Stars:
Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Edward Fox, Cristina Raines, Robert Stephens,
Albert Finney, Diana Quick, Alun Armstrong, Gay Hamilton, Michael Colburn, Tom
Conti, Peter Postlethwaite, and Albert Finney
Writer:
Gerald Vaughan-Hughes
Based
Upon Joseph Conrad’s Story “The Duel”
Director:
Ridley Scott
Feature
length: 100 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director Ridley Scott, Commentary And
Isolated Score By Howard Blake, “Dueling Directors: Ridley Scott and Kevin
Reynolds” Featurette, Boy And Bicycle: Ridley Scott’s First Short Film,
Photo Galleries, Storyboards, and Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack and Dolby Surround Soundtrack and
French Language Monaural Soundtrack
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 14
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Surround Sound, and Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1977/DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: PG
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Pretty
soon I think admirers of Director Ridley Scott will be able to put together an
outstanding library of “Special Edition” DVD titles that he has loaned his
insight into with such hit releases already available on DVD through various
distributors that include “Alien: 25th Anniversary Edition,”
“Legend: Ultimate Edition,” “Gladiator Signature Selection,” and many
more. The most recently released to DVD film of Ridley Scott’s to get the
deluxe treatment is Paramount Home Entertainment’s “The Duellists: Special
Collector’s Edition,” which stars Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine. The
film follows a violent series of duels fought between two men during the
Napoleonic era. With an army mixed up of the common man and the gentry side by
side, Emperor Napoleon attempted to conquer much of Europe. Gabriel Feraud (Keitel)
is a man whose fortunes has improved with service to Napoleon and in an effort
to maintain a fanatical sense of honor, has been issued a reprimand for constant
dueling with other members of the Emperor’s army from his commanding officer
delivered by D’Hubert (Carradine). Feraud takes the note as an insult from
D’Hubert despite the fact that D’Hubert is only a messenger and then
pathologically over the course of thirty years Feraud challenges D’Hubert to
duels according to a code of honor so strict that the challenged cannot even be
met with an apology and withdrawn or forgiven because Feraud will not accept
anything less than death one way or the other.
Themes
regarding the nature of honor, devotion, beliefs, and obsession run throughout
the film with the dueling scenes beautifully choreographed and distinctly radial
in nature so that each encounter in time is different. Carradine settles into
his role with ease, as D’Hubert, who we come to identify with as the
protagonist of the story, as he is forced to play a game for an insult he never
intended and by rules harsher than anything he has ever encountered before. The
film’s resolution is emotionally poignant and powerful and also quite fitting
with the tone of the story. In many ways the film’s final moments are profound
depending on how one will view the action and character interaction of the
story. Upon first viewing I found Keitel’s presence of the film a little off
putting because as my thesis advisor once told me in grad school, “You can
take Harvey out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of Harvey.”
However Keitel does a more than capable job as Feraud and eventually one sees
that Keitel’s aggressive strengths as an actor and his upbringing in New York
City as an asset that actually make his performance a very good choice because
Feraud is maniacally obsessed with honor and dueling to defend anything that he
feels slightly offends him because he is a common man coveting the image of the
aristocracy while D’Hubert is a man who comes from upper-class roots though we
are never entirely sure where, but as we watch the characters’ paths
throughout the story we learn that Feraud is obsessed with formality for the
sake of it while D’Hubert is actually more down to earth and less concerned
with pomp and circumstance until at the final duel we see it is D’Hubert who
cuts to the quick and skips the formalities and thus crosses over to a greater
common sense that Feraud has long lost by this time and subsequently can use the
rules of honorable dueling against Feraud in a poetic way.
The
film has an impressive cast of guest stars that include Albert Finney, Edward
Fox, Alun Armstrong, Tom Conti, and Peter Postlethwaite, who looks about the
same as he has in recent film prompting me to ask if he ever ages? Ridley Scott
delivers an excellent feature length audio commentary for this DVD that covers
both technical and aesthetic aspects of the film. Among the many things
discussed was the budget for the film, which was only nine hundred thousand
dollars, shooting on location in the fall and winter, tricks to gain production
value on a low budget and more. This is supported by an excellent interview
conducted by Director Kevin Reynolds with Ridley Scott sitting in a room with
what appears to be the DVD on a TV before them discussing the various aspects
and anecdotes surrounding this film in “Dueling Directors” (29:08). Composer
Howard Blake provides commentary for the isolated score soundtrack and covers in
no small detail how the music is crafted to suit the image on screen and the
obvious importance of how a score enhances a film and even when the choice not
to score elevates a film too.
Ridley
Scott’s first film “Boy And Bicycle” (26:44), which features his brother
Tony Scott, is presented in a black and white (1.33:1) aspect ratio and features
optional English Captions too. The film is a bit frayed and grainy from age, but
it is a nice thought to include it and for a short film, “Boy And Bicycle”
is a lot better than some of the other short films some filmmakers put on their
DVD-Video releases as a conceit. With the multi-angle button on your remote
control, viewers can toggle between a compilation of storyboards and a
comparison with the finished scene on top and the storyboard on the bottom
(3:58). Color stills, and black and behind-the-scenes photographs as well as
international one-sheet art can be viewed collectively or as three separate
photo galleries as well. In addition the film’s theatrical trailer (3:11) is
included among the special features on this DVD.
The
film itself is presented in an anamorphic (1.85:1) aspect ratio that captures
the beautiful visuals on home video as they have never been seen before and the
DVD also sports a well mixed English Dolby Digital 5.1 Soundtrack and an English
Dolby Surround Soundtrack coupled with a French Language Monaural Soundtrack and
optional English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired too.
“Dueling Directors” features French Language Subtitles in addition to
English Captions.
The
main menu is animated with motion transitions to standard interactive still
frames and all of the DVD menus are easy to navigate. “The Duellists: Special
Collector’s Edition” is a wonderful DVD available now at retailers on and
offline courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.