Editing Barry Lyndon (section)

===Screenplay===
Kubrick based his adapted screenplay on [[William Makepeace Thackeray]]'s ''[[The Luck of Barry Lyndon]]'' (republished as the novel ''Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq.),'' a picaresque tale written and published in serial form in 1844.

The film departs from the novel in several ways. In Thackeray's writings, events are related in the [[First-person narrative|first person]] by Barry himself. A comic tone pervades the work, as Barry proves both a [[raconteur]] and an [[unreliable narrator]]. Kubrick's film, by contrast, presents the story objectively. Though the film contains voice-over (by actor [[Michael Hordern]]), the comments expressed are not Barry's, but those of an [[omniscient narrator]]. Kubrick felt that using a first-person narrative would not be useful in a film adaptation:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.bl.html |title=Visual memory | place = UK | type = interview |access-date=7 March 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100210204149/http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.bl.html| archive-date= 10 February 2010 | url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I believe Thackeray used Redmond Barry to tell his own story in a deliberately distorted way because it made it more interesting. Instead of the omniscient author, Thackeray used the imperfect observer, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the dishonest observer, thus allowing the reader to judge for himself, with little difficulty, the probable truth in Redmond Barry's view of his life. This technique worked extremely well in the novel but, of course, in a film you have objective reality in front of you all of the time, so the effect of Thackeray's first-person story-teller could not be repeated on the screen. It might have worked as comedy by the juxtaposition of Barry's version of the truth with the reality on the screen, but I don't think that Barry Lyndon should have been done as a comedy.}}

Kubrick made several changes to the plot, including the addition of the final duel.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-04-09|title=All hail Kubrick's 'Barry Lyndon,' a masterclass in bringing a unique filmmaker's vision to life • Cinephilia & Beyond|url=https://cinephiliabeyond.org/stanley-kubricks-barry-lyndon/|access-date=2021-07-22|website=Cinephilia & Beyond|language=en-US|archive-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511164517/https://cinephiliabeyond.org/stanley-kubricks-barry-lyndon/|url-status=live}}</ref>