Les Duellistes

A brief trip through the Napoleonic Wars set against a backdrop of a conflict between two fencers. The part of hot-headed provocateur Feraud is just right for Keitel, even though he doesn’t do much with the character because he lacks space to do so. The less famous of the Carradine brothers has a slightly fuller character, but the important thing here are the duels. Polished, varied and perfectly filmed duels. Scott handles the atmosphere at different periods in time (the most powerful is the part with the invasion of Russia) and the direction is hard to fault in any respect. This picture is over forty years old and it hasn’t aged a bit. (13/03/2013)

Scott’s debut is a perfect representation of his strengths. He has been excessively overrated as an auteur-type director, even though he has no distinctive signature not only in terms of themes, but also in terms of formalistic grasp. Rather, Scott is an outstanding director in the sense of overarching authority, as he is able to squeeze the maximum potential out of any given screenplay and bring together the appropriate talents of the various creative elements of filmmaking in order to exercise that authority. In the ideal case, this should be the definition of any director, but when looking at any body of cinematic work, it is obvious that such directors are very rare. In his first feature-length project, Scott took a screenplay based on a literary work by Joseph Conrad and transformed a story of fanatical adherence to the ideal of honour and pride into an intimate spectacle. Despite the modest budget, or rather with flawless appreciation of the possibilities that it offered, he made The Duellists a more intimate version of Barry Lyndon. Like Stanley Kubrick, Scott also took inspiration from specific paintings from the period in which the story is set, but instead of spectacular frescoes, he chose smaller landscapes. Against this aesthetic reference, Scott created a detailed realism in terms of costumes and the choreography of the duels. All of this together makes the subtly inventive and cleverly entertaining screenplay even better, as the changes in lifestyle and the central protagonist’s gradual social ascendancy put the central motif of honour in a completely absurd light. Together with the aesthetic refinement of the scenes, the primness of the self-styled cultivated world of Napoleonic-era officers serves as a sarcastic contrast to the obstinate machismo and obsessive enchantment with masculine ideals to the point of sacrificing one’s own life. (20/10/2021)

Steven Spielberg made his film debut with Duel, Ridley Scott with The Duellists. And while Spielberg's TV movie looks like a regular cinematic film, Scott's feature film feels rather TV-like in places... but what can I harp on, both of those films are great. Above all, the rivals give a pretty clear answer to the question "Why is there a war? Why can't people just get along and leave it?", and they give it with the help of excellent performances by both main characters and solid direction that created more than one memorable scene (each fight is different and their ferocity keeps escalating). (06/10/2019)

Scott achieved a mean feat in his feature movie debut about the lifelong rivalry of two Hussars. He managed to film a very good (almost) TV production that leaves an aftertaste of wasted opportunity. The Duellists has its moments. Some strong, some weak too. The strong ones happen at any time the extremely well cast central duo stand against each other and begin to duel. At those moments you could cut the atmosphere with a sabre. The downsides include a complete lack of pace and the overall weird tiredness of the story. It’s a sort of beta version of the French classics, but without the drama. They could have concentrated on that a little more here, but maybe this is because I sort of expected that over the years D’Hubert and Feraud unwittingly swap motivations. Scott is held very firmly on the ground with the budget and doesn’t show what he has inside him in terms of visuals until the penultimate shot. You can tell it’s him at that moment. (13/05/2008)

Insulted vanity turns into hatred, which grows into an escalating obsession. Two officers of Napoleon's army indulge their egos and engage in increasingly unseemly duels, all against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, which are changing the face of Europe. Scott is not concerned with depicting historical events, which are a mere backdrop to the adventurous story of two men who excel at wielding their weapons. There are things here worth seeing and someone to root for, although the characters hardly develop and the script is not particularly refined. However, Ridley Scott already shows here that he can damn well create beautiful images and has a sense for building tension. Overall impression: 70%. (11/12/2016)