Avis Metacritic

A forgotten masterpiece.

A splendid recreation of Napoleonic France and a compelling movie to boot.

Consistently entertaining and eerily beautiful.

The Duellists explores its own unique thematic terrain and limns its characters’ psychology with a perspicacity that’s all its own.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scott, a name in TV commercials making his first feature, brings little overall thrust, working instead in short bursts.