Rewatched, probably for like the third time, Barry Lyndon today with an emphasis on really trying to pick apart any anachronisms I could find. Well color me Kubrick -- it appears to have passed the test. Mostly.
I guess it's no surprise. Of course Kubrick would have literally done his homework.
I focused on two crucial aspects of the film that many filmmakers of period pieces seem to get wrong; the costumes and the music.
The movie is almost epic in its time span. Wikipedia states that, I would guess based on the source material, the 1844 Thackeray novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, the film begins in 1750. By the end, it's December 1789... 39 years... almost an adult's lifetime back then.
Now one area of potential trouble might have been in the source material and any description obtained therein. If the novel was published almost six decades after the end of the novel's setting, a lot of anachronisms could have been built right in. This vexes Dickens stories quite a bit, frankly, such as in A Tale of Two Cities where Dickens writes of events from roughly the same time dilation effect, and, thusly, gets things wrong quite often. But I think if the Thackeray novel had any of those problems, Kubrick either was tipped off to them or just knew to recognize them since as I stated, I couldn't see anything that stood out to glaringly on the visuals.
The military uniforms, the peasants clothing, the aristocratic wear, et al, seemed very much on point from what I know to be accurate, and, whatsmore, the styles did in fact subtly change with the times as the story advanced. Very, very good eye Mr. Kubrick and team. Well, except one small bit of contention, in my humble opinion. Like the kid's hair above, and, notably Barry's (Ryan O'Neil) supple flowing locks, the length and volume seem a little too 1970s for me.
For instance, here's a Gainsborough painting of a young man from 1773:
Silk and linen lace, this depicts a wealthy merchant or nobleman, but, though his hair is flowing, yes, it's rather flat and not at all voluminous. They didn't have shampoo, conditioner or hair sprays in 1770s, but they sure did in the 1970s... and it shows. But I guess the actors might have had a bit of an issue if Stanley Kubrick had asked them to forgo using modern haircare products. Funny thing is, what was "modern" for 1970s movie stars is downright archaic today so now it sticks out like it does to our 21st century sensibilities of hairstyle and grooming standards.
But while we're on Gainsborough, here's another portrait which could be a spittin' image of our fair Lady Lyndon:
In terms of the music, this is where, at first, I thought our boy Stan had fucked up. Now I'm not concerned with Handel's Sarabande in so far as its style and mood, which play's pretty much throughout the film and sets the tempo and tenor of it as such, so much so, in fact, that I think it's now indelibly bonded to this movie to the point of familiarity that if anyone ever hears it out of turn, they think... "Ah, that's from Barry Lyndon!" No problem there. I'm sure Handel would've been quite thrilled to learn his music lives on in this way almost 300 years later. Oh, along with those other pieces like Water Music and The Messiah. But, this along with other selections in the film by Vivaldi and Bach, notably, are, in the timeframe of the movie's setting, quite, well, old.
In the scene where the teenaged Lord Bullingdon escorts his young step-brother Bryan Patrick into the music chamber while the little boy is clip-clopping loudly in his big bro's shoes, just to stir some shit, the crowd is listening to the Lady Lyndon at the piano, her Chaplin on flute and some other dudes on strings playing Bach's Adagio in C minor (usually for two harpsichords). This was composed originally, perhaps as early as 1717 but later reconstructed in the 1730s but it would have been some five decades old by this time period. But... it is usually done for harpsichords and we see it in the film performed by a quartet of piano forte? keyboard, woodwind and strings, thus a "newer" and more "modern" arrangement of a classic, so...
Also, the Vivaldi piece, played during Barry's son's funeral procession, is his Cello Sonata in E Minor, Largo movement, which was composed sometime in the 1720s. Yet this funeral takes place around 1782. Now the music isn't playing in situ, that is, it's not played in the scene by any musicians, it's just the score overlaying the scene, plus, even though it's a sixty year old piece of music by then, it is for a funeral and, being a particularly somber and dirgy song, it may well have been a popular choice for funerals for perhaps a hundred, if not more, years, so...
And as for the signature piece, the Sarabande. The fucking thing was ancient by the time period of the film. It was written around 1703!
Now the only other excuse I can come up with for this is simply the "higher spheres," as the narrator describes the social circles we mainly navigate through, may well, especially in the time period of the film's setting, have embraced the "old tyme" music as comfort since, well, kinda like now, "times were a-changin." And being aristocratic during such literal revolutionary times may have felt rather anxiety producing. So they may well have eschewed the newer "rock-n-roll" classical shit of, say, the youthful Mozart or Haydn. I wonder if Kubrick would have worked such an intricate backstory out? Of course he did.
What? You've never seen Barry Lyndon? You really must. It's free on YouTube. Or at least watch the above embedded little montage of gorgeous scenery float past your eyes lovingly as you listen to that Handel music. And let yourself slip back to a simpler, less-stressful idyllic time...
When's that? The 1780s of the movie setting what with wars raging all over Europe and guillotines about to come swooshing down left and right? The 1970s when the movie was made in Ireland what with The Troubles in full swing and Stanley Kubrick and company all needing to run for their lives under serious bomb threats by IRA-linked terror groups? My friend, there never was, and never will be such a thing as "the good old days."