Matt Damon and Ben Affleck claim The Last Duel is a feminist movie. Directed by Ridley Scott, the film is based on a 2004 book of the same name by Eric Jager, which tells the true story of the last recorded trial by combat in medieval France. The duel took place in 1386 between Sir Jean de Carrouges and his squire, Jacques Le Gris, the latter of which was accused of raping the knight’s wife, Marguerite. The Last Duel marks the first time since Good Will Hunting that Damon and Affleck have collaborated as writers.
The Last Duel stars an impressive ensemble cast led by Matt Damon as Carrouges, Adam Driver as Le Gris, and Jodie Comer as Marguerite. Ben Affleck takes on the role of their feudal overlord, Count Pierre d’Alençon. The project was first announced in 2015, but it languished in development until 2019 when Ridley Scott came aboard, followed by Damon and Affleck signing on to star and write the script along with Nicole Holofcener, who scored an Oscar nomination for her work on Can You Ever Forgive Me?. A trailer for The Last Duel came earlier this summer, promising a powerful medieval drama that might pack some additional resonance given its subject matter.
Now that The Last Duel has had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Damon and Affleck are discussing why they believe their medieval drama has some contemporary relevance, especially in terms of the feminist and MeToo movements. Per The Guardian, Affleck says the film is “about someone who is denied justice, who goes to great lengths to seek justice at great risk to themselves.” He added, “It is about this incredible woman from history who spoke out against a man who assaulted her, so naturally that seemed relevant [to MeToo].” Read what else The Last Duel duo had to say below:
Affleck: Europe and countries colonised by Europe didn’t view women for many many centuries as human beings. We felt that this was a story that could generate catharsis and empathy and, we hope, that we look at each other in a different way, to help us wonder whether our personal perspective may not take into consideration another person’s reality – their history, acculturation, education.
Damon: In the male-centred stories, women appear when the men need them for something; otherwise they are ignored. They are property, they are not human beings. At that time the men were very good at cataloguing everything they did, but the women’s history was entirely invisible – so we all had to make a lot of that up.
The film will chronicle three different perspectives of its inciting incident, the alleged rape of Marguerite by her husband’s squire, a plot device innovated by Akira Kurosawa’s classic film from 1950, Rashomon. In The Last Duel, two of these accounts will be presented through the male perspective, Carrouges and Le Gris, and one female, Marguerite.
Because The Last Duel is set in a society that held archaic views about women, the film gives Damon and Affleck an opportunity to comment on contemporary issues. Whether or not audiences trust them to deliver a thoughtful take is a different story, but it should be noted that Holofcener played an important role in crafting the screenplay by providing a female perspective. How exactly these three infuse the story with added relevance about MeToo will be revealed when The Last Duel releases in theaters on October 15.
Key Release Dates
The Last Duel
Release Date:2021-10-15
