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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - D 2 Mins Read

    Duellists, The (1978)

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    This costume drama from director Ridley Scott perfectly captures the atmosphere of the early 19th century during the Napoleonic wars.

    Young French Hussar Armand d’Hubert (Keith Carradine) is obliged to fight a duel with his fellow officer, Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel) in Strasbourg in 1801, the year Napoleon comes to power.

    Both fail to kill each other and Feraud – ill-bred, venomous and full of hate – refuses to let the affair rest. The aristocratic and educated D’Hubert, meanwhile, is honour-bound. He doesn’t want to fight but continues to rise to the challenges.

    The feud continues throughout the wars and even survives the ordeal of the Russian campaign.

    There are five duels of varying duration: four with sabres – including one to the point of exhaustion and collapse, and a quickie on horseback – and a final duel where they resort to pistols.

    Their duels attain a certain notoriety and the men of D’Hubert and Feraud’s regiments start to bet on the outcome, making the feud a matter of regimental honour.

    Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel are both superb as the duellists, setting the standard of the whole production.

    There are plenty of fight scenes effectively staged by fight expert William Hobbs, and Ridley Scott – in his cinematic directorial debut – uses the camera to create many scenes reminiscent of 18th and 19th-century paintings.

    The cinematography is sumptuous: misty forests at dawn, farmhouses and chateaus burnished by the sun, the rain-soaked hills of the Perigord, and the eerily luminous blues and greys of the Russian front are superb – and the interiors are elegantly composed tableaux.

    The film – which won the Critics Prize at Cannes in 1977 – is based on a story by Joseph Conrad which drew inspiration from the true story of two French officers (François Louis Fournier and Pierre Dupont) who engaged in 17 duels over two decades.

    Armand d’Hubert
    Keith Carradine
    Gabriel Feraud
    Harvey Keitel
    Fouché
    Albert Finney
    Colonel
    Edward Fox
    Adèle
    Cristina Raines
    General Treillard
    Robert Stephens
    Dr Jacquin
    Tom Conti
    Amiable Second
    John McEnery
    Tall Second
    Maurice Colbourne
    Laura
    Diana Quick
    Lacourbe
    Alun Armstrong
    Maid
    Gay Hamilton
    Léonie
    Meg Wynn Owen
    Mme. de Lionne
    Jenny Runacre
    Chevalier
    Alan Webb
    Fencing Master
    William Morgan Sheppard
    Fortune Teller
    Liz Smith
    Surgeon
    Anthony Douse
    Orderly
    Peter Postlethwaite
    Léonie’s Son
    Jason Scott
    Luke Scott
    Narrator
    Stacy Keach

    Director
    Ridley Scott

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