{"id":9870,"date":"2024-12-10T23:26:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9870"},"modified":"2024-12-10T23:26:36","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T04:26:36","slug":"the-last-duel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/10\/the-last-duel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Duel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Last Duel<\/strong> (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century\/Drama-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 152 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence including sexual assault, sexual content, some graphic nudity, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ridley Scott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Gregson-Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Darius Wolski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 15, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck, Harriet Walter, Nathaniel Parker, Sam Hazeldine, Michael McElhatton, Alex Lawther, Marton Csokas, Zeljko Ivanek, Clive Russell, Adam Nagaitis.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $10.9M (US)\/$30.6M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ridley Scott has long fascinated me. He\u2019s a talented director with an impressive list of credits that includes Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster and The Martian. He also made 1492: Conquest of Paradise and The Counselor, but I won\u2019t hold either of those against him. He tends to favor style over substance, but he has a visual sense unlike any other filmmaker. It\u2019s currently on display in The Last Duel<\/strong>, a fact-based medieval drama about the last officially sanctioned judicial duel fought in 14th<\/sup> century France. As a movie, it\u2019s intriguing throughout, but suffers from some miscasting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story, told Rashomon style, centers on the titular duel between Sir Jean Carrouges (Damon, The Martian) and Jacques Le Gris (Driver, aka Kylo Ren), one-time friends who have a big falling-out after Jean\u2019s wife Marguerite (Comer, Killing Eve) accuses Jacques of raping her while her husband was away. When Jacques denies the charges brought against him, Jean challenges him to a duel to the death in order to restore his honor. There\u2019s more than just his honor riding on the outcome of the fight. If he loses, Marguerite will be killed too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Last Duel<\/strong> is told in three \u201cThe Truth According to…\u201d chapters, a recounting of the events leading up to the duel by the three major characters. Details differ according to whose perspective it is. Jean makes himself the victim of disrespect and derision by his liege Count Pierre d\u2019Alencon (Affleck, The Accountant) while Jacques makes him out to be a petulant jerk. They all remember a brief kiss a little differently. Pay close attention to the expression on Marguerite\u2019s face. By way of driving home a point, the words \u201cthe truth\u201d stay on screen a tad longer when it\u2019s Marguerite\u2019s version of events. Among other things, we join her in disbelief when her husband claims to be the real victim, saying it happened to him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think we all know The Last Duel <\/strong>is making a statement about the treatment of rape victims today and how it hasn\u2019t changed all that much in 600 years. It\u2019s a historical epic for woke culture. It makes its point. That\u2019s all that really needs to be said about that. And don\u2019t think I\u2019m trying to diminish the importance of the issue, I\u2019m not. I just want to move past it and focus on its entertainment value.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the most part, I like The Last Duel<\/strong>. It\u2019s a compelling film that bears the distinctive visual style for which Scott is known. The production design is AWESOME! It reeks of authenticity. The sets, costumes and chilly interiors transport the viewer to 14th<\/sup> century France. The man is an artist in every sense of the word. It isn\u2019t all him though. He receives a more than ample assist from master cinematographer Darius Wolski (Dark City) who bathes the film in a bleak, gray palette.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unfortunately, a couple of poor casting choices get in the way of The Last Duel<\/strong> achieving total greatness. I\u2019ve long felt that Affleck is a better director than he is an actor and he proves it here with his wrongheaded performance. He acts more like an entitled frat boy than a rich landowner. His character doesn\u2019t just border on ridiculous; he crosses over and sets up camp in the territory. Damon, as Jean, is just okay. That is to say, he\u2019s not as bad as his best buddy and writing partner Affleck, their first collaboration since their Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting. It\u2019s one of Damon\u2019s serious performances meaning he wears a sour expression the entire time. He\u2019s not exactly terrible, but I didn\u2019t really buy him as a medieval knight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the upside, Comer does tremendous work as the wronged wife who learns just how difficult it is to be a woman in the 14th<\/sup> century. When she tells her husband what happened to her, he blames her for it before forcing her to have sex with him. He treats her more like property than a partner. She\u2019s strong and refuses to stay silent even when threatened with death. Driver is also quite good as the villain of the piece, an entitled POC who has everything handed to him. Add rapist to his list of poor character qualities and you have a guy that deserves to die.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the finale, the duel is pretty amazing. It\u2019s brutal, exciting and bloody. It\u2019s also a well-choreographed piece of work. In short, it\u2019s cool! In the end, The Last Duel<\/strong> is a good movie that misses greatness by this much. It\u2019s not always easy to watch, but it entertains while making an important point about a timely and timeless issue.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Last Duel (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century\/Drama-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 152 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence including sexual assault, sexual content, some graphic nudity, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ridley Scott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Gregson-Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Darius Wolski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 15, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck, Harriet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/The-Last-Duel-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9870"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10173,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870\/revisions\/10173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}