Betrayal and friendship clash in ‘The Duel’

LOS ANGELES — Though dueling for honor may have fallen out of fashion in the 1800s, “The Duel” will see two best friends challenge each other to settle their differences and pay the price for betrayal.

The film centers on a division between two characters, Colin (played by Dylan Sprouse) and Woody (played by Callan McAuliffe). When Woody discovers his best friend, Colin, is sleeping with his girlfriend, he challenges Colin with a duel to the death.

In an interview with Spectrum News, Sprouse says the movie has a lot of different interpretations, but the way he describes is that “The Duel” is the story of love and pain between two friends.

“That’s what it is: two people who love each other very dearly as best friends, who feel betrayed and the willingness they go through to try to rectify those wrongs,” he said.

“The Duel,” says McAuliffe, is uniquely timely as more people discuss and condemn toxic masculinity as an idea and as an essence.

“To me, this movie is an important nuanced version of that discussion. It brings to bear all sorts of questions about what constituency of masculinity is worth keeping and which of them matter. It cannot be said that are none which are beautiful because there are, and sometimes masculinity’s most beautiful qualities are also its most absurd. This film asks those types of questions. I hope people have those types of conversations after they watch it,” he said.

And if you watch the film and feel like there could have been a different ending, you are not alone, says Sprouse. But at the end of the day, “there was only one way it could end,” says McAuliffe.

“I had people telling me apologetically they were Team Colin and other people telling me they were Team Woody and that they longed for an alternative ending, but let me spoil nothing,” he said.

“The Duel” will be available on demand and digital on Aug. 16. The film also stars Patrick Warburton, Denny Love, Hart Denton and Maria Gabriela de Faria.