Ridley Scott's first feature film, The Duellists, was released in 1977. The British historical drama marked Scott's transition from television commercials to cinema direction and won the Best First Film award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.
Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the film follows two French officers whose personal feud leads to repeated duels over nearly two decades. Harvey Keitel plays the obsessive Bonapartist Gabriel Feraud, while Keith Carradine portrays the more restrained Armand d'Hubert. Their conflict is adapted from Joseph Conrad's 1908 novella The Duel.
The film is sometimes confused with Scott's later breakthrough Alien, released in 1979, or with his 1980 historical epic about medieval England, but neither was his debut. The Duellists established several traits associated with Scott's later work, including meticulous visual composition, period detail, and atmospheric cinematography.