By Charles Gobert
The Last Duel, set in 1386 France, covers the real-life story of France’s final trial by combat and the contentious rape that sparked it. The film follows each character’s “truth” from early in their relationship to the trial itself: Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), a knight whose pride is the main driving force behind his actions; Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), an arrogant squire motivated wantonly by sustaining a privileged life in which he is enraged at that which he cannot have; and Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer), a woman who is determined that truth and justice be sought. The clash of the story strikes when Le Gris rapes Marguerite as a showing of his fury for his inability to reduce her to his property. The film is structured through three different chapters, each portraying an aspect of how the events preceding and after Le Gris’ rape happened. The first covers Jean de Carrouges’ view of the events, then Le Gris’, and finally Marguerite de Carrouges’.
However, multiple issues present themselves within this format; most notably, the pacing. An encapsulation of the pacing issue is present with the story itself only lasting about forty minutes and being repeated three times rather than being shown a deeper analysis of the events. Through Marguerite as a sole narrator, more depth could have been given to the central event of the movie-her rape, instead of, for example, scenes establishing Le Gris could speak Latin, which did not do much in advancing the plot. Instead, her trauma is expressed in limited, superficial ways, such as not eating much. That being said, this is not a matter of expanding an already two-and-a-half-hour movie, but rather to replace another portion of it.
First and foremost, showing Marguerite’s and Le Gris’ views proved unnecessarily redundant in showing Marguerite’s rape twice. Without this, acknowledging she was raped would have already been done through Marguerite. Showing her rape as part of Le Gris’ story portrays Marguerite as a prop in her own story, within a movie whose intention is to humanize her in contrast to the patriarchal nature of medieval France. Le Gris’ other scenes communicate that he has taken property from Jean de Carrouges with the support of the Count Pierre d’Alençon-played by Ben Affleck, as well as becoming the Count’s favorite between himself and Jean, through his ability to help the Count’s finances. These matters feel redundant, and the story drags as a result. And this dragging view of the events – the rapist’s view – consumes about forty minutes of the movie-over a third of the movie. In a movie meant to focus on women’s plight, devoting a good third of it to the rapist’s point of view feels…icky.
Beyond these issues, the movie does reveal some of the ways in which women were viewed. For instance, upon learning of his wife’s rape, Jean sees this act as an attack on his pride, not considering the effect on Marguerite. Further acting on this mindset, Jean himself rapes Marguerite as a means to retain ownership over her. It becomes increasingly clear that Jean’s duel invitation to Le Gris is not a struggle out of love, but personal pride in what he views as his own belongings – including his wife. Overall, The Last Duel tells a rarely talked about, but still all too relevant story about the dangers women face when coming forward about sexual harassment in patriarchal societies. Make sure to see this movie, armed with both a mask and a critical eye, in theaters now!