Review of The Duellists (1977) by Jacky W — 27 Jun 2009
A promising debut from Ridley Scott, but at the same time, not really my type of movie. In the Napoleonic age, there's this French officer (Keith Carradine) who delivers a message to another French officer (Harvey Keitel).
Keitel takes it as an insult, while Carradine is just like, "dude, I'm just the messenger, chill." Keitel is insistent and demands a duel, and their paths continually cross over the span of fifteen years, as they duel for honor a number of times.
What you have here is two movies. One is this great rivalry story between Keitel and Carradine (whenever Keitel is present, he just chews up the screen), and the other is a really boring look into Carradine's love life.
It's a period piece, and one that really doesn't appeal to my tastes. I've never really been a fan of movies from this era; the airy language and the overdramatics are a bit of a turn-off for me.
The Duellists is a movie that could have benefited greatly from some tighter editing, especially around the boring love story. It's cool to see Keitel and Carradine's bitter rivalry, but nothing you need to go out of your way to see.
This review of The Duellists (1977) was written by Jacky W on 27 Jun 2009.
The Duellists has generally received very positive reviews.
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