Director: Ridley Scott
Actors: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: MA
‘The Last Duel’ was not quite what I was expecting from a Ridley Scott
historical epic – better than ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, ‘The Duellists’ and ‘Exodus:
Gods & Kings’, but not of the same calibre as ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Robin Hood’.
It’s set in 14th century France (but no subtitles here, all in
English!) with Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Driver) seemingly
ageless knights. Marguerite (Comer) is Jean’s wife and Pierre (Affleck) is the
count for which Jacques is a squire. It should be noted that the other main co-stars
are Damon’s mullet and Affleck’s dyed blonde hair & goatee!
The first 40min seems a bit scattershot, jumping all over France and to different
times during a 20-year period, with lots of blanks. But it soon becomes clear that
we’re watching three different retellings from the perspectives of Jean, Jacques
& Marguerite, as the plot slowly unveils itself and your assumptions are
challenged each time. After the battle at the start, the middle 90min is a bit
slow, with it basically being a drama and battle of wills between the four main
characters.
The actual duel at the end is really brutal and very well executed. The subject
matter, and filming, of the rape that is the focus for much of the film is
disturbing and while you admire Marguerite’s courage, the ending left me asking
what the point was? I know it’s based on a true story, but the resolution felt
unsatisfactory and mostly serves as a bleak reminder of how bad things were for
most in past centuries. By no means a bad film, just not as much medieval battling
as I was hoping for, or as much humour as I expected from Damon & Affleck.
Overall: Long human-focused drama.
Gav's Rating: 3 stars.
