Director: Ridley Scott (Alien, Black Hawk Down)

After waiting more than ten years to see this, Ridley Scott's acclaimed first feature film, I was not disappointed. I recall taping it off late night TV years ago, but I must have recorded over it, because all I found was some old Metallica footage from Rage. With the advent of laserdisc and then DVD, I decided to wait for a proper home video release. Glad I did.

Set in France circa 1800, this riveting yarn follows two of Napolean's soldiers as they defend their honour according to the customs of the day.

As expected from an auteur like Ridley Scott, who operated the camera himself, the cinematography is impeccable. Unfortunately, the influence of Stanley Kubrick's almost-masterpiece Barry Lyndon (1975) is painfully obvious. No attempt was made to disguise the similar camerawork (slow zooms, filters, interior lighting), the artful framing of the countryside, the measured narration, or the use of intertitles to delineate jumps in time. Furthermore, both films share the same historical and geographic milieu and seem to be, at first glance, cut from exactly the same cloth. Scott's film is less the saga that Barry Lyndon is, instead focusing on two intense characters played marvellously by Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel. I am looking forward to hearing the DVD commentry track to find out whether Scott acknowledges Kubrick's film or not.

The Duellists still comes highly recommended – it is an astonishing debut from a director who remains one of the best in the biz.