100
San Francisco Chronicle
A forgotten masterpiece.
The Duellists
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- United Kingdom
- 1977
- · 100m
Director
Ridley Scott
Cast
Keith Carradine,
Harvey Keitel,
Albert Finney,
Edward Fox,
Cristina Raines,
Robert Stephens
Genre
Drama,
War
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over an insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and major shifts in European society.
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What are critics saying?
100
San Francisco Chronicle by John Stanley
A forgotten masterpiece.
90
The Guardian
A splendid recreation of Napoleonic France and a compelling movie to boot.
90
The Guardian by Alex von Tunzelmann
A splendid recreation of Napoleonic France and a compelling movie to boot.
88
Washington Post by Gary Arnold
Ridley Scott has made a triumphant directing debut by creating a film that looks beautiful but never loses sight of the capacity for animosity and conflict lurking in the human psyche. [08 Mar 1978, p.D1]
80
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
Consistently entertaining and eerily beautiful.
75
Slant Magazine
The Duellists explores its own unique thematic terrain and limns its characters’ psychology with a perspicacity that’s all its own.
75
The A.V. Club by Noel Murray
In spite of the material's thinness, and even though Carradine and Keitel look ridiculous sporting fancy duds while speaking bodice-ripper dialogue in flat American accents, The Duellists endures as a diverting action potboiler.
75
Slant Magazine by Budd Wilkins
The Duellists explores its own unique thematic terrain and limns its characters’ psychology with a perspicacity that’s all its own.
70
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
A film that satisfies not because it sweeps us off our feet, knocks us into the aisles, provides us with visions of infinity or definitions of God, but because it is precise, intelligent, civilized, and because it never for a moment mistakes its narrative purpose.
70
Los Angeles Times by Mark Chalon Smith
Scott gets strong performances from his supporting cast and is able to salvage the movie through the alchemy of the striking visuals. [13 Feb 1992, p.13]
60
Variety
It does not quite achieve a more lusty visual feel for the times and the strange relations of these two men to themselves and to the women in and out of their lives.
60
TV Guide Magazine
The film's outstanding beauty is not enough to compensate its slim story, which remains preoccupied with the duellists' insane obsession with military codes of conduct and personal honor.
60
Chicago Reader by Dave Kehr
The film comes closer to working than it has any right to, given the curious casting (Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel) and director Ridley Scott's inability to sustain dramatic tension or build a coherent scene.
60
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)
The film's outstanding beauty is not enough to compensate its slim story, which remains preoccupied with the duellists' insane obsession with military codes of conduct and personal honor.
50
Time Out
Scott, a name in TV commercials making his first feature, brings little overall thrust, working instead in short bursts.
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