The Duellists is a 1977 movie directed by Ridley Scott.
The Duellists tells the story of two French soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars who engage in a series of duels. The duels span fifteen years and become a vital part of each man’s life.
You can usually tell when you’re watching a first-time director. There’s an energy and inventiveness that has been bottled up – and typically embellished with exuberant overindulgences.
Yet The Duellists is an incredibly restrained first offering. Ridley Scott delivers a movie that is strangely timeless – it’s a low budget production that is occasionally grand but brilliant in its grittiness. The focus is rightly squared on its two lead actors, Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel – and ignores getting swept up in the grandiose map of Napoleonic conquests.
At its heart, The Duellists is a character study: this is an actor’s movie. Carradine and Keitel essentially play opposites. Carradine’s Armand is an even-tempered, good humored soldier who exhibits a soft, loving exterior. Keitel’s Feraud is intense and hot-headed – he’s prone to quick violence.
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