WHO SAYS CHIVALRY IS DEAD? NOT THIS LOT...
The Last Duel (18, 152 mins)
Verdict: Great Scott on form ★ ★ ★ ★✩
THE first feature film directed by Ridley Scott was 1977’s The Duellists, set in Napoleonic France. Now he brings us The Last Duel, also set in France.
The two films would make neat bookends to an illustrious career, were it not for the fact that Ridley still has plenty left in the tank.
His next release is a lavish crime drama, House Of Gucci, with Napoleon himself the subject of the one after that — and then he plans to make a sequel to his 2000 hit Gladiator. He’ll be 84 next birthday, by the way.
Still, however long he goes on for, it’s probably fair to call The Last Duel a late-era Ridley Scott picture, as sumptuous to look at as so many of those that came before and with the same meticulous attention to detail. Scott’s critics might also note a characteristic narrative slog (not for nothing was his 1982 film Blade Runner nicknamed ‘Blade Crawler’). But those of us more inclined to be generous think of him as a master-craftsman, who builds a story carefully from the foundations up, then blows the roof off.
So it is here. The Last Duel is set in 14th-century Normandy but filmed in Ireland — and the reason we had Matt Damon in lockdown one — and tells a true story. On returning home from his latest battle, a knight, Jean de Carrouges (Damon), is told by his wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer) that while he was away, she was raped by his friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). Carrouges duly challenges Le Gris to trial by combat, although to defend his own honour rather than that of his wife. Medieval Europe was not known for enlightenment towards women and indeed the crime of which Le Gris was accused was not sexual assault but property theft.
The film’s title refers to the episode’s enduring historical relevance; it was the last judicial duel sanctioned by the French crown Whoever survives will be deemed to be telling the truth. Conversely, God will damn as a liar and perjurer whichever man dies.
The screenplay, an adaptation of a 2004 book by an American academic, is by Damon and Ben Affleck, in collaboration with Nicole Holofcener, whose last writing credit was the absorbing 2018 film Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Affleck plays Count Pierre d’Alencon, a louche nobleman who makes a favourite of the charismatic Le Gris and does not conceal his distaste for the austere, unlovable Carrouges. As it builds to the climactic duel, the film is divided in three, telling the same story from the contrasting viewpoints of the principals: in order, Carrouges, Le Gris and Marguerite.
This device effectively gives us two witness statements for the prosecution and one for the defence. It’s very adroitly handled but demands quite a lot of the watching audience.
You need to be sharp-eyed to spot the different ways in which the same thing happens, even down to a pair of shoes being discarded, according to whose perspective is being cast over events. It’s a difficult story to tell concisely, and Scott makes no conspicuous attempt to do so. But a hefty running time of two and a half hours enables him to indulge his passion for spectacle and to go to town on the all-important fight to the death, which is magnificently done.
THE casting is terrific, too, with notably classy support acts such as Harriet Walter, Nathaniel Parker, and, as a hilariously insubstantial King Charles VI, Alex Lawther.
But the leads are especially good. Damon is so convincing he even distracts us from his character’s nasty facial scarring and the worst haircut I’ve seen since the 1976/77 football season, while I always think that Driver suits period drama like few other actors. He has a face that could belong to any century.
As for Comer, she continues her spectacular ascent to stardom, which began with the TV drama Killing Eve. In the company of two major movie stars, she looks right at home.