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Deadly Duels

Steven Hellerstedt | 11/26/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"DEADLY DUELS is, apparently, a video release of a three-part documentary that ran on the Discovery Channel a few years ago. Stacy Keach provides the off-screen narration, plenty of heads talk, and a number of famous duels are reenacted. The reenactments are augmented by many period illustrations. In other words, your standard, traditional television documentary approach.
Many of the dueling scenes suffer from some pretty rough editing - a sword is raised above a head, feet scuffle, close-up of a combatant's eyes. It's a commonly enough used cheat, a good technique if you don't want to throw many resources at it and want to keep everybody from getting too nicked up. Not so good if you want to impress a memory on the audience, or distinguish yourself. Another unfortunate aspect is the tendency of DEADLY DUELS to repeat itself, especially at the start of the second and third episodes. I guess one doesn't edit for a video release, even though the video viewer will probably watch all in one setting.
DEADLY DUELS is moderately entertaining and informative.

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