The Last Duel (2021)
Directed by Ridley Scott
King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges settle his dispute with his squire, Jacques Le Gris, by challenging him to a duel.
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What critics say influenced The Last Duel
…using what film buffs would call a Rashomon structure, named after the Japanese film best known for the now-familiar device of replaying the same events from different perspectives.
Ese cartel es, definitivamente, lo contrario a Rashomon.
…by employing a Rashomon-inspired approach to developing the narrative…
While Jager’s book leaves no ambiguity about what befell Marguerite de Carrouges, the film takes a Rashômon–style consideration.
…the film follows a Rashomon/The Handmaiden look at a single event, the rape of Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) by accused attacker Jacques Le Gris (Driver)…
The Last Duel takes the Rashomon route of telling the story from three different points of view…
For decades, the gold standard for gory, accurate recreations of Medieval hand-to-hand combat have been Orson Welles’ “Chimes at Midnight,” which inspired Mel Gibson’s even more brutal and bloodier “Braveheart,” and Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran.”
I remember the rush of the Germania battle sequence in the opening scene of Gladiator, with the horses galloping and soldiers clashing into each other on muddy grounds with swords/axes clanging.
The marketing presents The Last Duel as a sweeping, epic story perhaps akin to Gladiator, easily for me Scott’s best film in the last 20 years.
The Last Duel is at its best when Scott fully leans into the arena spectacle that skyrocketed his 2000 Oscar-winning cornucopia Gladiator to the open arms of crowds and critics alike.
If you like this, try: “Gladiator”…
The Last Duel is the anti-Gladiator.
His latest fits snugly in his filmography alongside "Gladiator," "Kingdom of Heaven," and 2010's underappreciated "Robin Hood"…
Scott is returning the sense of honor among warriors and designated battles to the death that made his debut film, “The Duellists” (1977) so riveting.
Ridley Scott’s debut feature was The Duellists, a remarkable film that put the ad-man into the box seat when it comes to Hollywood…
It’s not his last film, but there would be a certain enjoyable symmetry in his feature-making career beginning with 1977’s The Duellists and ending with The Last Duel.
Scott’s first feature was “The Duellists” (1977), a fine film that’s little remembered because Scott’s next feature was something called “Alien” (1979).
Revisiting the topic of honor by judicial duel offered in The Duellists (1977) - his debut feature…
Scott likes to highlight the hand-to-hand combat in which humans engage, starting back with his debut, The Duelists.
Also, since “The Last Duel” is largely a drama about rape and the despicable way men and society at large blame the victim, it also taps into the themes in Scott’s now-30-years-old “Thelma & Louise.”
More accurately the film The Last Duel feels connected with his is Thelma & Louise, which was about the friendship of two women, one raped, the other wielding the hand of justice, while surrounded by a cavalcade of men that display the various characteristics that make us the lesser sex.
Blending his lavish but gritty historical epics like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven with the sorta-high-concept pop feminism of G.I. Jane or Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel manages to be an excellent synthesis of his stylistic and narrative tics, with rousing action beats peppered throughout period drama that’s tinged with modern sensibilities and bleak humor.
While Thelma and Louise brought visual splendour to Callie Khouri’s Oscar-winning script about two women finding a road of their own in the wake of sexual assault, The Last Duel instead gets bogged down in the mud and blood of its period milieu…
Combine "Gladiator" with "Thelma & Louise" and you’ve got a sense of Ridley Scott’s new medieval epic "The Last Duel."
It also brings Scott back to Thelma and Louise, a road movie that also pivots on rape, sending two women on the run from the authorities—and, by implication, from the world of violent, domineering men.
Scott films the duel with frank violence, not unlike Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven, and audience bloodlust is more palpable because of how Marguerite’s desperation informs the action.
…if this film represents Scott making amends for the theatrical release of Kingdom of Heaven – an uncompromising period epic where sexism, politics, and proto-capitalism combine to soak medieval battlefields in blood…
His latest fits snugly in his filmography alongside "Gladiator," "Kingdom of Heaven," and 2010's underappreciated "Robin Hood"…
Blending his lavish but gritty historical epics like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven with the sorta-high-concept pop feminism of G.I. Jane or Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel manages to be an excellent synthesis of his stylistic and narrative tics, with rousing action beats peppered throughout period drama that’s tinged with modern sensibilities and bleak humor.
…when it isn’t paired with, say, the dynamism of something like the fiery Jerusalem of Kingdom of Heaven…
The cold clang of weapons rings through films as varied Gladiator, Legend, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
The looks of the movie resembles to Scott’s 2010 Robin Hood with the steel gray tones that evokes a moody, atmospheric but also downright miserable feeling.
His latest fits snugly in his filmography alongside "Gladiator," "Kingdom of Heaven," and 2010's underappreciated "Robin Hood" (I'll happily die on the hill defending that one).
The cold clang of weapons rings through films as varied Gladiator, Legend, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Shot digitally, it looks less composed than Robin Hood, which at least had the benefit of the texture of film grain…
Both Robin Hood and Exodus: Gods and Kings presented the same immersive scale without developing a substantive core to invest in.
Ridley Scott loves his historical dramas: from Gladiator to Kingdom of Heaven, to even his stony faced Robin Hood…
Like Blade Runner (1982), Scott gives viewers a living city, not just a sterile background.
…revolutionized the science-fiction genre with Alien and Blade Runner…
…or Harrison Ford did in Blade Runner – two of Scott’s best films, of course.
Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Blade Runner)…
Ridley Scott, the man behind some of the most famous films of all time – Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and of course that Hovis commercial – has solidified himself as one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time.
Alien and Blade Runner were just around the corner.
Blending his lavish but gritty historical epics like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven with the sorta-high-concept pop feminism of G.I. Jane or Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel manages to be an excellent synthesis of his stylistic and narrative tics, with rousing action beats peppered throughout period drama that’s tinged with modern sensibilities and bleak humor.
Scott has had no shortage of strong female characters, Ripley in Alien, Thelma and Louise and even GI Jane, but giving over The Last Duel’s climax to a female POV is quite a gamble when playing with the historical epic genre which is traditionally a male dominated one.
Populist Ridley gave us Gladiator and Thelma & Louise but also G.I. Jane and White Squall…
…before he ever made "Gladiator," Scott helmed both "G.I. Jane" and "Thelma & Louise."
But remember Ridley Scott has also pioneered great female leads, from “Alien” to “Thelma & Louise” and “G.I. Jane.”
…el director de ‘La teniente O'Neil’, con la ayuda de la guionista Callie Khouri, ya planteó un comentario sobre la cultura de la violación en la seminal ‘Thelma & Louise’…
But, with Comer’s Lady Marguerite, Scott is also presenting a strong, complex female character — something he’s done with Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in “Alien” as well as Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in “Thelma and Louise.”
…revolutionized the science-fiction genre with Alien…
The same guy who gave us Alien and Blade Runner also is among the best at brutal medieval period pieces.
Ridley Scott, the man behind some of the most famous films of all time – Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and of course that Hovis commercial – has solidified himself as one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time.
…the prolific director behind successes such as Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator.
Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Blade Runner)…
The cold clang of weapons rings through films as varied Gladiator, Legend, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
We are far from something like Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014) took a lot of heat for casting Caucasian actors as Egyptians…
What’s Ridley Scott’s best historical movie?
The Duellists (1977)
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)
Gladiator (2000)
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Robin Hood (2010)
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)…
The Last Duel is hardly new territory for Scott, whose fondness for stepping out of time reaches as far into the future (Blade Runner, Alien, Prometheus) as it does into the past (Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, Robin Hood, Exodus: Gods and Kings).
Both Robin Hood and Exodus: Gods and Kings presented the same immersive scale without developing a substantive core to invest in.
Scott films the duel with frank violence, not unlike Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven, and audience bloodlust is more palpable because of how Marguerite’s desperation informs the action.
…he would surprise us with a Thelma & Louise or a Black Hawk Down…
Black Hawk Down is a rousing, Cubist war movie…
Scott’s gift for staging violent historical spectacle, so memorably displayed in Gladiator andBlack Hawk Down, is on full display in the bone-crunching and genuinely suspenseful mounted battle that ends the movie.
If the forthcoming "House of Gucci" is even close to this compelling, this will prove to have been Scott's best year in decades.
Like the book used as the basis for Scott’s other 2021 movie, House of Gucci, this tome, too, prides itself on offering up scandal through a historical, “scholarly” lens.
Honestly, I prefer this Scott to the director who gives outsized theatrics like this than stuff like All the Money in the World or his upcoming House of Gucci.
It remains to be seen which of his female-led powerhouse films — House of Gucci or The Last Duel — will prevail.
Ridley Scott, 83, alongside this and ‘House of Gucci’ next month is captaining two consecutive big-budget, studio films with period settings.
The spry and spirited 83-year-old is ending the year with two star-studded features, "House of Gucci" (coming next month) and this one, "The Last Duel."
The cold clang of weapons rings through films as varied Gladiator, Legend, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
…for every classic such as Alien or Blade Runner there are commercially and critically disappointing follow ups such as Legend and Someone to Watch Over Me.
Even the more recent The Martian, despite it being a return to sci-fi, was surprisingly a breath of fresh air for its handling of tone and pro-science storytelling.
…continuing the upward trajectory Scott has found himself on post-The Martian (Alien: Covenant not included).
Matt Damon’s (Good Will Hunting, The Martian)…
…with The Martian being his David Lean…
Scott seems to be his most focused since 2015’s The Martian…
…who teams again with Damon (THE MARTIAN) for a riveting big screen…
However, the very last scene brings another Scott film to mind: “Matchstick Men” (2003), a near perfect film that, nevertheless, Scott marred by forcing a last-minute happy ending on a story that didn’t need one.
…with as much flexibility and alacrity as slicker, more irreverent works like Matchstick Men…
…or the over-the-top focus on gore of Game of Thrones…
Much like Game of Thrones, the rape in The Last Duel, the core story point, is centered on the men.
Game of Thrones watchers will no doubt recall the trial by combat wherein Tyrion elected the Red Viper to square off against the hulking Mountain as a last ditch effort to prove his innocence.
There’s even some softcore lesbian trysting going on in the background to keep the Game of Thrones fans happy.
At times, it’s like watching “A Man for All Seasons” meets “Game of Thrones” with a soupçon of Monty Python.
“¡Exijo un juicio por combate!” Ese apasionado grito dado por Peter Dinklage en Game of Thrones se convirtió rápidamente en un meme del internet, luego que su Tyrion Lannister entendiera que no tendría justicia por la vía regular.
…getting the tone exactly right, something that's especially crucial when the spectre of Monty Python and the Holy Grail looms large in every scene (it's full of French taunters, for example)…
Alehouses ring to the clatter of tankards while Pythonesque minstrels lurk in the shadows.
As for the last duel itself, it is so extended it does put you in mind of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (‘’Tis but a scratch.’ ‘A scratch? Your arm’s off!’)
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It’s basically “Rashomon” meets “The Nightingale,” with a dash of “Chimes at Midnight” thrown in for good measure.
For decades, the gold standard for gory, accurate recreations of Medieval hand-to-hand combat have been Orson Welles’ “Chimes at Midnight,” which inspired Mel Gibson’s even more brutal and bloodier “Braveheart,” and Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran.”
The Last Duel shares more DNA with movies like Gone Girl or The Handmaiden than it does with films like Braveheart, Gladiator, or Troy.
…the film follows a Rashomon/The Handmaiden look at a single event, the rape of Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) by accused attacker Jacques Le Gris (Driver)…
…an exquisite The Handmaiden-like script that shows a series of tragic events told from three different perspectives…
Affleck nearly steals the movie by turning Pierre into a droll, preening, orgy-loving medieval Regina George.
Driver is utterly captivating in a role that calls to mind Alan Rickman’s seductive take on the Sheriff of Nottingham…
Driver giving shades of Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham with his all-black outfits and sweeping mane of hair, as he chases women around the room…
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The Last Duel shares more DNA with movies like Gone Girl or The Handmaiden than it does with films like Braveheart, Gladiator, or Troy.
Simply put, not since Gone Girl has someone cast Affleck so divinely.
…or, if we’re speaking Affleck-ese, Gone Girl…
Ben Affleck, of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Gone Girl…
…grinning and mincing beneath a bottle-blond dye job and leading with what Gone Girl memorably inscribed as his “villainous chin,” Affleck is an actor with his eye on the prize (and he has my vote).
It treads a path paved by sharp, topical comments on class as well as gender inequality, fuelled by the kind of empathy sorely lacking from Last Night in Soho, another recent male-directed picture about female trauma.
Hay pruebas de ello en una obra irregular como ‘Spencer’ de Pablo Larraín, así como en obras mayores como ‘Last Night in Soho’ de Edgar Wright y ahora ‘El último duelo’ de Scott.