Movies:
The Duellists
DVD Release
- Release Date: 2002
- Dueling Directors: Ridley Scott and Kevin Reynolds featurette
- Boy and Bicycle: Ridley Scott's first short film
- Commentary by director Ridley Scott
- Commentary and isolated score by Howard Blake
- Photo galleries
- Storyboards
- Theatrical trailer
- Rating:
- Genre: Drama
- Movie Type: Period Film
- Themes: Obsessive Quests, Military Life
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Main Cast: Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Cristina Raines, Edward Fox, Robert Stephens
- Release Year: 1977
- Country: UK
- Run Time: 105 minutes
- MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
The Duellists is based on a story by Joseph Conrad, variously titled The Duel and The Point of Honour. Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel play officers in Napoleon's army -- D'Hubert and Feraud, respectively -- who spend their off-hours challenging each other to bloody duels. This goes on for nearly 16 years, with neither man showing any inclination of calling a truce. The final clash finds the gentlemanly D'Hubert getting the upper hand of the obsessed Feraud -- but that's not quite the end of the story. The Duellists was the debut feature for director Ridley Scott; it won the Cannes Film Festival prize for Best First Film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideReview
The Duellists (1977) may look an awful lot like Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), but first-time feature director Ridley Scott can hardly be faulted for picking such a sumptuous model. Based on a Joseph Conrad story (yet also structured around a series of duels like Barry Lyndon), adman -- and camera operator -- Scott turned The Duellists into a lusciously photographed spectacle of Napoleon-era France, complete with chiaroscuro interiors and painterly landscapes akin to Kubrick's vision of 18th century England. Along with the almost palpable visual atmosphere, particularly in the ice-cold sequence of Napoleon's Russian campaign, the kinetic dueling scenes between Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel revealed Scott's well-honed control over the medium long before Gladiator (2000). Though Carradine and Keitel might not seem the obvious choices to play French army officers, their pointlessly adversarial relationship becomes as metaphorically effective as the actors' surroundings in communicating the psychic fallout of war and politics. Critically hailed as one of the most beautiful films of the year, The Duellists won Scott the Best First Film prize at the Cannes Film Festival and earned a BAFTA nomination for cinematographer Frank Tidy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie GuideCast
- Keith Carradine - D'Hubert
- Harvey Keitel - Feraud
- Cristina Raines - Adele
- Edward Fox - Col. Reynard
- Robert Stephens - Treillard
John McEnery - 2nd Major; Albert Finney - Fouche; Diana Quick - Laura; Alun Armstrong - Lecourbe; Tom Conti - Dr. Jacquin; Matthew Guinness; Gay Hamilton - Maid; Meg Wynn Owen - Leonie; Jenny Runacre - Mme. de Lionne; Alan Webb - Chevalier; Maurice Colbourne - Tall Second
