"Actor: Albert Conti"

• The Duellists | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £12.87   |  Saving you £3.12 (24.24%)   |  RRP £15.99

  One of the great directorial debuts, Ridley Scott's The Duellists is an extraordinary achievement which weaves an epic-in-miniature set around the edges of the Napoleonic Wars. Based on a story by Joseph Conrad, in turn inspired by real events and filmed in part where those events took place, this is the tale of a 15-year conflict between two French army officers: the level-headed Armand D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) and the obsessive Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel). Each time they meet they duel, until the original purpose of the conflict is all but lost. Beyond the two American stars, who fill their roles with rare commitment--accents not withstanding--Scott assembled a stellar cast: Albert Finney, Edward Fox, Pete Postlethwaite, Diana Quick, Cristina Raines, Robert Stephens, Tom Conti, John McEnery, Maurice Colbourne and Jenny Runacre. The production values are astonishing and the film revels in the exquisite painterly visuals which have become a Scott trademark. Howard Blake's elegiac theme adds immeasurably to the impact of a film influenced by Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1974), and anticipating Scott's own Best Picture Oscar-winning Gladiator (2000). A haunting work of spectral beauty, it is also a worthy companion to Scott's shamefully neglected 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). On the DVD: The Duellists is transferred at 1.77:1 with full sound atmospherically remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1. A new 29-minute documentary finds Scott discussing The Duellists with Kevin (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) Reynolds, which is particularly enlightening given the relative merits of the two swashbucklers. Scott's absorbing commentary track provides an in-depth look into the film-making process. Equally, film music aficionados will be delighted to find not just an isolated music track, but an informative commentary by composer Howard Blake, though he does sometimes talk over the beginning or end of cues. Most unusual but very welcome is the inclusion of Scott's first short film, Boy and Bicycle (1965), a 25-minute b/w mood piece starring Tony Scott, with music by John Barry. Other extras are a storyboard-to-screen comparison, the American trailer and four galleries of posters, stills and production photos. --Gary S Dalkin

• Mediterraneo | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Mediterraneo, the 1991 comedy by Gabriele Salvatores, was knocked for not being deep enough but it is what it is; and it is actually an easygoing, sunny movie about eight Italian soldiers who manage to strand themselves on a tiny Greek island paradise during World War II. The sort of mutts who would shoot a donkey for not knowing the proper password, these clumsy warriors become a comic variation on the Lotus Eaters of myth, their fighting spirit evaporated in the midst of so much beauty and sexual availability among the local women. There are also sundry opportunities for the men to find another purpose for their lives (one particularly artistic fellow works on the restoration of a church, for example). Amid the sometimes coarse jokes and gratuitous nudity, there are subtle themes about the contrast between what men are truly like in their natural state versus what they are like as killers. (The Thin Red Line this isn't but Salvatores does, in his own way, touch on some of the same themes.) Watch this one on a cold winter's day and vicariously enjoy the tans as well as the antiwar sentiment. --Tom Keogh

• The Eagle | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This romantic story film was adapted from a story by Alexander Pushin. A young officer becomes the object of the amorous Cizarina's affections. He is banished when he rejects her and becomes the dashing Robin Hood-like bandit: The Eagle.