The Last Duel ( 2021)

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Am I the first of les garcons at les filles de CaB to see this on le grande screen, then? Yes, we go back to Medieval France where no one speaks Medieval French, but there's anachronistic dialogue aplenty ( probably deliberately so), Matt Damon gives a pretty good mulletperformance, Ben Affleck seems to be playing it for laughs and has his hair dyed a lovely shade of Medieval Blonde, the lad out of " The End Of The Fucking World" continues to show what a superlative actor he is in the slightly too- small part of King Chalres VI ( which he seems to have prepared for by watching Hugh Laurie's Prince Regent performance in Blackadder Two, still a good performance though), everything looks very authentic and pretty ( some top castles in this film , lads), and I was glad to be reminded of Prefab Sprouts debut single by the opening caption

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was a bit discomfited by one of the pivotal scenes as recounted by Adam Driver Le Bad Guy, in which I was reminded of Susan George's performance with Matey Boy out of " Murphy's Mob" in that scene from " Straw Dogs", but this gets put right by some excellent acting in Chapter Three by Lady HWPV. Hurrah! The denoument is somewhat Hollywood Action Fight Scene in 13th Centiury Fucking France, and the endings a bit rushed, but Lady HWPV keeps up the top acting, and only reminds you a little bit of Villanelle with some face pulling, having Harriet Walter as her Mum In Law doesnae help in trying to put Villanelle out of your mind, btw, and the film draws to a satisfying close. More so than " Free Guy", anyways.

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Oh, and

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COMER FOR THE OSCAR ( OR AT LEAST A NOMINATION)!

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[Alberon]

How does duel in The Last Duel play out?

I read the non-fiction book this is based on and the fight

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was actually such a squalid and pathetic affair that it seemed to puncture what romantic myth iduels had left.

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[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

As Duel films go, I would rate it above Steven Spielberg's debut mainly because I have never massively fancied Dennis Weaver.

[Shit Good Nose]

Would like to hear the thoughts of someone who doesn't have a stalker-y obsession with vested interest in it.


Some of the reviews I've read make it sound REALLY stupid and a bit lame, but everyone seems to love it and I can't make out whether it's ironic love or not.

[13 schoolyards]

It's not bad on a surface level but once you think about it in a 2021 way the first two thirds of the film are pretty pointless story-wise.

Like, you can imagine 30 years ago a version of this being made where they made a big deal of "oh the men used to be best friends but this rape accusation was the final straw that destroyed their manly bond, what a tragedy" and Driver's character supposedly being in love with his former mate's wife would be a big deal and the story was constructed in such a way that you left the cinema going "well, who do YOU think was telling the truth", but today? None of that stuff would fly and the film (rightly I think) ignores it - her side of things is 100% presented as the truth and both the guys (plus Affleck's comedy count, who is a highlight) are clearly twats.

Unfortunately that means their versions of events are pretty pointless because who gives a shit what they have to say for themselves? She's the victim here. It's actually pretty impressive that a film as full of fights and orgies as this one comes off as fairly forgettable, but fair play to Scott, the final fight is decent in a dragged-out lethal slog fashion and he does a good job of

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making you feel bad that a rapist is brutally murdered for the crime of being a rapist

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[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

That scene comprising that clip what gets shown on the telly, in which Lady HWPV has a right old go at Matt Damon in that Posho Southern English, Not Medieval French, Accent that she likes doing ( you can tell), in which she says " You might have told me what'd happen to me if you lose this duel, Mullet Boy! I'm in dead lumber if you get mortally knacked! And what about our kid, eh? Oooh, I'm not best chuffed with you!" actually comes fairly late on in the film, after all three chapters have been told. I dunno if this is too spoilery, but once it's  been established what could happen to Lady HWPV , it's incredibly obvious how the film's going to end,  so then it's just a matter of getting the eponymous duel out of  the way,and for Lady HWPV to pull some top emoting expressions ( incidentally, with the relatively restrained faces yerLady is pulling throughout the film, I was  reminded of how much I fancy her Meryl Streep in her early role of The French Lieutenant's Woman, quite a commendation this, the Young Streep put in a few good performances in her time). Also, you probably shouldnae watch this film if you quite like horses.

[13 schoolyards]

I was part of a conversation with a couple of people about this film a few weeks before I saw it - one person had already seen the film and another had read the book, and while there were no spoilers, the guy who'd read the book said it had a downer of an ending. So I spent the entire film expecting the worst possible result, and to be fair to the film it does largely keep the door open for things to go either way. For much of the run time it's perfectly possible to see it ending as either "justice is served!" or "the system is fucked!", which makes the actual duel fairly gripping.

It also does an okay job of making everyone (apart from her) seem equally grubby, so while you may not want a particular character to win you may not be all that keen on having them be brutally murdered either.

Honestly, the film's biggest problem is that today people (rightly) expect a film centered on a rape to focus on the victim. This tries to do that while also focusing on the duel and the result is that it never really satisfies either way

[A Hat Like That]

The book is really good, sets a lot of the historical context. The chapters concerning the duel are both fast-paced and exciting yet as described above, really squalid.

[Dex Sawash]

I am annoyed that this  isn't one of those streaming releases.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Think I'll have to read the book, all of the battle scenes in the film were suitably bloody and nasty , although really very short, and as I say, the duel itself had something of the Hollywood Action Film scrap about it. I like a bit of squalidness, I must admit.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

It's definitely interesting, and the first two chapters are useful as they set us in the mentality of men from this particular era, something that's necessary for us to judge properly. That's an important matter for 18th century stories about nobility. Their system of values made sense to them, they definitely didn't look at themselves as idle or lazy. And we have to rebuild it to understand them.

Damon is tied to older chivalry values that are already anachronistic. The second segment makes it clear that his character is above all an idiot, full of himself. Driver appears to be somewhat patient and sympathetic to him until you realize that the patience he shows towards Damon is mostly a token good action while the character is fundamentally amoral. Then, you have the third segment, which is definitely as much about today as the 14th century, and makes the issues at stake in the first two narratives trivial.

It looks like the three screenwriters mostly split duties. Damon wrote the first segment, where he's the lead, then Affleck was in charge of the second part. I can't help thinking that the character he plays is some kind of take on Harvey Weinstein, with Driver/Le Gris accepting his pettiness and his perversions as the count is powerful enough to create huge career opportunities for him, just like Hollywood tolerated Weinstein, as they turned a blind eye on what they knew about him at the time in exchange for an opportunity to become a star thanks to him. And Nicole Holofcener took over for the final segment, the one that brings the female point of view to the proceedings.

[zomgmouse]

this was flat out disappointing. scott can direct an action sequence like no other but when the point of your film is to downplay the action scenes it becomes a little moot. the whole "believe women" thing seems so tritely dealt with, like just the most obvious thing stretched out for far too long. and i'm not sure if it was an inadequate home viewing setup but it looked atrocious, just the worst cinematography in a major film that i've seen in quite a while.

[Dex Sawash]

On HBOMAX now, Jody of Arc

[Dex Sawash]

Fucksake, nobody warned me to "watch carefully because act 2 is going to be a

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reframed version of act 1 from different perspective"

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[convulsivespace]

This would have been much better if

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Adam Driver had won the duel and Comer/Damon were wrongly condemned as liars

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. I thought the use of the Rashomon-esque tripartite narrative was a little clumsy and didn't ultimately add much to the film. Strong performances though.

It felt quite historically anachronistic at times, but as a presumably accurate touch I did enjoy the terrible medieval haircuts on Damon/Afleck.

[Dex Sawash]

Part 1. Like watching a Wikipedia article, event, event, event.

Part 2. Easier to watch but unpleasant.

Part 3. Her who plays Dascha really gets a chance to shine.


Disappointed that Matt Damon didn't

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die on his way back to his home planet

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