Barry Lyndon (1975)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon is a film defined by its elegance, irony, and fatalism, and few scenes capture that spirit better than the so-called daylight robbery. On paper, it is the kind of episode familiar to any period drama: a weary traveler, a country road, and two highwaymen waiting in ambush. In Kubrick’s hands, however, the encounter becomes something else entirely—a slow, almost courteous negotiation in which menace is cloaked in civility and comedy emerges from restraint.
Ryan O’Neal’s Redmond Barry, riding toward Dublin in the wake of a duel, finds his progress halted not by violence but by a gentleman thief: Captain Feeney, spectacles glinting, pistols raised, and words delivered with unnerving calm. What unfolds in the screenplay is less a holdup than a conversation, where threats are couched in politeness and humiliation comes dressed as etiquette. Barry pleads to keep his mother’s money, invokes his misfortunes, even asks to keep his horse. Feeney listens with the patience of a magistrate, before denying each request with a smile, offering instead the “mercy” of allowing Barry to walk away in his boots.
The scene is memorable because it resists the obvious. There is no gunfire, no chase, no quick escape. Instead, Kubrick stages a robbery at the tempo of a formal dance, each line of dialogue measured, each pause deliberate. It is perhaps the slowest robbery in cinema. Yet that slowness is the point: fate moves inexorably, stripping Barry of dignity while reminding the audience that power often asserts itself with calm inevitability, not sudden violence.
* * *
DAYLIGHT ROBBERY
EXT. COUNTRY ROAD – DAY
Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) is riding along a country road, bound for Dublin after having killed (or believed to have killed) a rival in a duel. As ‘Tin Whistles’ strikes up ominously on the soundtrack, Barry sees a man standing in the road, in front of a felled tree. The man’s horse waits to the side. Barry slows down, uneasy.
BARRY: Uh, excuse me, sir?
The man whirls around, and points two pistols at Barry. He is also wearing glasses. This is Captain Feeney (Arthur O’Sullivan).
CAPTAIN FEENEY: Good morning again, young sir.
From behind, a younger man rides up, leaving Barry no escape route. He also points a pistol at Barry.
CAPTAIN FEENEY: Don’t even think about it. Get down off that horse. (Barry, reluctantly, obeys) Raise your hands high above your head, please. (Barry does so) Come forward.
Barry walks towards the bespectacled man.
CAPTAIN FEENEY: Stop. How do you do? I’m Captain Feeney.
BARRY: Captain Feeney?
CAPTAIN FEENEY: Captain Feeney at your service.
BARRY: The Captain Feeney?
CAPTAIN FEENEY: None other. May I introduce you to my son, Seamus?
Barry turns to look at Seamus (Billy Boyle).
SEAMUS FEENEY: How do you do?
BARRY: How do you do.
CAPTAIN FEENEY: To whom do I have the honour of speaking?
BARRY: My name’s Redmond Barry.
CAPTAIN FEENEY: How do you do, Mr Barry? And now I’m afraid we must get on to the more regrettable stage of our brief acquaintance. Turn around. And keep your hands high above your head, please.
Barry turns around. Seamus lightly frisks him, removes a bag of money from Barry’s pocket, and tips the contents into his hand.
SEAMUS FEENEY: There must be 20 guineas in gold here, father!!
CAPTAIN FEENEY: Well, well, well, you seem to be a very well set-up young gentleman, sir.
BARRY: (turning to face Captain Feeney) Captain Feeney, that’s all the money my mother had in the world. Mightn’t I be allowed to keep it? I’m just one step ahead of the law myself. I killed an English officer in a duel and I’m on my way to Dublin until things cool down.
CAPTAIN FEENEY: Mr Barry, in my profession we hear many such stories. Yours is one of the most intriguing and touching I’ve heard in many weeks. Nevertheless, I’m afraid I cannot grant your request. But I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll allow you to keep those fine pair of boots, which in normal circumstances I would have for myself. The next town is only five miles away, and I suggest you now start walking.
BARRY: Mightn’t I be allowed to keep my horse?
CAPTAIN FEENEY: I should like to oblige you, but with people like us, we must be able to travel faster than our clients. Good day, young sir.
He stands aside. Barry walks past him, steps over the tree.
CAPTAIN FEENEY: You can put down your hands now, Mr Barry.
Barry does so, and keeps walking.
