Plot: France, early XIX century. D'Hubert, a young soldier, is ordered to arrest another one, Ferand, after he badly wounds a personality during a duel. But D'Hubert doesn't count with Ferand's fierce nature, and ends up duelling Ferand himself. Over 15 years they duel again everytime they meet, despite D'Hubert's intentions to leave it all behind.
Comments: I think this is the only Ridley Scott film I hadn't seen yet, and it's a good one. It's his first movie, but you can notice many of his trademarks already, specially his eye for breathtaking visuals. But I'm afraid it's not a film without important flaws. The script reduces pretty much everything to the duelling plot. Sometimes that works well, specially at the beginning, when any meeting between D'Hubert and Ferand leds almost inmediately to a duel. Such urgency reflects well Ferand's obsession with killing D'Hubert, but as the film progresses the result of the final duel becomes the only thing to wait for.
And that alone is a problem, but Ridley Scott's focus on aesthetics rather than in moving the plot forward only makes it more evident. Thankfully, there are moments when Scott's visuals rise to the occassion and alone justify the viewing, such as in the wonderful chapter of the Russian campaign. And also thankfully Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel both deliver terrific performances (I for one was pleased to see Carradine as the lead, so far I had only seen him in supporting roles). But sometimes those are the only things that keep the film from looking like a "Barry Lyndon" wannabe.
