What is storytelling, but an act of restoration?
At a sage 83 years old, revered director Ridley Scott has been crafting motion pictures since the 70s, from seminal sci-fi classics Alien and Blade Runner to contemporary smash hits Gladiator and The Martian. Though he has churned his sizeable share of misfires, Scott indisputably possesses the holy pith of an enduring filmmaker, that keen sense of artistry that sifts the eternal from the finite.
Similar to his own vocational trajectory that etched him into the Hollywood pantheon, his newest feature The Last Duel, co-written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Nicole Holofcener (the former two’s first screenplay since Good Will Hunting), exhumes from the annals of history a vital, bold tale that reverberates into today.
“There is no truth. There is only the power of man.” At the top of every hierarchy has always heinously contained men desperate to crystallize their status, engineering systems of oppression, and thus misogyny, to do so. Scan the news for a sobering illustration of this malice, or in the case of Scott and company, elucidate a previously opaque era that directly and sneakily perpetuates the malevolent patriarchy – the Medieval times, notably 14th century France as depicted in this riveting film.
Those in power attempt to shape our perception of reality, down to the stories we receive. The Last Duel is a righteous exercise in modern reclamation, smartly skewing Medieval tableaux with a nuanced dismantling of destructive chivalric mythology. Scott capably stages the staples of this genre – percussive battles, towering grandeur, etc. – with precision and flair, but they’re all underpinned by scathing commentary on a deplorable culture that perennially enables men and marginalizes women.
Affleck, Damon and Holofcener deploy a Rashomon-esque structure with each respective act taking place through a different character’s perspective, and this shrewdly illuminates systemic misogyny taking place at an interpersonal level. Sir Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), a grisly and stoic knight, challenges former friend and squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), manipulative and domineering, to a duel when his disenfranchised wife Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) accuses the latter of raping her (If you are particularly sensitive to this subject matter, please take this as a trigger warning and proceed with caution).
Affleck and Damon penned the first two parts that astutely track the delusion of man, and Holofcener deftly takes the reins in a scorching final act through the harrowing truth of Marguerite’s lens. The devil is in the details, the privilege that detaches men from reality and immerses women deeper into the wounds of their lacerating dominance. Rigorously watch for how a kiss transpires or shoes are removed, the vast disparity between the exploiters and the exploited, which juxtaposes feeble-minded male ignorance against a sheer female will to simply survive.
Medieval stories often glorify attributes of toxic masculinity as men seek “honor” and “nobility,” and The Last Duel subverts these notions with potent satire. Sir Jean and Jacques seem to only want to preserve and inflate their egos (Marguerite’s assault is repugnantly viewed as an infringement on Sir Jean’s property, not an actual human being), and Scott and company brilliantly dissect the pageantry of this era with immense intelligence and candor.
There is no deceitful gloss to the proceedings here but a gritty, occasionally sardonic realism- a perceptive, enlightening and admittedly quite disturbing creative vision that indicts the patriarchy through actions and subtleties. The razor-sharp editing cuts between male machinations and their brutal outcomes, including some palpably immersive battles, not with sensationalism but staggering dramatic conviction, and this compensates for some earlier scenes that feel rather routine.
Though a bit narratively disjointed, this consistently compelling Medieval yarn is reinforced by its esteemed cast. Damon, Driver and especially Affleck (as the snide, conniving Count Pierre d’Alençon) are all dependably engrossing, but Comer gives a performance that stirs and pierces your very soul, this picture’s secret weapon that delivers deafening blows when she finally takes prominence in the third act. She finds visceral emotion in the most understated expression, especially in a devastatingly intrusive courtroom inquisition scene that truly left me shaking.
What’s particularly laudable about her masterly work is how it’s a structural anchor. The film is a critique of broad “fables” from this genre, and it depends on Comer to imbue it with emotional specificity and texture- and she’s grippingly up to the task in one of 2021’s most pristine onscreen turns. The Killing Eve and Free Guy star is a performer of monumental gravitas, reincarnating these weary Joan of Arc pathos of a haunted woman fighting for her autonomy.
At its center, beyond all the castles and chain mail, The Last of Duel is not an antiquated story of heroes and villains but a timely one of a pure soul vying to transcend pervasive systems of oppression, told with surprising sensitivity and grace. When the titular duel occurs in the film’s waning minutes, it carries the same weight as its stallions’ thunderous gallops. Both intimate and grand, Ridley Scott’s latest effort may seem old school upon initial inspection, and its storytelling certainly is unwieldy on occasion, but this stately yet poignant epic taps into an achingly modern vein.
Grade: B+
The Last Duel is now available in theaters.
Photo Credit / 20th Century Studios
