Had to be one of the funniest scenes ever. I can't be the only one who laughed uncontrollably during that beating.
shareIt was great . Lord *beep* was such a dweeb I loved and laughed hard !
shareI hope I'm not the only person who thought Lord Bullshitington thoroughly deserved all the humiliation Barry Lyndon could dish out. Him and the captain in the beginning of the movie were sniveling cowards and Barry, a lowly underclass Irishman, exposed both of them and somehow HE's the one who's the problem...Such an absolutely perfect explanation of everything that's wrong with society. Even today. People who call out cowards in the upper classes are always shit upon despite the fact that they are 100 percent correct.
shareNo, I didn't laugh. Their conflict was far too complicated & vexing to be understood that way. Anyone in his place, in that time & place, would have had a problem w/ Barry. Bullingdon, in fact, had Barry's number from the start.
You could say that this demonstration was a fairly well executed provocation - it succeeded in ostracizing Lyndon from his aspiration for nobility, which would have ended up disinheriting Bullingdon.
It actually took a lot of courage on Bullington's part. I tended to view him sympathetically.
Side note : the actor went on to a lifetime of collaboration w/ Stanly Kubrick :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxBQZ2e1py0