The Wolf of Lyndon

One of the oldest and most tragic tale is that of the man that who fights and claws for his goal and achieves, only for it to slip from his grasp. There are many films that be placed under that description, way too many for me to list. So in this piece I'm gonna be focusing on two in particular made by two great American directors.

As often as I've paraded Stanley Kubrick around as being one the greatest directors of all time, and in my opinion the greatest American director of all time, I haven't really talked about enough of his movies I feel like. So I'd like to cover what I feel like his most underrated and under recognized film, Barry Lyndon. Set in 1750's Ireland, Barry Lyndon covers the tale of Redmond Barry, a man who runs off from his quaint village and enters a the subtle world of the upper class 18th century Britain. Throughout the film, we see Barry rise and take advantage of his predicaments and be rewarded, culminating in his marriage to a very wealthy widow. We also see him grow colder and ruthless through this transformation. Only for his harsh ways to lead to his downfall.

Among great American directors, Martin Scorsese is always mentioned. Many of his films fall under the idea of a man fighting for what he wants, but I think the comparison with Barry Lyndon would fit best with one of his most recent films The Wolf of Wallstreet. While being a drastically different tone than Barry Lyndon, this film does not fail to mirror the raise and fall of an ambitious young man. We see Jordan Belfort  began as an optimistic honest* stock broker, and through a fall of bad fortune, he begins to resort to scamming techniques. Gaining phenomenal success, Jordan rises to the top as one of the premier investment firms in New York, living life the executives of dream. And much like Barry, his own tactics that got him to his high position, ultimately lead to his life's entire collapse.