Best movie ever!

Absolutely Fantastic

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Twenty stars. Words fail me in attempting an appreciation of this marvellous and timeless creation. The uniforms and changing fashions alone make it uniquely worth while. It must be one of the two or three finest films ever made, and reduces me to a sense of critical inadequacy. The story's narrative trajectory is simultaneously subtle, absorbing and sublime. Somehow, at its end, I feel as though I have lived through, or shared, twenty years of dramatic change in European history, identifying with two relatively everyday but complex men; both exceptional but simultaneously ordinary; and have experienced entering another age, alien but somehow familiar. The casting throughout is ideal: these protagonists are not stars, though they are unusually keenly drawn. Carradine is a member of the reserved and courteous upper bourgeoisie, Keitel a boorish revolutionary firebrand, with his baton in his knapsack, thanks to Napoleon, but scrapped with the little corporal at the end. I wouldn't want anyone else in these parts, and find the suggestion that they should both be speaking early 19th century French unbelievably risible. Every other role is filled to perfection. This director always gets the utmost best from his actors. Somehow there seems to have been a conspiracy of multiple accidents, weatherwise and otherwise, combining to make a mockery of the miserly financing allotted to Ridley Scott. This makes it even better than Blade Runner, perhaps also because Conrad outranks Dick in the authorship stakes, and provides a palpably superior literary base for the way the plot unravels. One for watching well into retirement. The sword-play and other confrontations are compellingly realistic. The women in this men's world are stunningly touching. The past is a different country, but I've actually crossed swords with a latter-day Feraud in my own everyday life. Yes, it's a class issue --- not really about honour.

While people often hail Ridley Scott as the maker of films like Gladiator, Blade Runner, and Alien, they rarely talk about his debut film ‪'The Duellists'‬ which can certainly be described as the single greatest achievement of Scott's highly decorated filmmaking career.The Duellists has the look and the feel of a big budget film despite being shot on a budget that can be described as moderate at best. The film thrives on Scott's remarkable ability to spot and adapt untouched stories of master storytellers like Joseph Conrad (in case The Duellists) and Philip K Dick (in case of Blade Runner).The Duellists basically tells the story of two Napoleonic officers who engage in a series of uncompleted duels that go on intermittently for years. In a nutshell, it is a tale of pride and honor, and, more importantly, obsession. Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine play their respective parts to a tee, brilliantly complementing their contrasting roles.The movie's cinematography, editing and music are absolutely topnotch and provide the perfect foil for Scott's ingenious direction and Gerald Vaughan-Hughes' brilliant adaptation of Conrad's short story which bear a striking resemblance to Hugo's Les Miserables.The Duellists is a underrated masterpiece and certainly deserves more attention than it has received over the last 35 years or so. There is little doubt that it is the single greatest achievement of Ridley Scott's filmmaking career. The Duellists bears quite a few similarities with Stanley Kubrick's supremely masterful 'Barry Lyndon' -- another film that deals with duels and notorious soldiers -- and can be relished back-to-back with it. The Duellists is a film that a serious film- goer simply cannot afford to miss.For more on the world of cinema, please visit my film blog "A Potpourri of Vestiges".

(83%) Could this be the finest shot, most beautiful films ever to be made by a first time feature film maker? Well it's certainly a contender. Scott really went to town making this look and feel like a period novel has come alive on the screen using both fine tiny detail and wide open and very dramatic vistas. The plot deals with both the importance and the absurdity of honour in the early 19th century as the two army officers have an off and on again personal battles rather likened to a romantic comedy. There's enough substance to accompany the stunning visuals, but the film is a touch one note, although the ending is brilliantly powerful and satisfying in a very unique way.

This is a great movie about honour and is it really worth the cost of keeping it.The acting in this movie is definitely top notch with Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine.The movie is based on a short story or more to the point a series of serialized short stories that make up a really short novella. The stories were written by Joseph Conrad the famous writer from England in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I recommend the movie for any fans of war movies but also anyone who is interested in seeing great actors play characters who have a lot going on psychologically.