Starring Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel, with a pretty good who's-who of British actors over the last thirty-plus years. Oh yes, Ridley Scott's directorial debut. I came across this film just the other day, I don't remember how. So it's been on the brain. And I was spinning my wheels this evening, so I dove in and watched the film on Amazon Prime.
The premise of The Duellists is pretty simple: Keith and Harvey are French Hussar officers during the Napoleonic Wars. Harvey is already a notorious duellist when they first meet. He's a difficult man and takes the circumstances of their encounter as an insult, demanding satisfaction on the spot. That's pretty much the movie. When the war brings them together, they duel. Except in Russia. Because, as the narrator says, Russia is Armageddon. After Napoleon's final exile, Harvey forces the issue one last time.
The Duellists is a beautiful film. I read Ridley took a page from Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and it shows. The film has the same somewhat fuzzy texture from the natural lighting and it lingers on beautiful compositions. And the production values are excellent. The uniforms and costumes look great. Ridley was on a budget, so the film is one hundred percent on-location, to its benefit. And much of the film takes place outside. Again, just a beautiful film.
The action is excellent. As I said, Ridley was on a budget, so no battle scenes. But the duels between Keith and Harvey are well done and didn't get repetitive. The sword fights were well staged and looked real. I would put the swordfight where Keith and Harvey stagger around from fatigue up with the climactic swordfight in Rob Roy.
On a side note, I read The Duellists was an inspiration for Highlander. Oh yeah.
All of the characters have interesting things to say and do. I liked Keith's story as he goes through the war and then back home to France while having to deal with Harvey now and then. I thought Keith and Harvey were well cast and gave good performances. Keith is good as reserved and thoughtful. Harvey is good as boorish and a "patriotic" Frenchman. The secondary characters were very effective, though since the film takes place over a decade, the secondaries don't stick around for very long. And I have to mention the women. Gay Hamilton plays Harvey's mistress. She's only in the film for a couple of scenes, but she's very beautiful. Cristina Raines plays Keith's mistress. She has some more scenes. She's beautiful too, and bosomy. And then Diana Quick plays Keith's wife later on. She's younger and cute. Diana was Keith's girlfriend at the time and they have good chemistry as well.
What else. Oh yes, the title cards that inform the time and place of the action reminded me of Mrs. Brown. The Duellists is episodic like that. But it flows better.
Overall, I enjoyed The Duellists; I'm happy that I gave the time to watch it.
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