For a certain breed of young film-goer, the hot movie event is not James Gunn’s Superman reboot or the latest instalment in the Jurassic World franchise. Instead, it is their first opportunity to see a 50-year-old historical epic on the big screen, a notoriously slow-paced film stacked with men carrying muskets and wordless, candlelit drawing room scenes.

Barry Lyndon, re-released in cinemas to celebrate its half centenary, is now regarded as one of Stanley Kubrick’s masterworks. But on its release, the adaptation of a minor William Makepeace Thackeray novel left audiences baffled. While Kubrick’s achievement in replicating the paintings of old English masters was undeniable, the critical consensus was that the film marked the apotheosis of the director’s worst tendencies, a technical triumph drained of any passion.

Financial Times