16. The Duelists (1977)
In his critically acclaimed directing debut, Ridley Scott came out swinging with The Duelists, a historical drama in which Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine portray rival French officers locked in a 20-year battle of attrition. The film marked Scott’s transition from television commercials to theatrical narrative filmmaking, with the director drawing ample inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Told through a series of painterly tableaus, The Duelists captures the broader political turmoil of Napoleonic France while making each duel intensely personal, thanks to the onscreen tension between Keitel and Carradine. Uncharacteristically for Scott’s later films, The Duelists received particular praise for its historical accuracy, especially the meticulously choreographed sword fights.
