This is a very interesting early movie from Ridley Scott, who's best known for his early sci-fi classics "Blade Runner" and "Alien" as well as his later film "Gladiator." As usual, his direction is excellent, but a lot of the times the quality of Scott's movies ultimately rests on the screenplay and story. In this case we have a very literate adaption of a story from Joseph Conrad that matches his formal style well.
The story is very simple; basically it is about two officers in Napoleon's army who strike up a dispute when the more placid and circumspect of the two, D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) is sent to fetch the arrogant and violent duelmaster Feraud (Harvey Keitel), to which Feraud takes great exception. Later it turns out that at least D'Hubert believes the conflict may actually be about a woman, Adele (Christina Raines). All the historical events that take place in the story are just side-lines to the conflict between these two men, which takes place over the course of several decades all across Europe from the peaceful farms of France to the wasted plains of Russia.
First of all the photography in this movie, by Frank Tidy, is really excellent. A lot of aspects of this film remind me of Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" and this not the least. But unlike Kubrick, Scott and his producers have used original instead of period music, and the score that Howard Blake is really wonderful, referencing the period music just enough but bringing a fresh and human touch to the film. IN general I'd say this film is an attempt to use some of the conventions of the "period" genre but to make the whole thing ostensibly "modern" by concentrating on the very human dynamics between the two characters. However the whole concept of building a film around "honor" didn't really appeal to me personally. Even though the theme isn't terribly engaging for me, I was drawn into the drama and the story.
Carradine's performance is very good, and I didn't spend much time thinking about the fact that he and Keitel are so American and so many other actors are so British but they are all supposed to be French. Keitel has almost no dialog in this film so everything that we imagine about his motives is pretty much a big guess. I liked that aspect of the film; nothing in the film is important except these two guys, but since we only really hear about or see one of them it gives the whole film a sort of mysterious air.
The story is very simple; basically it is about two officers in Napoleon's army who strike up a dispute when the more placid and circumspect of the two, D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) is sent to fetch the arrogant and violent duelmaster Feraud (Harvey Keitel), to which Feraud takes great exception. Later it turns out that at least D'Hubert believes the conflict may actually be about a woman, Adele (Christina Raines). All the historical events that take place in the story are just side-lines to the conflict between these two men, which takes place over the course of several decades all across Europe from the peaceful farms of France to the wasted plains of Russia.
First of all the photography in this movie, by Frank Tidy, is really excellent. A lot of aspects of this film remind me of Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" and this not the least. But unlike Kubrick, Scott and his producers have used original instead of period music, and the score that Howard Blake is really wonderful, referencing the period music just enough but bringing a fresh and human touch to the film. IN general I'd say this film is an attempt to use some of the conventions of the "period" genre but to make the whole thing ostensibly "modern" by concentrating on the very human dynamics between the two characters. However the whole concept of building a film around "honor" didn't really appeal to me personally. Even though the theme isn't terribly engaging for me, I was drawn into the drama and the story.
Carradine's performance is very good, and I didn't spend much time thinking about the fact that he and Keitel are so American and so many other actors are so British but they are all supposed to be French. Keitel has almost no dialog in this film so everything that we imagine about his motives is pretty much a big guess. I liked that aspect of the film; nothing in the film is important except these two guys, but since we only really hear about or see one of them it gives the whole film a sort of mysterious air.