Review: The Last Duel (2021)

Ridley Scott is one of the most prolific directors in the history of cinema, with movies spanning from science fiction classics like Alien and Blade Runner to historical dramas like Gladiator. He has a filmography so diverse in genre that almost everyone can point to a movie directed by Ridley Scott that is one of their favorites. The Last Duel is just the latest in this storied career that is one of the most poignant and topical movies of his career that has enough action mixed in to keep audiences entertained.

Before a viewer even gets into the real philosophical question of the movie, The Last Duel grabs the viewer with a pair of beautifully shot action sequences of pure medieval carnage. This movie gets gory in a way one would expect a from a slasher and does not pull punches when it comes to showcasing the grotesque horror of weapon-based hand-to-hand combat. Not even animals are spared due to the scale of the battle sequences set in 14th century France and Scotland.

The meat of the movie follows three different accounts of the same event. Marguerite (Jodie Comer) accuses Jacques (Adam Driver) of rape and her husband Jean (Matt Damon) challenges Jacques to a duel to the death to prove that Marguerite is not lying. The story takes the audience first through Jean’s version of events, then Jacques’s version of events, and then finally Marguerite’s version of events and clearly lays out who is being followed at the start at each “chapter.” This may sound complex, but it is palatable. It can feel repetitive when the movie gets to certain keystone events that all three people are present for, but each time they reach these points, it is a different perspective so the characters act different. One of these such sequences is when Jean and Marguerite attend a party where Jacques is and, as a symbol of good will, Jean asks Marguerite to kiss Jacques. It is a simple set up but each time the scene is shown, the characters react differently. When it is Jean’s perspective it looks friendly, when it is in Jacques’s perspective it looks romantic and when it’s in Marguerite’s perspective it looks predatory.

The movie is designed to shine a light on both systemic and institutional misogyny, and it accomplishes this well. Jacques can do what he does over the course of his movie due to his powerful connections to Pierre (Ben Affleck) as well as the King of France. When the scenes in court happen, questions are asked that would not be out of place in a movie with a similar topic set today (see last year’s Academy Award nominated Promising Young Woman). Things that the scientific community now know are false that are parroted by religious leaders in this movie are ripped directly from headlines of the last 10 years. At the end of the day, the climax of the movie, the titular duel, is because no one would just believe Marguerite so it must come down to a duel so divine judgement can be dispatched.

The trailers do a great disservice to this movie by making it look like a war movie instead of the intimate character study that it is. It is intriguing that by the time the audience reaches the third act, the audience is forced to realize that both Jean and Jacques are truly terrible people, but there is a clear outcome that needs to happen for the sake of Marguerite because her life hangs in the balance directly tied to her husband’s actions. It is like watching a movie with a sympathetic villain where one understands why they got to this point, but still can point them out as a terrible person who made terrible decisions that are only in their own self-interest. As the story progresses, the audience sees that the duel to Jean is less about what happened to Marguerite and more about how he feels that it is a personal attack against him as a person. It’s easy to see how that happens, even if the decision is horribly self-centered.

This movie is worth a watch, not seeing in an evening screening where a ticket will run almost $20, but it is a good afternoon watch when tickets are cheaper. It should be seen in theaters because there are little nuances in performance that are caught on a close viewing which one is more likely to have at a theater than at home. That said, the action sequences are visually interesting enough and spaced out at an interval designed to make the movie exciting all the way through where even watching it when it comes to home media would be worth a viewer’s time.

Rating: 8/10