For the past 2 decades Ridley Scott has been very hit or miss for me. My expectations have therefore become modest, but "The Last Duel" was a welcoming surprise.
I think the choice of using a "Rashamon-ish" narrative was a refreshing way to tell this story. Furthermore, I want to give praise to the editor Claire Simpson, who I will argue made the right choice to trim the scenes that are repeated - reducing the runtime to 155 minutes (which I find to be a long but fitting runtime for this story). I find it very fitting that the individual story lines end at the trial where people disagree on what is true while the audience (to some degree) knows.
Despite being refreshingly different and throughly entertaining, there were a few elements that took me out of the film. Firstly, the story is set in France but is told in English. If the names of people and places had been changed this would not had bothered me at all. Secondly, I found the make-up/costumes peculiar in many instances (especially Ben Affleck) while the actors were still very easy to recognize. If this was fantasy, I wouldn't have an issue with this. But since this is based on an actual event I would have preferred to see less eye-catching make-up/costumes.
For the 2022 Oscar's I am surprised there was much more campaign for Ridley Scott's other film "House of Gucci" (which I would rate as "Meh") instead of "The Last Duel", which I liked and would happily see a second time.
I think the choice of using a "Rashamon-ish" narrative was a refreshing way to tell this story. Furthermore, I want to give praise to the editor Claire Simpson, who I will argue made the right choice to trim the scenes that are repeated - reducing the runtime to 155 minutes (which I find to be a long but fitting runtime for this story). I find it very fitting that the individual story lines end at the trial where people disagree on what is true while the audience (to some degree) knows.
Despite being refreshingly different and throughly entertaining, there were a few elements that took me out of the film. Firstly, the story is set in France but is told in English. If the names of people and places had been changed this would not had bothered me at all. Secondly, I found the make-up/costumes peculiar in many instances (especially Ben Affleck) while the actors were still very easy to recognize. If this was fantasy, I wouldn't have an issue with this. But since this is based on an actual event I would have preferred to see less eye-catching make-up/costumes.
For the 2022 Oscar's I am surprised there was much more campaign for Ridley Scott's other film "House of Gucci" (which I would rate as "Meh") instead of "The Last Duel", which I liked and would happily see a second time.