The Duellists is a 1977 film, which was Ridley Scott's first feature film as a director. It won the Best Debut Film award at Cannes. The basis of the screen play is the Joseph Conrad short story "The Duel" (U. S. title: Point of Honor) published in A Set of Six. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it features two French Hussar officers, D'Hubert and Feraud (played by Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel). Their quarrel over an initially minor incident turns into a bitter, long-drawn out struggle over the following fifteen years, interwoven with the larger conflict that provides its backdrop. At the beginning, Feraud is the one who jealously guards his honor and repeatedly demands satisfaction anew when a duelling encounter ends inconclusively; he aggressively pursues every opportunity to locate and duel his foe. As the story progresses, D'Hubert also finds himself caught up in the contest, unable to back down or walk away. The feud persists through the different campaigns of the Napoleonic war, and on into the period of the Bourbon restoration which follows. At times they meet but are of different rank in the army, preventing them from staging a duel. Each comes close to fatally wounding the other, D'Hubert being critically wounded in a duel with epee, and Feraud later being slashed in a joust on horseback with cavalry sabres. One duel during the Retreat from Moscow is interrupted by Russian soldiers, and the two must ironically act together to survive.
After the fall of Napoleon, D'Hubert becomes a respected member of the restored aristocracy, while Feraud is an embittered member of the anti-monarchist party. Poor and despised, he still finds D'Hubert and challenges him. The final duel is a pursuit through a ruin with loaded pistols. When Feraud misses his shot, D'Hubert withholds his own and sends Feraud away in shame for the last time.
The Conrad short story evidently has its genesis in the real duels that two French Hussar officers fought in the Napoleonic era. Their names were Dupont and Fournier, which Conrad disguised slightly, changing Dupont into D'Hubert and Fournier into Feraud.
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. The film is lauded for its historically authentic portrayal of Napoleonic uniforms and military conduct, as well as its generally accurate early-nineteenth-century fencing techniques as recreated by fight choreographer William Hobbs.
Set during the grand, sweeping Napoleonic age, an officer in the French army insults another officer and sets off a life-long emnity. The two officers, D'Hubert and Feraud, cross swords time and time again in an attempt to achieve justice and preserve their honor. Written by Greg Bole
