“This is based on a true story” is a phrase that flashes across movie screens several times a year, usually around award season. But never has a movie gotten so much out of its “true story” as “The Last Duel” has.
Taking place in medieval France, the film follows a hotheaded knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), who is the favorite of the powerful Count Pierre d’Alençon (Ben Affleck). While initially friends, de Carrouges challenges his Le Gris to a duel after his wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer) accuses the squire of raping her.
This isn’t a single true story, but a story told in three parts from three perspectives, each of which is believed to be true by its respective storyteller. It’s a well-worn story structure, but I feel as if it works better in a historical context, since history is often vague and contradictory. Like all great historical films, this doesn’t just show you another time and place, but also how it relates to our modern lives.
The characters move and sound like people you might know. Their beliefs are very different from ours, but you understand why they might hold them. Importantly, the issues in their lives are still being grappled with today. These issues include the roles of gender in society and the strange crossroads where property, marriage and sex converge.
During the de Carrouges and Le Gris segments, they speak of honor and justice. They fight in battles across Europe, attend feasts and attempt to boost the status of their families. But from Marguerite’s perspective, things become petty and vain. Both men seem obsessed with how the assault has affected them and bruised their pride. Marguerite has very little agency in the proceedings, only there to be asked invasive questions or doubted by those closest to her. As the climactic duel gets closer, you start to realize that no real justice is going to be served. Men are fools, the truth is fleeting and everyone is the hero of their own story.
That thematic core is powerful, and the movie has many other great aspects, but it’s also incredibly uneven. Despite the budget and technical artistry, the cinematography is unimpressive (think an above-average HBO show). The biggest problems all relate to its editing. Repeating parts of the story to show it from different perspectives is good, but the editors occasionally leave in small, unimportant segments that add nothing with each repeat. Ten minutes could have been cut with no effect.
I also wish they had cut out the start of the third act. After effectively communicating the #MeToo-tinged themes throughout the first half, the movie suddenly begins to panic. Almost as if afraid it hasn’t done a
good enough job, it starts throwing out anachronistic buzzwords and ruining the haunting ambiguity of the earlier chapters. Weirdest of all, it tries to add random bits of black comedy.
The ending is the chief offender here. It nearly closes on a devastating note, with a powerful final shot and implications that would have left me thinking for days … only to reverse course in the last 30 seconds and make a baffling Hail-Mary attempt at a happy ending. It nearly fumbles the goodwill that it had built accrued up to that point. It’s a testament to the movie’s strengths that I ultimately didn’t care.
And speaking of strengths, Scott directs medieval action like he was born to do it. Each battle is short but stunning, aided by incredible sound design and lavish effects that immersed me completely. Horses thunder through the mud, armor clanks and blades sing.
The actual final duel is one of the highlights of Ridley Scott’s career and undoubtedly is one of the best action sequences of the past few years. It’s brutal, with a level of genuine savagery you almost never see on-screen. Scott wisely chose to direct it like a horror/thriller scene and not like a straightforward action scene, and it left me wincing after each exchange. On an emotional level, you get the feeling that everyone involved genuinely believes they’re in the right.
It’s a shame that this enthusiastic recommendation comes with an asterisk, because “The Last Duel” is a movie that everyone should see. After all, a messy but interesting film beats a safe, uninteresting one. With better editing, this could easily be a classic. But for now, it’s just very good. It’s certainly another win for Ridley Scott. I just wish the victory was a little cleaner.
