Everybody has their favorite director or a director who they claim to be as one of the greatest of all time. The most common names you’ll hear are Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and even nowadays you’ll hear throw out the name Christopher Nolan, and there’s weight if one were to claim him as the best. Ridley Scott is a director that justifiably deserves to be in the discussion of one of the best current filmmakers of several generations. From Alien, Gladiator, Blade Runner and Black Hawk Down, Ridley Scott can enhance a style that works for a classical approach and a more modern approach that keeps him evolving as a filmmaker. He’s incredibly versatile with his stories whether it’s set in space, a historical epic or even something more contemporary in the vein of a crime thriller. Ridley Scott is a magnificent filmmaker, however, there was a phase in his career where it seemed as if the true talent of Scott had run its course. Robin Hood was a critical and commercial failure, as was Exodus: Gods and Kings and The Counselor. Depending on where you land, Prometheus, while certainly not a critically panned movie, was still met with divisiveness among the fans, but that was sealed with Alien: Covenant that pretty much killed the potential for Ridley Scott to make more Alien prequels. He certainly brought back his mojo when he made The Martian, which became a huge box-office hit and even earned some high praise at various awards shows. But with each passing year, he’s getting older and older and usually directors of his age move on to different projects, particularly ones that don’t require much, depending on what the genre is. However, Ridley Scott is one of the very few filmmakers that can still put two movies a year and regardless of the quality, that’s a huge accomplishment for a director who’s been working since the 1970s. He may have had recent “falling out” for some, but The Last Duel, being a genre that Ridley Scott is tailored made for, Ridley Scott hasn’t lost his touch. The Last Duel is the best Ridley Scott movie since Gladiator. It captures the brute force and the excessive violence of the medieval sword epic, but displays a stronger layer is with its powerful themes of betrayal and adultery in ways that are stunning. The performances from the entire cast are exceptional and give credit to their work, but Jodie Comer delivers a performance that will be unforgettable.
Based on a true story and based on a 2004 novel written by Eric Jager, The Last Duel tells the story of a woman, Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer), who claims that she has been sexually assaulted by her husbands best friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). Her husband and knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), challenges Jacques to a duel to death, that is the last legally sanctioned duel in all of France’s history. The events that take place before the duel commences are told in three different segments from our three main leads with the first two being the perspective from Jean de Carrouges, the second being from Jacques Le Gris and the last one being the perspective from Marguerite.
Like every Ridley Scott movie, The Last Duel is absolutely stunning. Teaming up with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (who’s worked on numerous of projects with Ridley Scott), the movie is a wonderful sight to behold from beginning to end. Knowing that Scott has done his fair share of historical medieval epics, the colors and visuals in the movie represent a more cruel and haunting level of atmosphere that doesn’t usually get attention in these types of movies. Knowing how strong of a collaboration they’ve had, Scott and Wolski understand just how important the color and visuals aesthetics enhances the movies tone, thereby giving it that sense of dreariness and effective atmosphere. Scott is also very famous for capturing some incredible battles, whether it’s soldiers colliding into to one another or even in close ups when soldiers slice through a foe after foe. The violence, while furiously graphic and remorseless, speaks well with the direction that Scott wanted the movie to go. Ridley Scott wanted to tell a swords and sandals movie that dives way more into the issues of warfare. We see soldiers coming home from battle covered in blood, sweat and snot, as they devour all the food that the townsfolk provided for them. It’s this refreshing and neat aspect that movie offers that made it potent. Ridley Scott also had a lot of focus on women’s roles and how much they felt non-existent in a time where they never had any opportunities. It’s not for the faint of heart, but The Last Duel main focus is a powerful and timeless topic that will make audiences squeamish and maybe turn the other cheek (depending on certain sequences), but will makes audiences see how much progression women have had over the vast course of history.
Now that we’re officially in Oscar season, The Last Duel deserves the most attention (as of this point in time). Obviously, the production design and especially the quality on the costumes are all exquisite and should get some Oscar nominations in sone various technical categories, but the performances from the entire cast are all exceptional. It up for debate, but Adam Driver is, arguably, the best actor of our generation. The man can do the big studio tentpole movies but can dial it back in smaller projects. He gives a stupendous performance in this film and the duality he shares with Matt Damon is a unique ingredient in the movie. Matt Damon is usually always on his game in almost every movie he’s in and he delivers a solid performance. The relationship he shares with Adam Driver is a prevailing dynamic that explores the ideas of disloyalty, when knights are supposed to be loyal and honorable. So when we get to the duel itself, it’s this marvelous and heart-pounding one on one that showcases the true colors of each character and it displays just how destructive they can be when put in battle. Ben Affleck, who’s in the movie more than some might say, is an absolute delight due to the fact that it’s not a role we’ve seen him tackle before. It’s playful, witty and it speaks high volumes to how talented of an actor he really is. Jodie Comer is the one performance that people will be talking about the most about from this movie. Comer gives a performance that will be ageless and will be held as a generational performance and what’s unique about Jodie Comer in this movie os that she’s a relatively new actress. Other than Free Guy, Jodie Comer is still in the early stages of her acting career in Hollywood. We were impressed with her performance in Free Guy, but it’s her performance in The Last Duel will reference just how unbelievably proficient of an actress she is.
Ridley Scott is 83 years old and he’s still making movies like this that require way more than some might think. It proves that he still hasn’t lost his touch and it proves that can still create a monumental film experience. Hopefully this movie makes it’s way down the halls of Oscar contention for next years ceremony because it’s checks off everything that a great Oscar movie needs to have.
My grade for The Last Duel: A
Zane's take at the Cinema's 