By Jake Coyle | Associated press
On its mud and blood surface, “The Last Duel†seems like a familiar chore.
The film, directed by Ridley Scott, begins with all the expected medieval attributes: bloody battlefields, towering stone castles, the slamming of horses. The sky is gray, the ground muddy and, seeing as this film is from the director of “Robin Hood”, “Gladiator” and others muscular. Historic male epics, you think you know exactly what to expect.
But “The Last Duel” is perhaps one of the only films where the director, himself, is some kind of MacGuffin. The film, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is not the story of manly valor that it first appears. “The Last Duel” feels more like a deconstructed medieval tale, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the mythical nobility of the genre are unmasked.
The film, framed as “Rashomon”, is told in three chapters repeated from different angles. The first, which belongs to Jean de Carrouges (Damon), could have been once the only version of “The Last Duel”. In 14th century France, de Carrouges was a loyal and valiant soldier of King Charles VI (a childish ruler played by Alex Lawther) who married a nobleman’s daughter, Marguerite (Jodie Comer). He finds that his agreed dowry, including a beautiful parcel of Normandy, was instead taken in debt collection by Count Pierre d’Alençon (Affleck). He in turn attributes the land to Carrouges’ friend and war companion, Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), infuriating de Carrouges. This begins a break between de Carrouges and Le Gris, as well as with the count, who strongly favors Le Gris. De Carrouges considers himself a good and courageous man, unfairly treated by his superiors. Upon returning from a trip, his wife informs him that she was raped by Le Gris during his absence. De Carrouges swears to bring him to justice.
Even in that simple first section, there are hints of something not quite lining up. First, there are these haircuts. Damon sports a mullet and a half-formed beard that hardly looks trendy in any century, while Affleck has blonde locks cropped that would suit a group of boys better. That they look a little silly may be intentional.
The second section replays the same period as according to Le Gris, and “The Last Duel” becomes more interesting. Here we see De Carrouges as a brash soldier, aggrieved complainant and, well, no fun. He fidgets and rants about the honor as Le Gris and the Earl (Affleck in country splendor) roll their eyes and spend late nights drinking and sleeping women. For Le Gris, his act with Marguerite is daring and rough but motivated by love, and perhaps mutual desire – although certainly not consensual.
Damon and Affleck, who lasted together scripted their escape, “Good Will Hunting,” said they wrote the first two sections and handed the third, of Marguerite’s tale, to Holofcener, the filmmaker of “Enough Said” and “Lovely and Unbelievable.” The film, adapted from Eric Jager’s 2004 non-fiction book About True History, naturally built on this definitive narrative.
But it’s not just the conclusion of a she-said-said drama. The third section is a totally different perspective on the Middle Ages, as we usually see in movies. Comer takes control of the film as it captures Marguerite’s experience of being married into a business transaction, the pressure of giving birth to an heir (something that can only happen, she says, if she also finds pleasure in it. sex with her husband) and her wise management of the castle during De Carrouges’ absence.
Here, “The Last Duel” doesn’t appear so long ago at all. Many of the film’s dueling perspectives – slyly self-aware – spill over into today’s #MeToo struggles. It’s tempting to think that “The Last Duel” should have been nothing but Marguerite’s tale, but the movie’s greatest thrill is seeing Damon, Affleck, and Driver – each playing a bloke, some kind of bloke – progressively take down and even flout their own charms.
“The last duel”
3 out of 4 stars
Evaluation: R (for strong violence, including sexual assault, sexual content, some graphic nudity, and language)
Duration of operation: 152 minutes
