Jewels and The Duallists

The Duellists (1977) & Top 5 Jewels – honour, obsession, and very stupid men with swordsIn this episode of Bad Dads Film Review, we kick things off with our Top 5 Jewels – a glittering mix of cursed stones, crime magnets and wildly impractical accessories. From the Pink Panther diamond and Uncut Gems’ black opal to Titanic’s Heart of the Ocean, Baz Luhrmann’s blinged-out Great Gatsby, Moana’s glowing heart of Te Fiti, and even that doomed chandelier in Only Fools and Horses, we rummage through cinema’s treasure box to see which jewels genuinely sparkle and which belong in Claire’s Accessories.Then it’s back to 1977 for Ridley Scott’s stunning directorial debut, The Duellists. Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine play two French officers locked into a 15–year feud that starts over a petty slight and escalates into a lifelong obsession. We get into:Honour as addiction – why one of them simply cannot let it go, everHow the film turns duelling into a ritual of pride, stubbornness and self-destructionThe way the weapons, stakes and scars escalate with each encounterRidley Scott’s eye for light, landscape and costume on a tiny budgetWhy the ending works so well, and what it says about victory, defeat and identityThere’s also the usual Bad Dads nonsense: road-trip chat, Christmas hats in December, grumbling about “live-action everything” culture, and a detour into glass onions, murder mysteries and moving house back pain.If you like:Period dramas with gorgeous visuals and nasty steel-on-steel showdownsCharacter studies about pride, masculinity and grudges that outlive their purposeMovie list chaos that jumps from Disney to French noir to jewellery-based heists…then this is a perfect episode to jump into the pod.You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at [email protected] or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads