Movie Review: The Last Duel (2021)

Synopsis: In 13th Century France, squires Jean de Carrouges and Jacques le Gris serve the same lord, Count Pierre d'Alençon but while Jean shows that loyalty to Pierre and the king by risking his life in battle, Jacques is clearly the count's favorite, spending his time at court and being gifted land and a title that Jean feels should be his.

Things come to a head when Jean's wife, Marguerite, accuses Jacques of raping her. Unable to get justice from Pierre, Jean convinces the king to let him fight Jacques in a duel to the death. If Jacques loses, he will be posthumously found guilty. If Jean dies, Marguerite will be burned at the stake for perjury.

Who's in it? The movie stars Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck and Harriet Walter.

Review: I wound up re-watching the film Patton in between mowing the lawn yesterday and, when that movie was over, The Last Duel came on. This was a movie I had considered watching before but mostly because of the 2 1/2-hour runtime, never seemed to pull the trigger on. I wound up watching it and have to admit, it was considerably better than I was expecting it to be.

There were a couple things I liked about this film. One of them was how it made 13th-Century France seem realistically dark and gritty. The battle scenes were bloody and intense while the basic but still in-depth enough to make it clear being a nobleman wasn't all it was cracked up to be, especially during the time of the plague and being a woman during that time was much, much worse.

The Rashomon-like narrative of the events leading up to the duel was also intriguing, with the story being told first from Jean's (Damon) perspective, then Jacques' (Driver) and finally Marguerite's (Comer). Some of the differences in the stories were obvious while others were a bit more subtle. The second version of the rape, for example, had Marguerite fleeing at a different pace and putting up more of a fight while Jean's reaction to learning of the rape differed significantly from his version to Marguerite's.

I also found Jacque's recollection of the event intriguing because he too remembered raping Marguerite but still considered it a consentful interaction. It made me wonder just how screwed up he was in the head if he truly believed that.

What impressed me most about the film was how it eventually stopped being about the two men and instead became much more about Marguerite. It became clear who the real protagonist was and by the end, my wife and I weren't rooting for either of the men and instead were hoping the movie would result in both being killed in a way that resulted in Marguerite being set free - especially after all the scrutiny she went through after making the accusation and realizing, 700 years later, not enough has changed.

Final Opinion: It's a long movie but one of the few films that makes full use of the time. I would recommend watching it.

My Grade: A

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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2021:

Movie Review: Karen (2021)

Movie Review: The Girl Who Got Away (2021)

Movie Review: Coming 2 America (2021)

Movie Review: Blood Red Sky (2021)