This is Ridley Scott's first film, based upon a particularly interesting Joseph Conrad story of two career soldiers who maintain a long feud over a singular incident.
Scott's dynamic media style is already more than in abundance here - striking widescreen shots, sumptuous overall cinematography, brilliant art direction, evocative score, and meticulous costume design make for a strong viewing experience.
However, this isn't anywhere close to Scott's classic films, and it's not just that Scott was getting his feet wet. In general, Ridley Scott is not a director who does much with character studies in isolation - his main characters are borne from the fruit of their dilemmas. This lends the expectation that the plot and associated physical action carry the weight of the story to create these dilemmas. This is the general thrust of most successful Scott efforts, including "Alien", "Blade Runner", and "Gladiator".
However, in "The Duellists", the dilemmas in the original story are reduced to basically a series of confrontations within differing physical environments. Since not much is happening within the story, the burden of proof, so to say, is thrown back on the characters to carry the film.
That doesn't happen here. Carradine and Keitel, both reasonably competent actors in certain mediums, are miscast, as is Diana Quick. The two male leads try hard, but Carradine lacks the physicality for the Jean Valjean-type main character and Keitel, while energetic enough, doesn't communicate enough sense of protocol to convince us that he is anything but a simpleton of a boor. In Keitel's favor, his last scene is definitely right on, but it's a bit late in the game. I found Keitel's muted Brooklyn accent to be unintentionally funny in some scenes.
The dueling scenes are surprisingly disappointing, particularly because one assumes that these career military dragoons are very skilled swordsman. The power and technical skill of the scenes pales in comparison to films such as "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "The Prisoner of Zenda", "Cyrano De Bergerac" (both versions), and "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with its brief sequences.
It's nice to see Meg Wynn-Owen from "Upstairs, Downstairs" in an extended bit. Overall, this is 5 out of 10, mainly of interest as a part of Scott's catalog and his signature stylistics.
Scott's dynamic media style is already more than in abundance here - striking widescreen shots, sumptuous overall cinematography, brilliant art direction, evocative score, and meticulous costume design make for a strong viewing experience.
However, this isn't anywhere close to Scott's classic films, and it's not just that Scott was getting his feet wet. In general, Ridley Scott is not a director who does much with character studies in isolation - his main characters are borne from the fruit of their dilemmas. This lends the expectation that the plot and associated physical action carry the weight of the story to create these dilemmas. This is the general thrust of most successful Scott efforts, including "Alien", "Blade Runner", and "Gladiator".
However, in "The Duellists", the dilemmas in the original story are reduced to basically a series of confrontations within differing physical environments. Since not much is happening within the story, the burden of proof, so to say, is thrown back on the characters to carry the film.
That doesn't happen here. Carradine and Keitel, both reasonably competent actors in certain mediums, are miscast, as is Diana Quick. The two male leads try hard, but Carradine lacks the physicality for the Jean Valjean-type main character and Keitel, while energetic enough, doesn't communicate enough sense of protocol to convince us that he is anything but a simpleton of a boor. In Keitel's favor, his last scene is definitely right on, but it's a bit late in the game. I found Keitel's muted Brooklyn accent to be unintentionally funny in some scenes.
The dueling scenes are surprisingly disappointing, particularly because one assumes that these career military dragoons are very skilled swordsman. The power and technical skill of the scenes pales in comparison to films such as "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "The Prisoner of Zenda", "Cyrano De Bergerac" (both versions), and "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with its brief sequences.
It's nice to see Meg Wynn-Owen from "Upstairs, Downstairs" in an extended bit. Overall, this is 5 out of 10, mainly of interest as a part of Scott's catalog and his signature stylistics.