The Duellists

In Strasbourg in 1800, fervent Bonapartist and obsessive duellist Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud of the French 7th Hussars, nearly kills the nephew of the city's mayor in a sword duel. Under pressure from the mayor, Brigadier-General Treillard orders one of his staff officers, Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert of the 3rd Hussars, to put Feraud under house arrest. However, Feraud takes it as a personal insult when d'Hubert tells him he is under arrest at the house of Madame de Lionne, a prominent local lady. Matters are made worse when d'Hubert doesn't immediately reply when asked by Feraud if he would "let them spit on Napoleon". Upon reaching his quarters, Feraud challenges d'Hubert to a duel. The result is inconclusive; d'Hubert slashes Feraud's forearm but he is attacked by Feraud's mistress before he can finish him off. As a result of the fight, the General dismisses d'Hubert from his staff and returns him to active duty with his regiment.

The war interrupts the men's quarrel and they do not meet again until six months later in Augsburg in 1801. Feraud immediately challenges d'Hubert to another duel and seriously wounds him. While recovering, d'Hubert takes lessons from a fencing master and in the next duel (held in a cellar with heavy sabres), the two men fight each other to a bloody standstill. Soon afterwards, d'Hubert is relieved to learn he has been promoted to captain. Military discipline forbids officers of different ranks from duelling.

The action moves to 1806 when d'Hubert is serving in Lübeck. He is shocked to hear that the 7th Hussars have arrived in the city and that Feraud is now also a captain. Aware that in two weeks time he is to be promoted to major, d'Hubert attempts to slip away but is spotted by Feraud's perpetual second. Feraud challenges him to another duel which is to be fought on horseback with sabres. D'Hubert slashes his opponent's forehead; blinded by blood flowing into his eyes, Feraud can no longer fight. D'Hubert considers himself the victor and leaves the field ebullient. Soon afterwards, Feraud's regiment is posted to Spain, while d'Hubert remains stationed in Northern Europe.

Six years later the pair chance upon each other during the French Army's retreat from Moscow in 1812. But before their animosity can seize them, Russian Cossacks attack forcing d'Hubert and Feraud to fight together instead of against each other.

Two years later, after Napoleon's exile to Elba, d'Hubert is a brigadier-general recovering from a leg wound at the home of his sister Leonie in Tours. She introduces him to Adele, the niece of her neighbour. The couple fall in love and are married. A Bonapartist agent attempts to recruit d'Hubert as rumours of Napoleon's imminent return from exile abound. But d'Hubert refuses to command a brigade if the Emperor returns from Elba. When Feraud, who is now a Bonapartist brigadier-general, learns this he declares he knew d'Hubert was a traitor to the Emperor, which is why he challenged him to a duel in the first place.

After Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo, d'Hubert joins the army of Louis XVIII. Feraud is arrested and is expected to be executed for his part in the Hundred Days. D'Hubert approaches the Minister of Police Joseph Fouché and persuades him to release Feraud (without revealing d'Hubert's part in his reprieve). Feraud is paroled to live in a certain province under police supervision.

After Feraud learns of d'Hubert's promotion in the new French Army, he sends two former officers to d'Hubert with a challenge for a pistol duel. Reluctantly d'Hubert agrees to the terms. The two men meet in a ruined château on a wooded hill. However, after Feraud rapidly discharges both his pistols, d'Hubert catches him at point blank range. But instead of shooting him, d'Hubert says that tradition dictates he now owns Feraud's life which means that in all future dealings with him, Feraud shall now conduct himself "as a dead man".

Napoleon on Saint Helena by Franz Josef Sandmann.

With that d'Hubert returns to his life and happy marriage. The film ends with a solitary Feraud gazing at the horizon in silent contemplation as he faces ending his days in provincial exile unable to pursue the obsession that has consumed him for so many years (the scene references the watercolour Napoleon on Saint Helena by Franz Josef Sandmann).

François Fournier-Sarlovèze, the basis for Feraud

The Conrad short story evidently has its genesis in the real duels that two French officers fought in the Napoleonic era. Their names were Dupont and Fournier-Sarlovèze, whom Conrad disguised slightly, changing Dupont into d'Hubert and Fournier into Feraud.

In The Encyclopedia of the Sword, Nick Evangelista wrote:

As a young officer in Napoleon's Army, Dupont was ordered to deliver a disagreeable message to a fellow officer, Fournier, a rabid duellist. Fournier, taking out his subsequent rage on the messenger, challenged Dupont to a duel. This sparked a succession of encounters, waged with sword and pistol, that spanned decades. The contest was eventually resolved when Dupont was able to overcome Fournier in a pistol duel, forcing him to promise never to bother him again.[2]

They fought their first duel in 1794 from which Fournier demanded a rematch. This rematch resulted in at least another 30 duels over the next 19 years, in which the two officers fought mounted and on foot, with swords, sabres, and pistols.

The main locations used for shooting the film were in and around Sarlat-la-Canéda in the Dordogne region of France. The scenes set during the retreat from Moscow were shot in the Cairngorms of Scotland, near Aviemore. The final duel scene was filmed at Château de Commarque.[3]

The film holds a 92% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 24 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10 and the critical consensus: "Rich, stylized visuals work with effective performances in Ridley Scott's take on Joseph Conrad's Napoleonic story, resulting in an impressive feature film debut for the director."[4]

The film has been compared to Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. In both films, duels play an essential role. In his commentary for the DVD release of his film Scott comments that he was trying to emulate the lush cinematography of Kubrick's film, which approached the naturalistic paintings of the era depicted.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "The movie, set during the Napoleonic Wars, uses its beauty much in the way that other movies use soundtrack music, to set mood, to complement scenes and even to contradict them. Sometimes it's all too much, yet the camerawork, which is by Frank Tidy, provides the Baroque style by which the movie operates on our senses, making the eccentric drama at first compelling and ultimately breathtaking."[5] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wrote, "'The Duellists' is an epic yarn; we sit back and observe it, and it's consistently entertaining—and eerily beautiful."[6] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "The story might have worked if there were an undercurrent of attractiveness to Keitel's loutish character. But he is an unwavering boor from start to finish, and his prowess with weapons is in no way redeeming."[7] Variety wrote that Ridley Scott "does have an eye for fine compositions, period recreation and arresting tableaus. But it is somewhat surface and too taken up with poses… it rarely illuminates the deeper human aspects of these two flailing men."[8] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the sword fights were "the best I've ever seen" and called the story "refreshingly different from standard film content."[9] Michael Webb of The Washington Post wrote, "The film has the pictorial beauty and rich period sense of 'Barry Lyndon,' but adds the narrative drive and passion that Kubrick's film lacked."[10] David Ansen of Newsweek wrote, "The best you can say about the film – the directing debut of Ridley Scott – is that it provides an unusually civilized experience in these days of movie barbarism… The worst that can be said is that Keitel and Carradine are so perversely cast as French hussars that, whenever they speak, the splendid illusion of nineteenth-century Europe is shattered."[11]

The film is lauded for its historically authentic portrayal of Napoleonic uniforms and military conduct, as well as its generally accurate early-19th-century fencing techniques as recreated by fight choreographer William Hobbs.[12][13] The military adviser was military historian Richard Holmes.

On 29 January 2013, Shout! Factory released the film on Blu-ray.[14] The release coincided with the publication of an essay on the film in a collection of scholarly essays on Ridley Scott.[15]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Duellists.

• The Duellists on IMDb
• The Duellists at AllMovie
• "The Duel" – Full text of the short story by Joseph Conrad on which the film is based.