Film review: Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is great cinema

First off: you won’t find any spoilers here. I’m not going to talk about anything that isn’t mentioned in the trailers.

Legendary director Ridley Scott takes us back to a gloomy chapter in human history. One where chivalry, honour and duty are in the eye of the beholder. The male beholder, that is.

The absorbing story, which is based on true events, centres on a woman who fights to tell the truth in 14th-century France. Her truth.

A truth that no-one wants to hear.

The plot

France, 1380. Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) is a hot-tempered knight loyal to the king. He has fought many battles and defied death alongside brother in arms and ladies’ man Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). Through it all, they have built a strong friendship.

A friendship that’s now falling apart. While educated and charming Le Gris rises through the ranks and is gifted titles and lands thanks to the favour of Count Pierre de Alençon (Ben Affleck), Carrouge is denied. Finally, Carrouge finds happiness with wife Marguerite de Thibouville (Jodie Comer).

Then the unthinkable happens. While Carrouge is away, Marguerite is raped by Le Gris in her own castle. When Carrouge finds out, he’s enraged and his pride is hurt, and he suspects that no French law would accept his wife’s evidence. After all, there is no evidence. And, anyway, who would believe a woman?

Carrouge is grasping at straws. He makes a bold request at the Parisian court – and it’s granted. A duel – a trial by ordeal – the last sanctioned by the French state, is set to decide which man was telling the truth in the eyes of the Almighty.

More arthouse than Hollywood

The story that screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck tell has an arthouse cinema feel. This isn’t a classic three-act story with a beginning, a middle and an end. There’s much more to it than three chapters. Each one tells the same story from a different perspective –

the accuser’s, the defender’s and the victim’s.

«The Last Duel» is actually less classic Hollywood storytelling and more a collection of three testimonies at the cinema, which serves as a symbolic witness stand. Fittingly, each chapter begins with the words «The Truth According to…»

That’s exactly what I mean by arthouse. «The Last Duel» is different. Unusual. Less clumsy.

It’s clever. It leaves scope. It’s not clear who’s telling the truth. And that creates tension. Damon and Affleck are also not lazy with the script. They’re not three completely different stories where the roles of protagonist, antagonist and victim depend on the person telling them. It’s never clearly defined who the hero and villain are, what’s black and what’s white.

It’s more that there are small nuances that separate the perspectives – and with them the whole world. An example is the conciliatory words between two disputing parties in person A’s story, which are different to those in person B’s account. These small details change the characterisation. And with it the credibility of each «truth».

Small details like these would be easy to leave out, but they challenge us as viewers and don’t take us for idiots. It’s another argument for arthouse rather than Hollywood.

#MeToo in the Middle Ages – does it work?

However, the most impressive thing about «The Last Duel» is that it doesn’t lose the feeling of disgust and horror, even in small moments of triumph. Not because of Ridley Scott’s signature explicit depiction of violence – I’m used to that. It’s much more because of its surprising topicality.

I can already hear sceptics moaning:«#MeToo in the Middle Ages? I don’t need to see that at the cinema too.»

It doesn’t seem to be a issue for Scott. In «Kingdom of Heaven,» whose director’s cut is some of his best work, the Brit attempted to capture the zeitgeist: he set contemporary news – the Middle East conflict that was growing at the time – in the context of the story.

«And you think we’re long past this,» he seems to say, with one eye on the unspeakable crusades of the Middle Ages, whose conflicts are still raging thousands of years later.

While «Kingdom of Heaven» is only loosely based on the story of the crusader Balian of Ibelin, «The Last Duel» is a remarkably accurate and pointed account of perhaps the first recorded #MeToo moment in history.

Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Larry Nassar = Jacques Le Gris. They’re all men who have been charged with sexual assault. They were all able to hide their heinous actions for years. Not because they were especially good at it. More because, for a long time, our male-dominated society didn’t want to see it.

The exact same thing happens to Marguerite de Thibouville in the film. While the men dominate the story early on, it gradually becomes abundantly clear who’s playing the real title role. She faces a huge challenge to be heard on her own. Everything’s against her. She’s rarely believed. And even if she is, it’s always accompanied by the threat: «and woe betide you if you're lying». The consequences would be draconian punishments of almost unimaginable horror.

Inevitably, she starts to wonder whether staying silent would be better. It would be simpler. Less dangerous. Which leads me to ask: how desperate must you be when shame and humiliation seem to be better alternatives than defending yourself?

How can society – medieval or not – allow it?

Actor Jodie Comer – who starred in «Stranger Things» and «Free Guy» – gives an incredibly intense and unexpectedly mature performance as Marguerite. When she suffered, I suffered with her. I found myself clenching my fists multiple times. I would love to blame the greedy rulers and fanatical religious figures of the antiquated Middle Ages, only to realise that Marguerite’s drama is more current than ever.

Cosby, Weinstein, Nassar…I feel guilty.

«And you think we’re long past this.»

Scott’s solid direction

Ridley Scott’s directing is typically subdued but purposeful. I don’t mean that as a criticism at all. Each and every shot is a feast for the eyes, creating a mini masterpiece. It’s what Scott does.

Take his signature long shots – especially in the initial scenes – where he establishes a world which is just as imposing and opulent as one in a Denis Villeneuve film. There’s also Scott’s love of detail in the small scenes where dirt, grime and decay capture the gloomy Middle Ages, where every day is a new fight for survival.

But, at the end, Scott sheds his composure once again for the deciding duel between Matt Damon’s Carrouge and Adam Driver’s Le Gris. It’s a duel that doesn’t disappoint in atmosphere, tension or resolution.

It’s never clear who has the upper hand. Not really. Whoever seems to be winning loses their advantage a second later only to regain it – and so it goes on. Sometimes the opponents face each other on horseback. Sometimes with shields and axes. Sometimes with their bare hands. It’s virtually impossible to predict who will eventually win. The battle is thrilling and agonising in equal measure.

There’s no question: Scott knows his craft, even if it’s just a beautiful sequence of images in some of his films. This is only a problem if the script falls flat, like in «Prometheus» or the awful, unnecessarily demystifying «Robin Hood».

«The Last Duell» definitely doesn’t have this problem.

Verdict: great cinema

«The Last Duel» is far more arthouse than Hollywood. Primarily because of its unusual narrative structure, which tells the story three times from different perspectives.

Its message is clear: even when it comes to sexual assault, men always have the leading role. Cosby and Epstein epitomise this. Who remembers the names of their victims?

Matt Damon’s Carrouge and Adam Driver’s Le Gris spend much of «The Last Duel» inflating their egos. But then the film switches its focus to the true main character: the woman – Jodie Comer's Marguerite – and strikes a huge emotional blow to a limited world view. It’s a wake-up call, so to speak. Ultimately, she’s the victim.

And, at its heart, «The Last Duel» is her story – as demonstrated by the final shot.

«The Last Duel» is available in cinemas from 14 October. Runtime: 153 minutes.