Telling the same story from different perspectives is an interesting and effective way of exploring the various truths and fictions in each version of events, however unlike Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's classic In a Grove (and its 1950 adaptation Rashomon), which casts doubts in the reader's mind as to which character's stories, if any, are reliable, The Last Duel tells us in the title card of the third and final chapter that Lady Marguerite's account is the truth.
On the one hand, this is an understandable decision from the filmmakers, as not doing so would have allowed doubt to be cast on the truthfulness of her accusation, which would have likely caused mass criticism and outrage among some regardless of the actual quality of the storytelling (and to be fair, even In a Grove did not cast doubt on the rape aspect of its story despite being published almost 90 years prior to the Me Too movement).
On the other hand, however, this decision does beg the question of why structure the story this way in the first place, since arguably the whole point of showing differing perspectives is to give the audience a thought-provoking mystery as to who to believe (not that it would be much of a mystery even without the title card, as the brilliant acting of Comer and Driver made it pretty clear where the truth lay).
So while it would have been nice to see some faith from the filmmakers in their own storytelling and actors (and the intelligence of their audience), the awkwardness of this decision doesn't detract too much from the film for me to not recommend it.
Set in the 1300's, I appreciated the look of this film. The scale of the shots, the costumes, the grey, drab color palette seemed accurate for the time. What wasn't was the dialect and Ben Affleck. The thing that struck me was the way that all of these squires, knights, whatever, fought for an immature, disinterested king. The way the king was portrayed was funny in an almost too over-the-top way (like Ben Affleck's performance).
Jodie Comer plays Marguerite, a victim of two ruthless men, Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Le Gris (Adam Driver). She's treated in horrific fashion by both men and the actual plight of many women during those times was probably as bad or worse. It was revealing when Carrouges's mother tells Marguerite that she too suffered through a rape but decided to keep silent, which she clearly regrets after seeing Marguerite's brave stance.
One of the real downsides of "The Last Duel" is the way it chooses to tell the story from the viewpoint of each of the three characters mentioned earlier. Each story retells the previous one, even displaying a title screen that tells the viewer who's version of the story is to be told in the forthcoming act. This was a bit too much spoon-feeding for my liking, especially when the title screen indicating Marguerite's version fades out and displays "The Truth". It made the versions told by Carrouges and Le Gris mostly pointless, other than to make you hate their characters perhaps more than if the story had just been told once. We could have easily seen their ruthlessness and cruelty to Marguerite without rehashing the events three different ways. It just seemed like it wanted to point your nose at the correct interpretation. Why bother? It does knock this movie down a couple of notches for that approach.
Last sentence is a spoiler!
The casting in this movie was so weird. I appreciated what the story was trying to do, but the movie was so dull I almost turned it off in the first third before finding out it switches perspectives and deciding to stay for Jodie Comer's turn in the final third.
I love a critique of rape culture and the cishet patriarchy, so kudos for that, but a lot of the dialogue felt as heavy-handed and out of place as most of the actors did, the pacing was too slow and the style of three tellings could've been done more cleverly. I'm torn about the overall delivery - on one hand, I felt it hamfisted; on the other hand, things have to be pretty fucking obvious and in your face nowadays or people will distort or misinterpret the message.
I guess my final thought is that if the movie was really about her story, I wish they could've found a way to center her more in the story. I get why they did it the way the way they did but I think it could've been done better. Still, not mad that it exists.
Extremely happy the lady got to live out the rest of her life without having to deal with any dude's BS again. If she got burned alive over men's nonsense, I was going to fucken riot.
The Last Duel has a Rashomon feel to it where you pretty much have to pick which side is true. Since yes they do come off differently. Sir Jean de Carrouges’ (Matt Damon) wife Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) says she was raped by Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver).
We see Jacques Le Gris version before her’s where she almost comes off more playful with him. He also confesses to a priest that he committed adultery. Since in his mind all women want him so why would it be even close to being rape.
When we see the Marguerite de Carrouges’ version it is sadder and definitely comes across as rape. Where no one is even on her side. With Sir Jean de Carrouges caring more about his honor than anything. As well as her mother in-law saying she shouldn’t have spoken up.
Jacques Le Gris’ side is closer to his ego where it comes off more playful and that she must want him. That all women want him. Sir Jean de Carrouges‘ triggered that Le Gris must have Marguerite. By having Marguerite kiss Le Gris to welcome him there.
The Last Duel is more more people who like a Rashomon like movie than a Gladiator like movie. Despite there being some brutal well shot fights.
Review by FinFanBlockedParentSpoilers2021-12-03T20:20:30Z
The movie is very well made. Everything from the sets to the costumes and the acting is, in typical Ridley Scott matter, flawless.
However the way the story is told is not to my liking. You have about 45-50 mins of content but, due to the multiple perspective way of storytelling, you have to watch it three times. It's a "he said, she said" that in the end isn't proven one way or the other because, let's face it, "God has spoken" and "an honest man can't die" is as stupid as "you can't get pregnant from a rape because if you don't enjoy intercourse you can't get pregnant. That's sience"
And there lies the biggest issue I have - the movie criticizes a whole society for there misogynistic ways but like with the above that was how it was. Women were property just like men could be. Or what do you thing all the folk working for those nobles were ? From our moral point of view this was wrong but pointing a finger back 700 years in time is easy to do.
Well, it's not a political forum here and I think I will attract comments with what I said no matter what.
The actual duel at the end was great, very well filmed, with the instense and brutality you imagine had to be there in a fight for ones honor to the death. But after sitting through more than two hours it wasn't enough to save the movie in my eyes.