 When I saw the trailer for the last duel, I thought to myself, wow, this looks incredibly boring. I'm gonna go ahead and pass on this, especially when I have to go see it in theaters. But then, to my complete surprise, it showed up on HBO Max, not even a couple weeks later. Right there, ready to stream. So then I thought to myself, you know what, Adam? Let's not judge a movie by its trailer. Let's give it the benefit of the doubt. After all, Ridley Scott's the director. He's done some really good movies. We got Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, The Bash Brothers are back together again. We got Kylo Ren in this. Jodie Comer. This is a star-studded cast. I gotta give it a chance. And give it a chance, I did. The movie's very interesting. It's two and a half hours long. It's broken up into chapters and it's a he said, he said, she said situation where we take the story from three different perspectives. The two men and the truth. And I thought to myself, wow, that's an interesting concept I almost never like. Let's do the same thing for the review. So I present to you, The Last Duel, chapter one. Even the worst Ridley Scott movie has impressive visuals, beautiful cinematography. The Last Duel is no exception. I'm always a sucker for a historical pick based on a true story. This one takes place in the 1380s. Nicole Hall of Sinner, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote the screenplay for this picture and they don't paint the prettiest of scenarios when it comes to the 1800s. Times were tough for people and believe it or not, it was even worse for women. I know, it's crazy to think, right? And Matt Damon plays Sir Jean French name for the rest of it. I can't, I don't know how to talk so I'm not gonna bother pronouncing their names even though I just watched this movie. Adam Driver also plays French name Jacques or Jacques and they're friends. Well, they're frenemies, I guess, is more apt. They're the lead characters of this film except for they're not really. It's not about them. It's about Margaret. But you don't find that out until the final act of the film and that's what makes this screenplay so brilliant. We think it's about these two guys, men of honor, of dignity, they're battle hungry, they're ready to do whatever they need to for their country, for their king. As I stated, this film's done in acts. One of them focuses on Jean and his viewpoint of what happened as the story unfolds. The second goes to Adam Driver's character and how things played out from his perspective and then finally we get Margaret and what really happened. And how do we know that that's accurate? Well, it says the truth right on the screen. I also stated I don't really like this type of storytelling. It's repetitive, it's redundant. Oh, those two words are. And they just don't interest me that much. However, there were some really fun things that came out of this. For starters, I love that both of these guys genuinely think they're good, that they're on the right side of history and that their story has credence. There's fun visuals that go along with it too. For instance, Adam Driver's side of the tale has him enter rooms in a very stoic manner. Everything has a lot of pageantry behind it. He tosses his cape as he enters. He throws his glove to the ground. But when we see the real version of it, it's more of a little flutter. It's barely even noticeable. The same can be said for Matt Damon's character, Sir Jean. He's painted as this great husband who's caring and kind and providing for the family. But he's barely there at all. He doesn't look at his wife as someone that's a partner. She's more of a means to the end, a baby maker, someone that has to keep up the image. He doesn't see her as a person, as an individual. Not until later, when there's a little bit of empathy and sympathy for a situation, but still even in the final moments, he's still using her as a prop to kind of bolster his own image. There's layer to the character too. Adam Driver convinces himself that he's doing nothing wrong. This woman loves me. She wants to be with me just as much. So it's only right that I approach her, that I kind of force myself upon her. The script is a slow burn. It takes a good half hour for you to really get invested in these characters. And then by the end, it pays off 10 fold, especially when the rug is pulled out from under you. And you're like, whoa, this, okay. I'm seeing things a lot more clearly now. This is not how I thought it was gonna go at all. There's a term that's been used by people about Hollywood films a lot over the last few years. It's an ugly term. And it's one that often leads to bad things. It's called subverting expectations. This is an example of subverting expectations done so well. The action, while Sparse is very Ridley Scott, very gladiator-esque. There's swords going into the sides of guys' necks. Ah! Horses are getting speared. See? We even have a little horse-on-horse action if that does anything for you. The music, while often subtle, does a great job of bringing you into the atmosphere of the world. Overall, this was a joy to watch. It was a wonderful experience for beginning to end, and I absolutely recommend you watch The Last Duel. Did this movie need to be two and a half hours long? To get the point across? The first half hour is all over the place. I don't know what's happening. We jump like six different years in the course of five minutes. There's wars going on. We don't know who these people are fighting, why they're fighting them, or who the lead characters even are. Are they the good guys? Hard to know. Really, Scott doesn't have time to tell us, I guess, in two and a half hours. Ben Affleck, for whatever reason, thought he looked good as a blonde with the blonde goatee. Ridiculous. He's like Joffrey grown up. And don't get me started on Matt Damon's mullet. Not a good look, dude. Not a good look. And Ben Affleck's character, Pierre? Where'd he go? He's just kind of gone at the end of the film. Yeah, he's in the crowd, he's spectating, but unceremoniously leaves. Nothing happens to him. Very disappointing. If there's music in the film, you could have fooled me. Very somber affair, very grim all around. It's a pretty miserable experience from beginning to end. No jokes, no laughter, just kind of one depressing, drolled-on scene to another. And it seemed like for a movie that's two and a half hours long, really Scott couldn't wait to cut. There's multiple moments where things are starting to happen, and then boom, the scene ends just out of nowhere. I was like, wait, I wanted to watch that. Why did you cut? By the time we get to the last duel, I couldn't care less who won. I wanted them both to die. And honestly, I don't know if we had to have three different stories. Was it necessary to do his version, his version and hers? I think we could have just stuck with hers and we would have had a much tighter hour 45 film in and out. I don't get it, I don't get the hype. The movie was very slow, very boring, not a lot of action. What am I watching this for? Especially when half of it's just lying to me. The truth to any story often lies in the middle. In this case, through the eyes of a woman who's stuck between these two douchebags, just trying to survive the 1830s. While I did think the movie was too long, I absolutely appreciated this film. I really enjoyed it. And I think I could sit through it again. With the knowledge I now have that there's different perspectives going on, I can find even more little Easter eggs that Ridley Scott probably put in there. Little tells from these actors. Cody Cumber was amazing in this. Just the way she reacted to the kiss three times with Adam Driver and she kinda pulls away. The different reactions from the different perspectives was fantastic. I love seeing how she played that out. There are darker scenes in this, I'm not gonna get into, but it was heartbreaking to watch play out multiple times over. And the build up to that last half hour or so was just brutal. Knowing what was on the line for her, if she stayed the course and went against the will of man to just keep her mouth shut. To stay locked in her house and live her life as nothing more but an object for her man to pop out a baby and clean the house. Hell, even the women were against her for doing this because they feared for their own safety. What are the repercussions gonna be if this guy loses the duel on her behalf? Women will never be trusted again. And again, the reason why the different angles of this work so well is because these guys really believe they're honorable, noble men. Matt Damon, obviously more so than Adam Driver. I think he's a far more obvious villain here, but even the good dudes back in the 1800s were kinda shitty. And it's not even on purpose. It's how they were raised. It's how they were taught. So they just think what they're doing is fine. We grow as a society over time. We learn. And the way we do this often, sadly, has to come at the expense of one brave person standing up and saying, no, this is wrong. I'm not gonna be silent. I'm gonna tell the truth. I'm gonna speak on behalf of not just me but all the oppressed others out there that don't have the guts to use their voice or are scared for their life to a point where they just have to stay silent. So to summarize the last duel, very impressed. A powerful movie. If you have the time and energy to sit through it, it's worth it, I think. Yes, it is slow. Yes, the first 20 minutes or so is pretty sloppy, but the message is timeless. And I do recommend you give it a fair shot, like I almost didn't. Had it not shown up in HBO Max, I probably wouldn't have saw this movie. So I guess streaming services aren't all bad, right? I also wanna thank people on YouTube and on Twitter for recommending the last duel over the last couple of weeks. It was definitely on my radar, but I had other things I wanted to get to theaters to see and that just wasn't gonna happen. So the fact that I had people commenting on it and it's showing up in HBO, that was all I needed to jump in. All right, let me know your thoughts on the film in the comments below. Like the video if you had a good time. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't. Recommend it to friends and family members if you must. I would appreciate it and hopefully I'll see you around. Sheila, I just can't get Matt Damon's mullet out of my head. It haunts me. Oh my gosh, you're still here. 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