Every time this film is mentioned, I'm reminded of the old fairly tale, the
emperor’s new clothes.
Everyone, absolutely everyone who has good taste and knows something about movie
making seems to worship this film. Only those who are unfit for their positions,
stupid, or incompetent don't like it.
I haven’t seen Barry Lyndon, so I can’t agree with you or explain why it’s enjoyable as well as beautifully constructed. But not enjoying such a film is certainly no cause for contempt. There are lots and lots of things like this. Not everyone enjoys sitting for five hours of Siegfried. Mahler isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, no matter how educated their ear. And Gravity’s Rainbow... Well the HN discussion of the book provoked much the same type of discussion.
A lot of the social behaviour you seem to be lamenting are associated with the fact that many such works of art require a certain education and progressive experience to appreciate. Bebop just sounds “frenetic” to the ear that hadn’t been listening to Swing for a decade. Modal Jazz sounds ”pleasant but meandering” to the ear that hadn’t been listening to Bebop for a decade. And so forth.
But when you have the foundation in place, you appreciate the way Bebop broke from Swing, and Modal broke from Bebop. But without the foundation, you get nothing. So some people, being tribal and wanting to self identify through contempt for others, will measure your fitness for belonging to their club by whether you have the educated ear to appreciate Free Jazz, or some such.
It’s not that much different than looking down our noses at people who don’t appreciate the “obvious” brilliance of higher-kinded types and monads. Sometimes, people don’t appreciate them because they don’t have the education in place (whether formal or not). But sometimes, they have the education but it simply doesn’t “click.” There is taste and personal experience involved, not just an absolute standard of aesthetic appeal.
In my own case, I had trouble with appreciating the albums “In a Silent Way” and “Bitch’s Brew” when I first heard them, even though I was studying Jazz and thought I had the right stuff to get into them. I thought I understood intellectually what was going on, but nevertheless they didn’t speak to my heart.
I came back to them perhaps a decade after I first heard them, and as it happened, I began to feel them, not just listen to them. But that doesn’t happen to everyone. If it doesn’t, there is no need to beat someone up over it, but then again, it doesn’t mean that the work of art is a fraud, and that everyone is standing around a blank canvas marvelling at the brush strokes the artist chose not to employ.
In the end, a movie like Barry Lyndon fits the old quip:
A “classic” is a book everyone wants to have read, but few want to read.
The people raving about it are the few that wanted to see it, saw it, and liked what
they saw, while most of the world wants to have seen it. That’s no insult to anybody, so please don’t take offence.
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p.s. This is a a whole ‘nother topic, but the expression “good taste” does not actually refer to taste that is good in some absolute sense. It is a term that refers to having taste in common with the upper classes of society at a particular time and place. Lots and lots of excellent and fine things were not “in good taste,” and many things in good taste are now thought of quite poorly. “Good taste” is a measure of fashion more than anything else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_%28sociology%29