Review #4 THE LAST DUEL (2021, Ridley Scott)

 * * * 

Two knight-type chaps have themselves a fight to the death after the wife of one accuses the other of rape; we're shown three different perspectives of what happened.

Starring  Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck 

Written by  Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon

Produced by  Ridley Scott, Kevin J Walsh, Jennifer Fox, Nicole Holofcener, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck

Duration  152 minutes

Ridley does RASHOMON ...

Look, I’m just going to come out and say it: Ridley Scott is the most overrated director in the history of motion pictures.

So the three that everyone goes on about are:

– ALIEN: A great film, obviously, but I like it less each time someone erroneously tells me that it’s superior to ALIENS.

– BLADE RUNNER: But, but… it looks so nice! Oh, wow, yes it looks nice. And it has atmosphere! Mmm, atmosphere, right. Beyond that… not much to latch onto really, especially considering the source material is one of Philip K Dick’s very best.

– GLADIATOR: I remember thinking that this Russell Crowe from LA CONFIDENTIAL and THE INSIDER is now a proper movie star. Never for a moment did I imagine that the film itself, a fun but insubstantial swords-and-sandals romp, would be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, let alone win the bloody thing.

The rest of Scott's films fall into one of the following categories:

– Intriguing premises that don't turn into engaging films: ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, HOUSE OF GUCCI, ROBIN HOOD.

– Dull and pretentious: HANNIBAL, THE DUELLISTS, PROMETHEUS, ALIEN: COVENANT.

– Fun genre exercises, minus the fun: LEGEND, BLACK RAIN, BODY OF LIES, THE COUNSELLOR.

– Boring ‘epics’: EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE.

– Totally forgettable and now totally forgotten: WHITE SQUALL, GI JANE, A GOOD YEAR, AMERICAN GANGSTER, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME.

To be fair, you can’t go wrong with THELMA & LOUISE, although that succeeds due to the strength of the screenplay and performances; ditto MATCHSTICK MEN. And even I can't deny that BLACK HAWK DOWN is a top-notch modern warfare flick. And THE MARTIAN is OK.

But overall, the scales are heavily tilted in one direction. The main problem is that Scott clearly doesn’t care much about the screenplays that land on his desk, beyond their aesthetic possibilities and figuring out how he's gonna move the people on screen from one flashy sequence to the next. It’s like he’s been given a script written in a language that he doesn’t speak and just goes through the pages shooting it anyway. Maybe it’s a former ad director thing: David Fincher has said that he’s not interested in what's being said, only the images, and that the words could be anything.

So alright then, what about THE LAST DUEL?

Well … it’s good! I mean, by Ridley’s standards anyway. I wasn’t sure about Adam Driver as an irresistible ladies’ man and Matt Damon lets his beard do most of the acting. But Ben Affleck is fun, dropping C-bombs in a crowd-pleasing performance reminiscent of his enjoyably vainglorious turn in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. Jodie Comer rounds out the cast with a sensitive and engrossing turn, eclipsing her bigger-name co-stars.

The GOOD WILL HUNTING buddies collaborated on the script with Nicole Holofcener, each tackling one third of its same-event-from-a-different-perspective structure. And since he makes this one of the rare occasions where he prioritises the writing, rather than lingering on big impressive sets or sword-flinging battles while forgetting about tiny elements like ‘drama’ and ‘narrative’, Ridders manages to deliver something that holds the attention for its two-and-a-half-hours.

I was particularly impressed at how the movie touches upon a lot of contemporary questions about consent, gender equality and male entitlement without being anachronistic or overly political. I guess you could say that it completes Sir Ridley’s feminist trilogy, after THELMA & LOUISE and GI JANE.

Not bad for an 84-year-old codger from South Shields. Still a pity about the batting average, though.

Three stars out of five.

Valid use of the word ‘last’?  The whole thing is based on a true story, and the duel in question was apparently the last officially recognised one in France, so good job on the old historical accuracy everyone. Maybe more came later in other countries, but I guess there isn’t an IMDb for duels, so who knows. (Also: who cares.)

What would a movie called THE FIRST DUEL be about?  These little tiffs tended to be over ‘matters of honour’, so it would probably just be two blokes squabbling because one copied the other’s chainmail pattern or something. Calling Sir Ridders, we need your tedious touch! 

Previously:  THE LAST AIRBENDER

Next time:  PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH

Check out my books:  Jonathanlastauthor.com