The Duellists (1977)

For 15 years in the early 19th Century, Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel) keeps challenging Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine) to duels. Sometimes Feraud wins, sometimes d'Hubert wins. The latter never kills Feraud, and Feraud is never able to kill d'Hubert, so the whole thing continues. Across countries and military campaigns and promotions and regime changes, their paths will cross and Feraud will send a friend to issue the challenge again.

The movie stays focused on Carradine, who tries to progress with his career and his life, only to be periodically interrupted by this asshole demanding another duel. Sometimes he tries to train, to prepare. At other times, he's on the verge of panic beforehand. He tries for a detente during the retreat out of Russia, but Feraud's not having it. Carradine manages at various times, to be amused, indignant, exhausted and resigned.

Keitel is kept at a distance, a sort of mystery. The movie begins with Feraud in a duel with what turns out to be the son of Strasbourg's mayor. Why are they dueling? We don't know. Ridley Scott keeps the camera positioned over Keitel's shoulder. So we see his opponent's obvious fright, the panicked way he waves his swords and weaves and stumbles, but we don't see Keitel's expression as he keeps after him.

He challenges d'Hubert because d'Hubert was the unlucky guy ordered to find Feraud and inform him the general has placed him under arrest. Feraud was at a party in the home of a well-to-do lady, and this was apparently too great a humiliation to ignore. But maybe that's just an excuse. Years later, during Napoleon's 100 Days, when Feraud has rejoined Bonaparte's army (and d'Hubert, now married and walking with a limp, refuses), Feraud claims their duels were because d'Hubert disrespected Napoleon. I don't know whether to think Feraud is lying, or if he simply doesn't remember how it all started.

I'm inclined towards the latter, given the comment a lady friend (played by Diana Quick, who seems very important early in the film, but then she drops out of the story partway through, which confused me) of d'Hubert makes when she sees Feraud. That Feraud is feeding his spite on d'Hubert. Which I assume means, he's chasing something (death most likely), and d'Hubert is a convenient target. He insists d'Hubert is a 'general's poodle', long after neither of them is serving under that general. When Feraud's friends insist the man has a reputation for bravery in combat (though outside the brief section in Russia, we don't see much of the campaigning they do), Feraud doesn't respond or even react. It doesn't matter. He must kill d'Hubert because the man disrespected him and honor demands it. And so d'Hubert must be a dishonorable man himself to do such a thing.

It's interesting to watch the progression of their duels, though I don't think we see all of them. The first is impromptu, held in and around the house in Strasbourg where Feraud stays, and is interrupted when the woman who lives there leaps to Feraud's defense, clawing d'Hubert's face. The second is formal, held in a field with seconds and all that. The third is probably somewhere in Egypt, in a dim room in a mud-brick house. Both of them are already bleeding in several places, but they fight until they can't even lift their swords and end up rolling around in the dust.

The final duel is with pistols, in the ruins of an old castle. Which I thought was a real mistake for d'Hubert, fighting on uneven terrain, given his limp. But I guess he expected familiarity with the place to give him the edge. Feraud's long-time second died in Russia, so he found so other like-minded Bonapartists to help. d'Hubert doesn't tell anyone about it, and lets one of those two act as his second. When one complains it's hardly a fit place, he dismisses that, pointing out they're here to kill each other, and any place is fit for that.

It's the fourth duel that intrigued me, albeit for a strange reason. This one is on horseback, riding at each other in a forest with sabers. d'Hubert has somehow developed a rep as a great duelist (no idea if Feraud's in the same boat), so people are treating it like a sporting event. A general even set up a breakfast party to watch the proceedings. Again, the movie stays focused on d'Hubert, whose mind is whirling with thoughts of how he's going to die and can barely draw his sword, like his body is refusing to commit. Feraud is again seen only from a distance, close enough to see a determined scowl on Keitel's face, but not much more.

So here's the odd thing I was thinking about during that lead-up. Just stick with me. In the Adventures of Brisco County Jr. box set - I said stick with me! - there's a bit where Bruce Campbell's talking about the horse riding and how the guys who trained him and handled the horses had been working on Westerns for decades. He talks about a scene where he has to ride the horse down a street in the midst of a stampede, and waiting for his cue in the alley, he can't get the horse to calm down. It's twisting and stomping and whatnot. When he complains, the handler makes Campbell get down and climbs in the saddle himself. The horse is perfectly still, and the guy remarks, "Yeah, it's the horse that's nervous."

I tell you that you that to get to this. As both men prepare to charge, d'Hubert's horse is standing nice and still, while Feraud's is thrashing about and turning in circles. Now, maybe that's just a matter of the specific horses, or maybe Harvey Keitel sucked at riding a horse. But it's interesting to look at from the Watsonian perspective or what it says about the two riders. You could read it that d'Hubert's horse is picking up on his fears and that's made it timid and reserved, while Feraud's horse is getting amped up from Feraud being ready to do this thing.

But I wonder if it isn't the other way around. For all his doubts and frustration with this whole mess, for all he rides off at full gallop afterward like there's an army at his heels, d'Hubert never turns away from accepting Feraud's challenges. He might try to talk the man down the first time, he might try to slip out of a crowded tavern without being seen, but he ultimately accepts the situation and faces it (finally, at the end, taking control of it.) Whatever he thinks about the foolishness of this whole thing, he still believes in defending his honor. And so he's going to do this, and the horse is calm because of that resolve. I don't think Feraud is scared, exactly, although you have to wonder with how loudly he protests and insists, whether he's hiding something, but I think he's got a bit of a death wish. There's something off-kilter about the man, and his horse knows that and would rather be anywhere else than with this nut sitting on his back.