Cheap The Duellists (DVD) (Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel) (Ridley Scott) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Duellists

The two antagonists begin their series of bloody encounters when D'Hubert is ordered by his commanding general to arrest Feraud for wounding the local mayor's nephew in a duel. Feraud, in a hopelessly irrational state, challenges D'Hubert to a duel, which is carried out more or less on the spot. D'Hubert comes off slightly better in the initial encounter, which only serves to fuel Feraud's rage, and the course of the film is set.

The cinematography of this film, shot by Frank Tidy, is almost beyond comparison. The previous versions on VHS simply looked muddy and rather washed out. The colors lacked any real saturation, rendering Feraud's bottle-green dolman black and it almost looked like a poor quality black and white in some scenes, especially those set in Napoleon's abortive Russian campaign.

The DVD transfer, by contrast, is staggeringly beautiful and releases colors, which I did not realize existed in the original. I am, by coincidence, a professional cameraman and I rate this as the best shot film I have ever seen. The only criticism I have is a somewhat inconsistent use of graduated filters, which, whilst they were probably quite innovative for their day, don't always work well. Grads are always a problem and any film made since will tend to suffer the same way. A very minor point.

The costumes and settings; mostly in The Dordogne, make the film not only totally authentic but defy the viewer to believe that it was made on a shoestring budget. The visual splendour challenges any modern filmaker to create the same effect without spending a vault full of money to achieve it. That is only part of the appeal of the film.

The acting performances, particularly by Keitel, want for nothing. The scene with Feraud standing on a cliff overlooking the river valley, taken in context, makes you realise that his life and pretensions to honor have been for nothing. His mania for revenge has cost him everything. Melded to the other performances with superlative skill by Ridley Scott, this film is a masterpiece and has now gone from a film I liked a lot to one which is now firmly wedged in my top ten. Like as not, it will stay there for a long time.

A gorgeous movie!
If you haven't seen this little gem, one of Ridley Scott's first films, you are in for a treat. The movie had a narrow, art house release in the late seventies, so the odds are you haven't seen it. The movie is set in the Napoleonic wars, and the military costumes are absolutely magnificent. In a commentary with Kevin Reynolds, Scott states that the uniforms cost 19,000 pounds--that is about $30,000.00 in 1977 dollars!

The story revolves around a series of duels between two French army officers, D'hubert (Carradine) and Feraud (Keitel). Feraud is the heavy of the piece, having started the duels for no reason whatsoever. But D'hubert's own warped sense of honor won't allow him to refuse the challenges.

Neither of the leads was Scott's first choice; the two actors he wanted were refused by the studio funding the project. If he wanted the money, he had to choose from a list of four actors the studio gave him. And he wanted the money. So literally every other actor in the film is better, and fits in the film better, than the two leads. Doesn't matter. This is a stunningly beautiful film. Every scene is so gorgeous it is like a painting. It is all about the scenery and the costumes. Every military history buff should own a copy of this DVD just for the costumes alone.

The DVD itself is gorgeous, with vivid colors, and it is crammed with extras including a director's commentary with Ridley Scott. Get it.

VISUAL FEAST -
I enjoyed this film because the producers have captured the era magnificentley with respect to period detail as well as the language and of course the mood of the time.

I was captured by the opening scene and wasn't released till the end,as the story appealed to my interest in history in general and the film certainly fulfilled this aspect as well.

The question I asked myself after seeing this film was "...why can't they make films like this anymore?..." as I learnt of the paltry budget this film was produced from. Instead of overdone special effects and mindless violence which assaults us today more often than not, this genre/style of film is appealing and should be copied with more frequency.

Superb Keitel and good solid performance by Carradine.