The Last Duel

The Last Duel

King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges settle his dispute with his squire, Jacques Le Gris, by challenging him to a duel.

  • Released: 2021-10-13
  • Runtime: 153 minutes
  • Genre: Action, Drama, History
  • Stars: Jodie Comer, Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, Marton Csokas, Harriet Walter, Clare Dunne, Zeljko Ivanek, Nathaniel Parker, Michael McElhatton, Alex Lawther, Zoé Bruneau, Ian Pirie, William Houston, Sam Hazeldine, Brian F. Mulvey, Caoimhe O'Malley, Clive Russell, Julian Firth, Serena Kennedy, Bosco Hogan, Kevin McGahern, Simone Collins, Paul Bandey, Thomas Silberstein, Florian Hutter, Daniel Horn, Corinne Delacour, Tallulah Haddon, Estelle Baldassin, Oliver Cotton, Bryony Hannah, Adam Nagaitis, John Kavanagh, Christian Erickson, Quentin Ogier, Martin Vaughan Lewis, Stephen Brennan, Adam Goodwin, Sylvain Lablée, Chloé Lindau, Oliver Cotton, Aurélien Lorgnier, Thomas Silberstein, Adam Goodwin, Ian Pirie, Daniel Horn, Michael McElhatton, Sam Hazeldine, Clive Russell, Julian Firth, Sylvain Lablée, Zoé Bruneau, Chloé Lindau, Adam Nagaitis, Elise Caprice, Fiona Maherault Valinski, Tassia Martin, Camille Mutin, Caoimhe O'Malley, John Kavanagh, Zeljko Ivanek, Simone Collins, Clare Dunne, Christian Erickson, Alex Blanchard, Gin Minelli, Cécilia Steiner, Serena Kennedy, Quentin Ogier, Paul Bandey, Martin Vaughan Lewis, Brontis Jodorowsky, Peter Hudson, Alexander Pattie, Dimitri Michelsen, Stephen Brennan, Colin David Reese, Bosco Hogan, Kyle Hixon, Florian Hutter, Sam Chemoul, Jim Roche, Martin Gogarty, Ronan Leonard, Shane Lynch, Peter Kirkby, Kevin McGahern, Lorris Chevalier, Mark Atkin, Janet Grene, Chloe Harris, Karl Hogan, Tyrone Kearns, Brian Manning, Brian F. Mulvey, Fady Naguib
  • Director: Ridley Scott
 Comments
  • WitheringFlowers - 7 May 2024
    An interesting and thought provoking film
    I watched this movie a few months ago on an airplane. It left a long-lasting impression on me. The film delivers the plot from the very different perspectives of its three main characters.

    The story happend in late 14th century. Marguerite, the lead female character, was brutally raped by his husband's former friend Gris and did not want to stay silent. The husband, Carrouges, felt the incident an insult on his honor and wanted justice for himself. The rapist Gris had the illusion that Marguerite was interested in him and seduced him. So, he refused to admit he committed the crime. Carroughes and Gris eventually went to have a duel to resolve the matter. Gris was killed in the duel, which then was regarded as a sign that God sided with Carrouge and hence Marguerite was innocent.

    As a modern human being that grow up in an east asian country, the film did a wonderful job of explaining the European society in that old age to me through each character's view of what had happened. It was really shocking to see the absurd logic of 14th century's public beliefs and the complete disrespect of female right in those days.

    The movie masterfully keeps the tension of the story through the entire movie. And what is very interesting is that it makes the audiences actually feel happy for Marguerite when the rolling text at the end of the movie says her husband died several years later after the duel. This is so different from those cheesy love stories where a couple defeat their enemy and live happily ever after. The Last Duel makes you realize that the oppression on women not only came from rapists, but also came from their own husbands and family members.
  • clairebwfc - 16 March 2024
    Loved the film!
    Obviously rape wasn't considered as rape back in the day! However come to think of it pretty sure men think the same now!!

    However I really enjoyed this film on so many levels, the characters and the way the story was executed, the acting! The actors are all stand out!

    Thoroughly enjoyed this film from the actors to the cinematography to the story line , to the characters to everything. It was excellent.

    Not sure i'll watch again very soon but maybe in a few years which I Look forward too Jodie comer what's fantastic, as was Adam driver and Matt Damon.

    I definitely recommend this film X X x x x.
  • tommy-97761 - 30 December 2023
    (Unreliable narrator)^3
    The last Duel starts slow, but progresses pretty quickly to the point that by the end I did't care how late it was and how much sleep I'd miss, I had to see how it ends.

    In the begining, the characters speak of matters related to the current political situation and I felt lost, but fortunately none of that was actually very important to the plot. The movie does a pretty good job at communicating the important beats.

    I must have missed the name of the first chapter, hence the title page of chapter 2 somewhat surprised me and at that point I realised that the movie would show us the events from various POVs. To be precise, from the POV of the husband, the wife and the rapist. It is kind of comical even to see how much the personal bias of each character alters their version of the truth, so we get unreliable versions of the same event and it is up to the viewer to make up their mind. As such, I am compelled to believe the wife, but since the other versions are so different, I wouldn't dare to think even her version is accurate.

    The movie makes a compelling viewing experience set in a medieval time with their dated morals and viewpoints. A fine movie I will rewatch if I ever stumble upon it again.

    As a last thing I'd like to record my personal path to this movie. It being Ridley Scott and set in medieval times, I was interested by default and I wanted to see it in cinema. The problem was lack of marketing and all the consequences of it. Believe it or not, I only found out about the movie because of the ridiculous half helmets featured in it and the reaction they caused in the historical and fencing communities I subscribe to. Other than that, I had no idea such movie was even being made.

    Given the lack of marketing, not many people came to the cinema for it, and the cinemas I have withing reasonable driving distance dropped the movie pretty quickly and I simply missed it. The fact that Riddley Scott then blamed the lack of interest on millenials and their smartphones just left a sour aftertaste and I felt no urge to see the movie ASAP anymore. So I saw it when they played it in TV 2 days ago. Maybe if anyone tried to broadcast information about this movie into said smartphones, and have a poster or an article about it pop up once in a while, more people would have seen it.
  • mayaschneiderbsc - 19 December 2022
    Epic period drama that loses some immersive quality by casting A-list American actors
    ***This review will contain details about this movie that some may consider spoilers. I've tried to keep them as brief and non-specific as possible.***

    Usually after I've watched a movie for the first time, I can say definitively whether I liked it or not. The Last Duel is a rare exception whereby I couldn't (and to some degree still can't) decide how I feel about it, so I remain somewhat neutral. I don't hate the movie, but I don't absolutely love it either.

    Nevertheless, I would still recommend giving it a watch simply because it's an interesting story in which the subject matter remains hugely relevant in modern times. It is also visually stunning (with the exception of Matt Damon's mullet) and the cinematography is breathtaking.

    With that said, I will break down what I liked about this film and what I did not. Keep in mind, these are just my own thoughts and preferences that affect my personal enjoyment and appreciation of a film. I'll start with what I didn't like first so that I can end this review on a more positive note.

    The first thing I found off-putting about the movie was that Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Adam Driver were in it. Not because they are bad actors (they are certainly not), but because casting American A-list actors in a period film ruins the immersion for me. Remember the time Game of Thrones gave Ed Sheeran a cameo appearance? It caused an immersion outrage! That's sort of what I experienced with the Last Duel. Instead of focusing on the story, I became fixated on judging the quality of Damon's, Affleck's, and Driver's British Accents.

    To be fair, I do this with EVERY actor who modifies their regular accent for a film role. If it's less than perfect (which it often is) I find it to be a distraction. Christian Bale is one of the few actors that I feel does accents perfectly. Matt Damon's British accent is (to my ears anyway) embarrassingly bad. Adam Driver's was surprisingly not bad, and Ben Affleck's was okay (though more Irish sounding). The point is, I don't want to be thinking about this while watching a movie, but I can't help it. It makes me wonder if actors also find themselves distracted by it, perhaps focusing more on getting their accent right instead of acting out the scene right.

    Having one American actor may have been less of a big deal for me, but putting three in lead roles was just too much of a distraction for me. Their acting was just "okay" in this movie. Damon and Affleck are both brilliant actors, but in The Last Duel, not so much. Either way, their presence in a medieval-themed period drama was an immersion killer. I probably would have liked the movie more if they had cast lesser-known, British actors (or even French which would have been even better).

    Now for what I liked: basically everything else. I disagree that the movie was too long. I think it's as long as it needed to be to tell the story in a meaningful, coherent way. There are three different perspectives being told of the same story, so it makes sense that they should all get equal screen time. And it's those perspectives which I found the most fascinating, because they made sense psychologically.

    There are two types of truths: there is your truth and the actual, objective truth. And when it comes to personal experiences, the truth is largely subjective. The way you see yourself is subjective. The way you perceive your actions is subjective. You may see yourself as a loving, caring husband. You may see yourself as having committed an act that you felt was not a crime, and therefore proclaim your innocence. But then there is the ACTUAL truth. What REALLY happened, and who was affected by those actions.

    In a way, all three perspectives are the "truth", because no one seems to be deliberately lying; no one believes they've done anything wrong. Rather, two of the three stories are a distorted version of reality with mitigating details. All three believe they are the true victim: one believes they have committed no crime and has been wrongfully accused, one believes they are the victim of (essentially) "property damage", and one believes they are the victim of sexual assault. Nonetheless, each version of the story seems to confirm that the act was definitely not consensual. Instead, the accused perceived the frequent use of the words "no" and "stop" to be synonymous with a "customary protest". What a time to be alive!

    In conclusion, it's a fascinating story that is only enhanced by its attention to detail. The variations in each recounting of events can be easily missed if you're not looking for them, but they are all important to the story. Every scene, every detail, and every word served a purpose and was worth paying attention to. To be sure, this is not a fast paced action packed story, and will be appreciated most by those who love epic narratives and historical period films. That is, as long as you're not distracted by the A-listers and accents. :)
  • Phil_M_A_Kerr - 7 November 2022
    The Last Good Movie
    Great performances from everyone.

    Difficult subject matter handled with nuance.

    Authentic setting.

    Back in the day this kind of movie would've been lauded for its wide range of characters, differing perspectives, excellence in costume design & set building, high end cinematography, and epic scale.

    But it bombed at the box office.

    Not unheard of, though, that quality films are ignored by us punters.

    It was released toward the end of pandemic lockdowns but it was my suspicion that general audiences were still seeking lighthearted escapism in their entertainment.

    The only levity in this tale belongs to the enduring human spirit, quietly hidden beneath the tempestuousness & brutality of the era, or at the other extreme, disoriented in its opulence.
  • teebear817 - 30 September 2022
    Boring, uninteresting, unlikeable lead actor
    Man, this movie is boring. Was Ridley Scott desperate for money? Nothing new here, have seen the same in 100 sword movies. Slow moving and dull. Pedestrian dialogue. Uninteresting characters. Way too long. Unworthy of Scott's talents. Sometimes confusing, sometimes predictable, never intriguing. It is beyond belief this site compels us to write 600 letters to leave a review. That's, absurdly long, like a small novel. I still owe 180 characters from here. Omg. Four score and seven years ago..... Lol. OK, the move is dull and boring. Yada, Yada, Yada, save yourself 2 1/2 hours if misery and pass on this.