Duellists

UPC: 097360897548

Studio: Paramount

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language]

Summary: 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, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Jury Prize For Best First Feature – Cannes Film Festival

Features: Commentary by director Ridley Scott
Commentary and isolated score by Howard Blake
Dueling Directors: Ridley Scott and Kevin Reynolds featurette
Boy and Bicycle: Ridley Scott's first short film
Photo galleries
Storyboards
Theatrical trailer

Duellists

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 12/03/2002

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, DDS Dolby Digital Surround, DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 100 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Satisfaction For Gabriel Feraud
2. Important Soldier's Business
3. An Enemy of Reason
4. Nex Time, D'Hubert
5. Laura's Lonely Path
6. A Compliment to the Cavalry
7. Regrouped for Armageddon
8. Proper Marriage Arrangements
9. Prime Cause of the Quarrel
10. At the Mercy of Fouche
11. Too Deep an Injury
12. Pistols at Dawn
13. Armand's Notion of Honor
14. End Credits

Lucia Bozzola

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, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Matthew Guinness  Actor 
Alun Armstrong  Actor 
Meg Wynn Owen  Actor 
Gay Hamilton  Actor 
Alan Webb  Actor 
Maurice Colbourne  Actor 
Tom Conti  Actor 
Jenny Runacre  Actor 
Howard Blake  Composer (Music Score) 
David Puttnam  Producer 
Ridley Scott  Director 
Gerald Vaughn-Hughes  Screenwriter 
Keith Carradine  Actor 
Harvey Keitel  Actor 
Cristina Raines  Actor 
Edward Fox  Actor 
Robert Stephens  Actor 
John McEnery  Actor 
Albert Finney  Actor 
Diana Quick  Actor 

Country: UK