The Last Duel is Ridley Scott's best film in years

It’s a familiar story. A woman is raped. Her attacker says she led him on, her doubting husband is personally outraged, and amid it all, no one believes the victim. The difference is that this is not modern Hollywood, this is 14^th century France.

As the title suggests, The Last Duel is the story of the final legally sanctioned duel fought in Europe. This is not some Hamilton-style pistols at twenty paces affair; this is in fact trial by combat. Two men go into the jousting lists but only one will emerge. The winner lives, the loser dies – and incidentally is guilty. God decides.

But without giving anything away, the stakes could not be higher for all concerned.

The Last Duel is Ridley Scott’s best film since Gladiator (2000). It is a feminist epic and combines the strengths of the man who not only gave us Maximus, but also Thelma and Louise. Scott has taken the #MeToo movement, and, through the filter of the Middle Ages, he comes up with a story which is brutal and tragic and sadly as relevant now as the time in which it was set.

The film begins with the titular combat between two noblemen, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques de Gris (Adam Driver). They are very different men, both soldiers but Damon has risen through force of arms while Driver is a more political beast. His advancement is largely due to his friendship with their liege lord the duke (Ben Affleck).

This opening sequence shows what Scott is better at than any other living director. His sense of scale and his absolute control of his mise en scene means each frame is packed with content. There are few directors who have the eye of Ridley Scott.

Just as the fight begins, we flashback to the story of the relationship told Rashomon-style through each of the participants. Each chapter is labelled ‘The truth according to....’. Damon’s story is of a man trying to do his best but ill-used by a world and a system that is set against him, Driver insists however that it’s all a big misunderstanding and he is just trying to help his old friend.

At this point your sympathies are inclined to be with Damon and his hardscrabble existence until you remember there are three points to this triangle, and we have yet to hear from the victim Marguerite (Jodie Comer).

Up till now Scott has been dealing in the fashionable contemporary relativism that says that ‘my truth’ carries more weight than the objective truth. When we get to Marguerite however Scott makes it plain that we will now hear the absolute truth.

Incidentally, the subtle variations that Scott brings to each iteration of a scene – especially a crucial kiss – is testament to his nuance and subtlety as a director. There’s so much more to him than epic spectacle.

Up to this point in the film Jodie Comer has been largely a background character as either the dutiful wife or the object of desire. In her story she comes vividly to life as a fully realised strong female character who dominates the second half of the film with a performance that should get some awards season attention.

Comer exposes both Damon and Driver as spoilt, self-centred, petty boors, obsessed with their own entitlement. Her story is devastating and, rather like John Proctor in The Crucible, she will tell the whole truth even if it condemns her.

The first half of the film is written by Damon and Affleck and it’s all you would expect in terms of action and swagger. But for Marguerite’s story Scott hired Nicole Holofcener, acclaimed director, and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. There is a lot of anger in Marguerite’s story, but it is carefully managed by Holofcener’s writing. It is loud and strident when it needs to be but for the most part when everyone else has a broadsword Holofcener wields a stiletto, and it is every bit as effective. Marguerite’s view is no less brutal than anything going on in the arena.

Technically The Last Duel is magnificent, a visual feast from Scott’s frequent cinematographer Dariusz Wolski complemented by a fine score from Harry Gregson-Williams, another regular Scott collaborator.

The film runs a little long and structurally it’s a bit choppy but that is a consequence of trying to manage a complex narrative. The first half may feel a little generic but once Comer takes centre stage this is powerful stuff and should not be missed.