Low Budget Tricks
With $900,000 to be spent on his first production, Scott had little opportunity or room for error. About midway through the film we come to what is arguably the most brutal duel between Feraud and d’Hubert. The two men are left bloody and panting in a heap by the end. The action is fast, swords clang and scrape the walls and skin is flayed.
The scene (which you can watch to the right) was shot in a matter of 45 minutes as Scott was low on time and sunlight. He shot the scene himself using a handheld camera and said he had to wrap his upper body in a towel because Keitel and Carradine kept hitting him with the swords as he got close to the action.
As for those sparks you see in the screen capture above (and can see at the 44-second mark in the video), those came as a result of lining the walls with chicken mesh, painting over it and making it live with electricity using a 12 volt battery. Scott tells us not only did he get the desired sparks, but the actors got a little jolt whenever their swords would hit the wall.
Keith kept saying, “It’s far too big, it’s far too big,” so Scott switched to a six volt battery, but when he didn’t get the desired effect he switched it back to a 12-volt without telling the actors.
Scott also presents another way to save money on a low budget production, which is to use material from elsewhere. For the above shot he didn’t have time to get the Cassock galloping off into the distance so he simply used footage from an Austrian toothpaste commercial he shot five years earlier. Smart thinking.
Finally, twice during the film Scott discusses how they used fishing line for cheap effects to pull skin away from the actor’s bodies. In the shot above Feraud is nearly decapitated, but it only results in a piece of his scalp pulling away from his skull into a bloody mess.
I also wanted to include this shot so I could use this opportunity to tell you The Duellists is rated PG. Think that shot above would get a PG-rating nowadays?
A Horny Horse
Above is a screen capture of a scene that works on so many levels it’s absolutely no surprise to learn it was all a mistake. That’s Cristina Raines as Adele on the right, bent over laughing, but not because the script asked her to.
In this particular scene d’Hubert is about to propose to Adele, but he’s having a bit of trouble with his lines as his horse is acting a bit ornery and Raines can’t keep from smiling. The reason? The horse on the left has a massive erection and ultimately ends up nudging Carradine down to one knee, which is when he proposes to Adele, tells the horse to shush and the scene ends with a kiss.
It’s the strangest proposal you’re likely to see in a film, but it has a sense of 100% authenticity and all because of a horny horse.
Still Life
For several of the transitions from one scene to the next Scott uses still life images to open each new scene. In the one above we look on at a pregnant Adele and a contemplative d’Hubert as the camera slowly dollies in on the two actors. It isn’t until 11 seconds into the scene when Adele jumps as her baby kicks and she grabs for d’Hubert’s hand. It’s an amazing use of visuals.
