Review of The Duellists (1977) by Sam L — 30 Jul 2018

The film is set in the year 1800 where to soldiers are in a quarrel as the mayor of Strasbourg orders Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine) to put Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud under house arrest after Feraud nearly kills the mayor's nephew during a sword duel. Feraud takes this personally and later challenges D'Hubert to a duel.

Before the duel can take place, the Napoleonic Wars begin and both are sent to war. The two don't see each other for over six months as D'Hubert is in the 3rd Hussars regiment and Feraud is in the 7th Hussars regiment. When they finally do meet Feraud challenges D'Hubert to a duel and Feraud nearly kills D'Hubert. After a few more duels in different locations such as Moscow in 1812 D'Hubert gets promoted after the defeat of Napoleon when he joins the army of Louis XVIII. At the same time Feraud is imprisoned and expects execution because of his part in the Hundred Days. The Hundred Days was a plan to help Napoleon to take over Paris after the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw.

After learning of D'Hubert's promotion in Louis XVIII's army Feraud sends two former officers to seek out and challenge D'Hubert to a pistol duel. After a few scenes the two meet in the remains of an abandoned chateau and Feraud rapidly fires both his pistols wasting his shots and finding himself with the barrel of D'Hubert's pistol against his forehead. D'Hubert refuses to shoot Feraud as tradition says that D'Hubert now owns Feraud's life.

He then tells Feraud that in all futher dealings with D'Hubert he shall conduct himself as a dead man. After that D'Hubert returns to his life with a happy marriage and Feraud returns to his exile. The film closes with Feraud gazing into the sunset in silence as his face contemplates the obsession he had with defeating D'Hubert in a duel.

I feel this is by far the most powerful moment in the film as the film isn't anything special as it is well written and well acted but it just feels quite dull and lifeless but this last shot of Feraud shows that the film has a deeper meaning of how obsession really changes a person and it's not a good change. The actor that I feel deserves the most praise for this film is Harvey Keitel who plays Feraud as throughout the film he does a great job showing the character going from a respected soldier to a vengeful monster who will stop at nothing until he gets his way and how he reacts to the fact that he can't kill D'Hubert. This is the best part of the film. So after everything I have said about The Duellists I am going to give this a 6 out of 10 for most characters having decent acting and writing, also the story is pretty generic and cliched.