The Duellists

After a successful decade in commercial advertising, Ridley Scott made his feature directing debut with this rapturously beautiful, profoundly ironic adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novella The Duel. At the turn of the 19th century, during a momentary lull in the Napoleonic Wars, a Hussar lieutenant (Harvey Keitel) challenges a fellow officer (Keith Carradine) to a duel over a perceived insult to his character. The two men then spend the next 15 years jousting with each other whenever and wherever they meet, until the very reason for their dispute has receded into absurdity. Shot on magnificent locations in France’s Dordogne region, with Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon as a key visual influence, The Duellists remains one of Scott’s most impressive pictures, and a timeless portrait of the fine line between obsession and folly. Winner of a special prize for best first film at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.