Ridley Scott's first movie after a career directing TV commercials. Based on a story by Joseph Conrad which was based on real events. A deranged officer (Harvey Keitel) in Napoleonic France insists on fighting repeated duels with another French Army officer (Kieth Carradine).
Back then, if you were an army officer and you refused to fight a duel when challenged, you'd be forced to resign your commission. I don't know if they'd kick you out of the Army completely. If they did, it'd get you out of the Napoleonic Wars which would be a good thing obviously. At one point, the two guys are with the Army fleeing Russia as winter sets in.
The movie looked great. Filmed entirely in existing locations.
This movie was playing at the university here when I was in high school. There was a line of people in front of the classroom where it was showing. I asked someone what was playing. He told me and said it was a great movie if you like fencing. I was into kung fu movies at the time and thought maybe this would be a new martial art I would enjoy watching people kill each other with, but I passed on it. I felt guilty for not sharing that poor guy's enthusiasm for fencing, but I don't think I would have liked it at that stage.
It was interesting. They used some of the same stupid-looking but apparently authentic techniques they did in Royal Flash.
It also had a sword fight where the guys got really tired and were staggering around struggling to lift their swords.
Gore Vidal worked on the script to Ben Hur. In that story, a Roman gets into a thirty second argument with Ben Hur and spends the next twenty years persecuting him and his family. Vidal had to add a gay backstory for it to make any sense. But this movie made that sort of thing seem plausible. Harvey Keitel spends decades trying to kill Kieth Carradine.
They only fight six duels in the movie. In real life, the French guys fought thirty duels in twenty years.
Free on Pluto.
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