of shooting.

[ella]

Stanley Kubrick's first movie to feature an auteur opening credit of "A film by Stanley Kubrick". It also contains his longest on-screen credit in the end titles: "Written for the screen, Produced, and Directed by Stanley Kubrick."

[stephanie]

Warner Brothers would only finance this movie on the condition that Stanley Kubrick cast a Top 10 box-office star (from the annual Quigley Poll of Top Money-Making Stars) in the lead. Ryan O'Neal was the number two box-office star of 1973, topped only by Clint Eastwood. Ironically, this was his only time in the top 10, as exhibitors, who voted the list, attributed the success of Love Story (1970) (one of the top grossers at the time) to O'Neal's co-star Ali MacGraw, and named her to the list in 1971. The other top 10 stars were 3. Steve McQueen, 4. Burt Reynolds, 5. Robert Redford, 6. Barbra Streisand, 7. Paul Newman, 8. Charles Bronson, 9. John Wayne, and 10. Marlon Brando. Thus, the only actors Kubrick could cast in the role and receive Warner Brothers' financial backing for his decidedly non-commercial project were O'Neal and Redford. The other Top 10 stars were too old or inappropriate for the role (particularly in the case of Streisand, who would not assay a "male" role until Yentl (1983) in 1983). Both O'Neal and Redford were Irish, both had box-office appeal and both were young enough to play the role, though Redford was five years older than the thirty-two-year old O'Neal in 1973. At the time O'Neal was the bigger star, having also garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for "Love Story". However, Kubrick apparently offered the part to Redford first, who turned it down, and thus O'Neal was cast. Redford's star would soon eclipse O'Neal's, as he would zoom to the top of the box-office charts the next year after the successes of The Sting (1973) and The Way We Were (1973), clocking in at number one in 1974, a position he also would anchor in 1975 and 1976. O'Neal dropped off the Top 10 list after 1973. His 1973 appearance to this day represents his sole appearance on that list.

[alyssa]

Writer, Producer, and Director Stanley Kubrick would often shoot a great many retakes of a scene, just to get "that extra something" in a shot; twenty to fifty takes per scene was not uncommon. It has been claimed that Kubrick shot over one hundred takes of the scene in which Barry (Ryan O'Neal) first meets Lady Honoria Lyndon (Marisa Berenson). Ultimately, O'Neal became so exasperated with said practice that he faced Kubrick at one point and said, "All right, I'll tell you what we'll do. You act out my part in this scene, and then I'll imitate you." Characteristically, Kubrick reckoned that O'Neal was merely being insolent.

[kristina]

Stanley Kubrick: [Unhappy Marriage] Barry's infidelity during his marriage to Lady Lyndon.