Anatomy of a Scene: A duel of unwavering tension in Stanley Kubrick movie ‘Barry Lyndon’
While the likes of Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Spacey Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining are often uttered in breaths of Stanley Kubrick’s best movies, cinema fans ought not to forget his 1975 period drama Barry Lyndon, based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel, The Luck of Barry Lyndon.
The film stars Ryan O’Neal as the titular Irish rogue who, after a series of adventures across Europe with the British Army, marries a wealthy English widow to find himself in a new position of aristocracy and wealth. The cinematography in Barry Lyndon, by John Alcott, is some of the best ever seen in a Kubrick movie, and its score, featuring some of Kubrick’s favourite classical pieces, is equally glorious in its own right.
Around halfway through the movie, in the Belgian town of Spa, Redmond Barry meets Lady Lyndon, whose elderly husband has recently died. Barry has already proven his cunning nature thus far, and he perceives Lady Lyndon as just another way to climb from his once-lowly social status. After seducing and marrying Lady Lyndon, Barry begins to enjoy his newfound wealth at the Lyndon estate in England.
However, Lady Lyndon’s ten-year-old son, Lord Bullingdon, despises Barry, who is then subject to his physical and emotional abuse. A rivalry of sorts between the two emerges, which culminates in the young Lord leaving the estate and vowing never to return as long as Barry remains there married to his mother.
When things at the estate worsen over the following years, with the death of Barry’s biological son, Bryan, his subsequent alcoholism and the attempted suicide of Lady Lyndon, the Reverend Samuel Runt and the Lyndon accountant, Graham, seek the return of Lord Bullingdon to take part in a duel against Barry and claim his rightful place at the Lyndon estate.
It’s this climactic duel scene that is undoubtedly one of the film’s best and is arguably one of the most tense moments in cinema history. After counting the paces between the two men in the estate’s barn, the duel begins with a nervous Bullingdon misfiring his gun, which perhaps represents Barry’s fortune in arriving in this position in the first place. When Bullingdon asks for another pistol, he’s told that he must first wait for Barry to take his turn.
The score here is agitated; drums stretched tight over stringed flourishes. That misfire is just not what we had anticipated, rather expecting Bullingdon to put an end to his bitter rival. He can’t quite believe what has happened and can’t help but vomit in the corner of the barn when asked whether he is “ready to receive Mr Lyndon’s fire”.
All the while, Barry looks on with a ‘trick’ up his sleeve. At the count of just two, he intentionally fires his pistol into the ground, giving Bullingdon the upper hand once more. It’s an altruistic act that perhaps has the former rogue come to terms with his admitted fortune for the first time. Having already received several strokes of luck over the years, it’s now time for Barry to share the wealth, even if it costs him his life.
Bullingdon remains pale as a sheet but claims he is yet to “receive satisfaction”. Barry looks on with those intensely Irish blue eyes, knowing that perhaps he has signed the warrant of his own fate. Still, the drums and strings hammer home; this duel is far from over. Shafts of light pierce through into the barn as though God himself were looking on over his subjects. Pigeons coo in the corner, lending the scene a natural air.
Bullingdon cocks his pistol once again, only this time, there is no misfire. He takes aim at Barry as the count to three commences, the strings sharply penetrating between each count. Then, a flash, and Barry screams out into the thick air, hit directly in the leg. We find Bullingdon elated and sickened simultaneously. The result is decreed. Barry must have his leg amputated below the knee and leave England, never to return, and Bullingdon takes control over the Lyndon estate as is his birthright.
The duel scene in Barry Lyndon is a thing of true cinematic beauty. Considering the fact that the entirety of the film was shot in natural light, Kubrick’s effort is a genuine masterpiece and that unique use of light gives the film an air of genuine believability. It just doesn’t get any more tense in cinema than this glorious moment.
Check out the duel scene in Barry Lyndon below.
