The Last Duel Review

Based on the book by Eric Jager, The Last Duel is the latest historical drama by Ridley Scott. This medieval drama sees Scott team up with an ensemble cast and tackles issues that are still relevant today.

Spanning from 1370 to 1386, The Last Duel focuses on three main characters: Jean de Carruoges (Matt Damon), a knight known for his aggressive fighting style, Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), a squire who becomes a favourite of Count Pierre d’Alençon (Ben Affleck), and Marguerite (Jodie Comer), de Carrogues’ wife. Tensions between de Carruoges and Le Gris grow over the years because of Le Gris’ position in d’Alençon’s court and Le Gris being accused of raping de Carruoges’ wife. This leads to the last trial by combat in France.

Ridley Scott is a director known for taking audiences to different worlds, whether they are far in the past or the distant future. Films like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven show he can make grand epics with terrific battle sequences. The Last Duel also had a grand scale and had an air of authenticity, but this was a drama, not an action film. There was a scene of pomp and scale, and The Last Duel had a beautiful religious-themed score like Kingdom of Heaven: but don’t expect a usual Scott epic.

The Last Duel has more in common with Ridley Scott’s first film, The Duellist, and the Akira Kurosawa classic Rashomon. The Duellist was about two officers in the French army during the Napoleonic Wars. The Last Duel was focused on two people who saw their friendship turn to rivalry with de Carruoges seeing all of Le Gris’ actions as a slight against him. Rashomon was a historical trial film where the story of the case was told by different witnesses.

The Last Duel follows Rashomon’s style of storyline. The Last Duel was split into three chapters that told the story from three different viewpoints: de Carruoges, Le Gris, and Marguerite. All three saw events differently. Some events were shown in an altered light because of this. An example was both de Carruoges and Le Gris’ stories opened with a battle. The English goaded the French by threatening to kill civilians. In de Carruoges’ version of the story he saw his actions as a noble endeavour. Le Gris’ version of the story showed de Carruoges was nothing more than a hothead which Le Gris had to save.

De Carruoges and Le Gris were unreliable narrators. They saw themselves as the heroes/wronged party. In de Carruoges’ version of the story, he was a heroic knight but everyone else saw him as an aggressive idiot. De Carruoges mitigated parts of the story that made him look bad. Le Gris was someone who saw himself getting his rewards for his hard work and he believed there was a connection between him and Marguerite. Le Gris’ viewed the rape as Marguerite making the typical protestations that were expected from a woman.

When Marguerite’s title card was shown the word ‘truth’ was highlighted. The film was saying her version of the story was the definitive one. Marguerite was shown to be a smart woman who was well-read, and able to get de Carruoges’ estate in order. But she was a woman in Medieval Europe: she was seen as nothing more than the property of the men in her life and not valued as a person. Women were expected to do certain things for men and some characters point out that it was considered normal for men to have their wicked way with peasant girls.

Whilst the film was a historical tale, there were aspects of the story that felt like a film for the #MeToo era. Marguerite told friends that she did find Le Gris attractive, and this was used against her during the trial. These things still affect sexual assault cases. One character revealed to Marguerite that she was also raped. Marguerite was not just fighting for justice; she was fighting against a whole system. Even if Marguerite proves that she was raped it would be a hollow victory.

Because of the subject matter, The Last Duel required excellent acting. The film did get a top-tier cast who gave strong performances. Scott has got a reputation for being an actors’ director because he works closely with his cast to get the best performances possible. Comer is already attached to Scott’s next film, a biopic about Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine.

In this modern age of blockbusters are required to be based on recognisable properties and big action, The Last Duel was a throwback. It was a film made on a big scale to tell a personal story. Even if doesn’t perform at the box office hopefully it will find an audience upon its home release and gain respect over time.