Ridley Scott
The Last Duel

There is something off about this Ridley Scott. The setup is sophisticated, full of details, very worked upon and well constructed both in terms of sets and concepts it conveys. But in the end, the message it unravels is so banal and obvious that one wonders: was all this grandiosity necessary?

Let me explain better. The film recounts the same events three times from the perspective of the three protagonists. The squire, then knight, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), his friend-enemy Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), and the former’s wife, Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer). The events unfold around feudal matters, promised and taken land ownership, battles, and internal hatreds in 14th-century France, finally reaching the heart of the conflicts: the rape (or alleged rape) of Le Gris against Lady Marguerite.

Each viewpoint implies a different "editing" of memories, a different nuance in vision, a different selection of statements made. Various silences, multifaceted snippets that each time exclude what each of the three does not wish to remember. It’s a nice exercise in narratology, but all in all, I would say the mountain has labored and brought forth a mouse. What do two and a half hours of film tell us? That the gruff knight believes himself to be a hero and a gentleman to his wife, while she quite poorly experiences all the events of their marriage, suffering from every gesture and every harsh word from the knight returning from the battlefield. In short, the main thesis identifies the two men as brutes, or thereabouts.

An interesting idea, then, but ultimately it applies to rather coarse and childish dichotomies. The rape, which is the central event, is experienced as a game or almost by the man, a relentless womanizer, while for the victim it is a tragedy. We could have guessed this; there’s nothing particularly new in this contemporary reading of medieval customs. The attempt is commendable, but I do not feel greatly enriched by this triple perspective. Furthermore, the curiosity effect only applies to certain segments of the story.

The visual component is highly appreciable, the castles, the dark rooms often lit only by the fire from the fireplace. The final duel is extraordinary. Less successful are the secondary characters, like the acidic mother of de Carrouges and the terrible Count Pierre by Ben Affleck. The protagonists themselves do not stand out; they are rather generic paradigms, but Adam Driver's performance remains memorable, confirming an incredible, uncommon charisma.