The Last Duel

Official Australian release date: 21/10/21. Viewed: 21/10/21.
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 14^th 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.