Review of The Last Duel (2021) by Jimijons — 15 Oct 2021

This is an extremely disappointing outing from Ridley Scott. The set pieces, cinematography, and general aesthetic would all necessarily be great, save for Matt Damon's redneck mullet and Ben Affleck's platinum blonde, 90's boy-band haircut, both looks fitting to the awkward, silly acting portrayed by two American Hollywood stars forcing antiquated French antagonists. Adam Driver and Jodie Comer do much better, offering complexity in their performances despite restrictive and blindingly singular dialogue.

The writing and plot lack all subtlety, outright prescribing fictionalized guilt in the central conflict of the story halfway through the film and tossing out any remote flirtation with moral ambiguity and nuance, two elements that thoroughly pervade the actual circumstances surrounding the real-life 14th century case of the rape of Marguerite de Carrouges, and which would have made the film a thousand times better.

The effect of a multiple-perspective storytelling technique is rendered entirely moot by a text transition screen which literally denotes one perspective, Marguerite's, as "the truth," ironically the single perspective which has the least basis in reality or history, being entirely fictionalized given the lack of a single spoken word or recorded account from Marguerite in the entire real-life case. Worst of all, in an overzealous attempt to decry toxic masculinity and rape culture in a way that resonates with modern #metoo audiences, the writers alter real medieval judicial systems and gender norms and invent make believe ones (i.e. every single scene invoking "rape and pleasure" dialogue) to unnecessarily make those already-harsh times seem far worse and far more uncomfortable in every way. Does any normal, healthy human being want to watch the same long, traumatizing, minutely detailed, over-dramatic rape scene multiple times in the course of a single film? The idea that medieval times were bad for men, worse for women, does not need to be ham-fisted into a film through factual inaccuracies and a visual-auditory simulation of PTSD.

This is a film designed to evoke disgust and anger, not thoughtfulness and conversation. Every male character with any semblance of power is flawed and evil scum, abusing and oppressing every female, regardless of status (save for one internalized-misogynistic step-mother), who are perfect, flawless, and submissive victims. This singularly dystopian vision of the feminist nightmare has, fortunately for reality, never existed. In an utter and cowardly acquiescence to the socio-politico climate of modern Hollywood and an abject disdain for actual history and the culture of Medieval Europe, Damon, Affleck, Nicole Holofcener, and Ridley deliver an entirely modern tale with a distastefully masqueraded 14th-century backdrop that demonizes every man and victimizes every woman.