what's going on it's all my movie fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files ellie
back again with a brand new movie review and today we're discussing the new historical drama directed
by riley scott by the name of the last duel a film that actually premiered at venice film festival in
september made his way out to the uk october 3rd and will be coming to the u.s market on october
15th now i got a chance to recently check it out and i'm really excited to let you all know what i
thought about the film and let you know if it's worth checking out in the spoiler-free review
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also appreciate the support and in those comments let me know if the last duel was a film you were
looking forward to seeing but more importantly once you've seen this film what you think about
it let's talk about the direction by ridley scott the performances the way that they told the story
the tackling of the subject matter were you disappointed were you happy let's talk about it
all in the comments below so for me personally going into the last duel this movie had a lot
of things going for it number one this cast is absolutely fantastic i was really excited to see
matt damon and ben affleck work together it's been a very long time that the two best friends from
boston they've written movies together including this one they co-wrote this script they've started
movies together so i was really excited to see what they had to offer for you know seeing them on
the screen for a very long time jody combers are fantastic actors one of my favorites working in
hollywood adam driver is just great in everything he's in but i was looking at the secret sauce and
that is ridley scott who we're going to talk about here in a sec but i was really excited to see
which ridley scott will be getting this film so let's kick things off with my positive starting
off with the man behind the camera and that is the legend in my eyes and ridley scott i mean this
man's career speaks for itself i mean you come out of the gate directing alien and blade runner
and just killing it in the 90s blackhawk down gladiator american gangster i mean the man has
legendary films under his belt he has some films a little bit hit or miss i know prometheus and
alien covenant and some of the other stuff like robin hood and the counselor which was
horrendous but listen i am happy to report that ridley scott is on his a game in this
film we'll talk about the action a little bit later but i really want to focus on the way
ridley scott was able to tackle this subject matter if you all aren't too familiar with
the story this is based on true events which actually was also made into a book in 2004
and essentially you have these two men one by the name of john who's a noble man who's a warrior who
wants to become a knight he has his wife margaret who was sexually assaulted by john's close friend
an ally by the name of jock who was played by adam driver and we're essentially seeing
this woman accusing this man of sexually assaulting him and keep in mind this is the 1300s
this is the 14th century in france so things were extremely different as far as justice system and
believing women and their truth so seeing how really scott was able to tackle that subject
matter i was presently surprised by again the dramatic beats the lengths that they went to
to show the injustices that women went through during that time still go through in this time
the metoo era and i was just very surprised by how they were able to really give justice to
just not only different perspectives but the truth and how the truth looks like and hearing
from a woman and we'll get to jody a little bit later but just seeing a woman's perspective and
how she was treated in that time how women were treated as property you couldn't take their word
for nothing it was just a lot of stuff that was just terrible that women had to go through that
time like i said still go through in today's society but i thought it was very very well
handled by ridley scott and very timely as well so i thought the direction was really good but again
that was very surprising but things that didn't surprise me there this is a medieval type of film
and there are this isn't an action movie by any means but there are some battles and swords and
blood and brutality of violence that i thought really scott he always does a great job in but
i thought the battles were great there is a duel in this movie because the men have to fight to
the death to you know john protected his wife or drop protecting his name the duel is incredible
i'll just say that ladies and gentlemen it is it is worth the wait when you see it in the film it
is very brutal it is very violent i got clinched up many times and it really created stakes in
this film which i love when films have stakes and this the stakes in this movie is life or death so
i thought that the duel was incredibly shot by riley scott so he was fantastic in my opinion
but i want to touch on these performances starting off with as so the film not to give too much away
but essentially this film was broken up into the three chapters so i want to start with one of the
earlier chapters which is matt damon who he plays john i think out of the main cast he was fine
matt damon's a legend in his own right but i thought that he was finding his role
he is someone that again he believes in honor he marries this young lady to kind of get a little
bit of notoriety he's kind of falling short on finances so it kind of benefits him in that sense
and he wants to become a knight but every time he looks around he has ben affleck's character played
pierre who's like in a position of power who constantly keeps breaking him down and you have
his squire who gets more opportunities than him so you're seeing his journey throughout the story
and i thought that his first chapter was okay but this is where one of my positives lie in
the film gets better as it goes on chapter one was an interesting setup but it's not until we
get into chapter two which focuses on adam driver's character jock who is a very he's a
ladies man he has his ways with his words and he's very kind of conniving can you trust him can you
not trust him we see the story through his eyes because he's the accuser of taking advantage of
john's wife and seeing adam driver again i've seen a lot of adam driver content tv shows like girls
movies that he's been in and i i can honestly say i have never seen a bad adam driver performance
and this is continues that momentum in this film he's incredible he is incredible in this movie
you just see him manipulating certain things you see how the perspective through his eyes
how he views the situation at hand how he is just continuously putting this woman down and covering
up for his life and covering up his tracks and his love for margaret i mean i mean again adam driving
when you all see the film and once if you all that have seen the film in the comments you can go
ahead and confirm adam driver is fantastic in this movie but i have to talk about one of the most
important chapters and the star of this movie who stole every single scene and that is jody comer
who like i said up top this young lady rather is killing eve and seeing her transition into movies
you know small role and uh riley skywalker most recently a free guy she was my favorite character
i think this is an academy award nominating performance by jody comer in this film
seeing her as margaret as a young girl getting married against her own will because again
back then it was just like marrying off her daughters for land for money and all this stuff
seeing her get into this marriage seeing her try to be the best wife that she can
do helping her husband with the finances helping him with the farm helping him with his land nor
you know getting his name out there and then seeing what happens to her which by the way
those scenes and we see the the allegation the scene i don't want to use the word because
youtube flags it but when we see the scene it's brutal it is very heartbreaking and jody
delivers in every single department everything she's actually doing this film she does that
times 10 i i'm not speaking hyperbole i do think she will be nominated for this role because she
was fantastic in this movie she was so believable again she has so much heart so much vulnerability
so much strength so much courage to speak up during these times i can't stress
enough this is the 14th century this was when women were treated like property and had
no say no votes and just seeing her courage to be able to speak up for what went down
it was fantastic and i thought that her chapter really kind of showed the heart of the film so
again i talked about the direction talked about the performances i i briefly touched on the action
which is really well done again this is an action movie when you get to action it's really well done
by really scott which i come to expect but again that duel ladies and gentlemen that actual duel
when we see that fight the stakes are there and the brutality is there so those are my
main positives that took away from the story from the film but i do want to touch a little bit on
the story before i jump into my criticisms again i really do applaud how they tackle
women in society and the norms and you trusting men and you know the position of power like when
you get with ben affleck's character and how he's able to sweep things on a rug for his close friend
seeing again jody comer speak her truth and how they tackle that was really well done to
me and it speaks so it was very timely how this film is handled because again this is
you know 13 1300s 14th century and there's a lot of things that we can see in today's society that
this film tackles on so i really do applaud how they handled the narrative in the subject matter
in this film but let me transition to my criticism i don't have many with this film but i have to say
i applaud jody coleman her performance and she gets like her chapter is the most heartbreaking
but i do feel like her chapter wasn't as fleshed out as i personally would have loved to have dove
deeper into the aspects of her narrative again this film is broken up into three chapters from
three it's essentially the same situation just played out in three different perspectives john's
perspectives jock's perspective and perspective and again hers is the most heartfelt and the most
heartbreaking at the same time but i felt like it just should have stretched out a little bit longer
and just developed a little bit more again it's all great stuff that we see but i just think i
wish they would push the envelope and push the narrative a little bit more and a little bit more
character uh growth within that moment of her scenes but again she was great for what she did
i just wish it was a little bit more from that and then i would i gotta say secondary characters
were okay in this movie i i wanted more from ben affleck's character he is mostly focused on the
second act which is adam driver's story he is again he's the position of power he's the guy
that you know sweeps he takes advantage of women himself he has wife he has eight kids but he's
sleeping around with women i thought that ben affleck i wish i don't want to say he was miss
cassette but i felt like he was used as kind of like comic relief and not comic relief but
kind of levity to the story and i just didn't feel like his character really gave me what i
was really kind of hoping for in that role again ben affleck's great don't get me wrong but i felt
like he was just was kind of misplaced in uh in regards to the way he portrayed his character but
outside of those things ladies and gentlemen i really enjoyed this film so before i give you
all my overall score and let you know it's worth checking out make sure to like the video share
the video leave your thoughts in the comments and of course subscribe to the channel if you haven't
already so overall the last duel i mention it but ridley scott does a great job of tearing
detail in this narrative handled the the drama and the subject matter really well and of course
as we come to know really scott is fantastic in the action realm and when it comes down to that
duel it was brutal it was fantastic and it had stakes ladies and gentlemen but again i can't
applaud enough the performances in particularly adam driver and joey comer who i do think will
get nominated for oscar that's how great her performance is there were some shortcomings
in the film in regards to that particular part of her narrative i wish was fleshed out more
this film's about two and a half hours is a little bit of a slow burn at points there are lows in the
film but overall ladies and gentlemen i recommend you all check out the last duel put it on your
calendar and when you do let me know what you thought of it with all that being said i'm gonna
give the last duel a solid three and a half out of five i was really impressed by this because i i
was again really scott hit or missed this is more of a hit versus a miss to me and i recommend you
all give this a watch and when you do like i said let me know in the comments your pros your cons
your thoughts on the performances do you think jordy coleman will get nominated do you think adam
driver might get a nomination uh and let me know all your positives and negatives in the comments
below if you stuck around to this point in the video i appreciate every single one of you all
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