Ridley Scott’s THE LAST DUEL
Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer, Adam Driver, Matt Damon
When Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer) claims that she has been raped by Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), her husband Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) challenges Jacques, a man he had formerly thought of as his best friend, to a duel to the death. Sanctioned by King Charles VI (Ben Affleck), it becomes the last legally authorized duel in France. And this is the premise of Ridley Scott’s new film, The Last Duel.
This historical drama is based on the 2004 book of the same name by medieval literature professor Eric Jager. Damon and Affleck, in addition to acting, also partnered to adapt the novel into a script. However, they did not pen the script alone. Instead, they were joined by Can You Ever Forgive Me? co-writer Nicole Holofcener.
Now, before we go any further, we must address the elephant in the room, Matt Damon’s recent comments about his usage of a homophobic slur. Unfortunately, his inability to keep quiet, when no one even asked him in the first place about whether he uses the f-word, has dominated press and social media over the last week. Of course, he could have just said nothing. But, that’s not the topic of this article, so let’s move on and focus on The Last Duel.
IndieWire recently reported that Damon, Affleck, and Holofcener focused on different aspects of the script rather than sit down and write it straight through together. According to Damon, the film takes inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon and tells the story from multiple points of view, including Marguerite, Jean, and Jacques. Due to that story structure, Damon and Affleck worked together to write the scenes from Jean and Jacques’ views, while Holofcener focused on writing Marguerite’s side.
How all of that comes together remains to be seen. Still, it is an exciting experiment to see if a script can gel with different writers working on other script parts. But, we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out. The Last Duel was selected for the upcoming Venice Film Festival and will premiere this September 2021. It will be followed by an October 15, 2021, theatrical release.
