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Duellists, The
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: January 29, 2013.
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel
Year: 1977
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The Movie:
The first feature film directed by Ridley Scott and based on a short story by Joseph Conrad, 1977's The Duellists is a period piece set during the height of the Napoleonic Wars where we meet an officer named Feraud (Harvey Keitel) with a penchant for arguing. Those who disagree with him are challenged to a duel, and given his skill his track record is a strong one. When the hotheaded Feraud arrives at the posh abode run by Madame de Lionne's (Jenny Runacre), he's approached by a man named D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) who delivers to him a message from the higher ups, a message which Feraud would have much rather had delivered to him away from the ears of de Lionne.
Considering this an insult to his honor, Feraud predictably challenges D'Hubert to a duel, an offer which D'Hubert wisely refuses at first - after all, Feraud's reputation does precede him in this regard. Eventually, Feraud coerces D'Hubert into accepting, though surprisingly enough the initial duel solves nothing. A rematch is set, with D'Hubert taking injury, which again results in a rematch. As the months turn into years and Napoleon and his forces quickly putting the bulk of Europe under boot, D'Hubert and Feraud continue to challenge one another, each man's obsession with the other growing to increasingly dangerous heights.
Beautifully shot in some interesting locations and making great use of landscape and open sky, The Duellists is a really impressive looking film with an excellent sense of composition. Shot with a keen eye for the frame, the movie uses the camera to pull us into where a specific character is at in terms of the story and the picture is all the better for it. Excellent attention is paid to detail in terms of the costumes and weapons used in the picture - while an expert in Napoleonic history may find issue to the casual viewer everything seen on the screen looks the part.
The performances are also very solid across the board. Keitel is great as a man who is, on some level at least, a bit of a serial killer. His penchant for dueling is almost psychotic and he uses his honor as an excuse to kill. Keitel has always played hotheaded characters well and his work in this film is no exception. Carradine makes a great foil to Keitel, his character is, at least initially, far more even keeled but as their collective obsession with one another grows, it's pretty fascinating to watch the two actors let their characters evolve. The movie itself is paced very well, building to a seemingly inevitable but entirely appropriate conclusion that wraps up the story pretty much perfectly. Scott would go on to bigger and better films but his debut remains an impressive on, a well made period picture with tension, drama and style.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Duellists looks very nice on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. This is a pretty film like transfer with a good amount of natural looking film grain present. Detail isn't reference quality but it does seem like a pretty accurate representation of the source material while color reproduction feels very natural here, not boosted or filtered in anyway, though occasionally the black levels look a bit murky. There are no issues with heavy noise reduction or edge enhancement and compression artifacts only pop up in a couple of spots and when they do they're thankfully easy to miss. Texture is nice, you'll notice it a lot in the various uniforms worn by the principal players, and only minor print damage in the form of the odd speck here and there is ever really noticeable. All in all, the movie looks very good here.
Audio options are offered in English language DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 Master Audio tracks, with optional subtitles provided for the feature in English only. The 5.1 track spreads the score and effects around a bit more but the 2.0 track seems to suit the movie a little more accurately. Regardless of which option you go for, dialogue is clean and clear and levels are consistently well balanced. There are no problems with hiss or distortion worth noting and the score sounds good.
Shout! Factory has carried over Ridley Scott's director's commentary from the previous DVD release of the movie, and it's a decent track if you haven't heard it before. Scott basically gives us a 'soup to nuts' look how the movie was born, where the story came from, what it was like shooting on location and what his experiences with the cast and crew were like. It's a fairly active mix with a lot of information in it. A second alternate audio track includes an isolated score with commentary from composer Howard Blake, also carried over from the older Paramount DVD.
From there we get two featurettes, starting with a twenty-five minute interview with leading man Keith Carradine. Here the actor talks about how he became involved with the film, working with Ridley Scott and what it was like being involved in the production before elaborating on the critical reaction to the film and the enduring popularity of the picture. The second featurette, Dueling Directors, is a half hour long segment in which Ridley Scott and Kevin Reynolds talk about the history of The Duellists and what makes it an interesting film compared to other historical films. They also delve into some of the technical aspects of the production. Some interesting archival footage of the movie's premiere is included here, as is input from writer Gerald Vaughan-Hughes and some footage shot on set during the production. Both of these new featurettes are presented in high definition.
Rounding out the extras are menus and chapter selection and the disc comes packaged in some nice reversible cover art. The trailer for the feature has not been included nor has the Boy And Bicycle short film that was included on the previous DVD release.
The Final Word:
A tense film that delves deep into the dangers of obsession, The Duellists gets a very respectable Blu-ray debut from Shout! Factory whose high definition rollout offers a nice improvement over the previous DVD release with a very strong audio and video presentation. The movie itself holds up very well. Recommended.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
