Did you see this featurette from the filming:
Yep - if I’m as active and agile when I’m 83, I’ll be a happy person.
I saw this today. It was very much a Medieval Rashomon with an added benefit of being based on actual events.
The duel itself is fine but you pretty much know already who is going to win simply based on who has more experience in combat as shown throughout the film.
Probably my main gripe was there wasn’t a lot variance between the three perspectives when specific scenes did overlapped so it felt like just watching the same scene again, which I wonder if there was a better way to edit it so we aren’t just in repeat mode?
Went in expecting that we’d see very different versions of each scene, so I found it interesting that the changes we see are so subtle. Implied: it’s not an “Unreliable Narrator” type film, but rather a “Different Viewpoints” type thing. I actually liked that and felt it lends some “weight” to the narrative.
If the Unreliable Narrator element had been greater, I suspect it would have been too easy to dismiss one or more of the characters as outright black/white villains/liars.
Yeah, I can see that. There are some important subtle differences between each of the characters perspectives, but maybe it is a wee bit too subtle. If someone isn’t paying close attention a scene can come across as almost the same.
In terms of unreliable narrator, I actually don’t think there is one at all. Everything plays out as each character remembers it, or at least how they wished they did in hindsight. (which still doesn’t work at all in favor of the rapists since it is…effectively the same scene between both characters…)
Sure I can see that.
Le Gris actions cannot be excused. But because we get established that what we are seeing is pretty much what happened, we get to see that Le Gris actually does try to help his friend as much as possible, excusing him toward the Duke (and receiving little thanks in return). We also see that he actually is quite a talented administrator and thus his rise in the ranks is also due to merit. So at the end one does not just see a battered and broken body, but also the potential that is squandered by stupidity.
If there had been a lot of variation in the storylines, IMO it would be too easy to dismiss the first two parts as purely self-serving parts of the narrative - and therefore untrustworthy.
Oh, Ridley.
“I think what it boils down to — what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cellphones. The millennian [ sic ] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you’re told it on a cellphone,” Scott said.
“This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook,” Scott added. “This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”
Middle generation millennial checking in. I did not see The Last Duel. I haven’t seen a movie in a theater since Underwater because I’m being overly cautious about that thing going on. Before that I went to the theater all the time. The last Ridley Scott movie I saw in theater was Prometheus, and that sucked.
Additionally, I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 17 and it was certainly not a smartphone. I think of around 2010 as when smartphones really became ubiquitous, and that was when I was 22. I hardly grew up with smartphones, or even the internet in any way resembling what it is now. If anything I find that we regard ourselves as the last generation to know what it was like before the internet.
And I know everyone already knew Ridley was blowing hard, but I thought y’all olds might like the reminder of how the generations line up.
P.S. I also don’t understand tik tok or snapchat or why instagram, a photo sharing site, presents images at flip phone resolutions.
I think he meant generation Z? Is it called Zoomer now? I can’t keep up with these new aged Internet leet kids.
I didn’t get a smart phone until I was 27. A cell phone period until like…20? I forget how many years it was between the dumb phones and the arrival of smart phones, maybe a solid 10 years, but I was definitely made fun of at work for having such an old looking dumb phone replete with a retractable antenna.
Maybe, I don’t know, wild idea, don’t let people associate your name with the pure garbage you’ve made all their lives? Just a crazy thought.
Yo, Ridley! The “old man yells at clouds” suit rarely is a good look. I mean, I’m glad someone does a historical drama set in France and has Matt Damon and Ben Affleck don weird hair-dos. And by most accounts, it seems to be a decent movie. That said, we’re in a frickin’ pandemic, and a movie theater is something I’ll only visit for something I really, really want to watch in a movie theater.
Yeah, there are about a zillion reasons I would never have seen this in theatres even before we get to the pandemic as the number one of those reasons.
Millenialls also have kids. You know how hard it is to arrange a theater run with babysiting without the pandemic factors? And then you factor in cost and alternative options and HBO Max beats the hell out of the alternative.
There was also almost no visible marketing or buzz for this anywhere. Didn’t even know it was out until I saw it while looking for Dune
I saw plenty of ads on Youtube for it. I actually do want to see it, its just the whole ‘going to a movie theater’ thing is expensive and difficult.
I really liked it, it is one of his better recent films. I think it is because of strong source material. This makes me want to see his next film about Gucci… also with Adam Driver. It had a very limited run, here… The Duelists also failed due to “marketing”. Somehow Gladiator hit big, I don’t remember if it was marketing, or whatever reasons… it was a more mainstream movie. And The Last Duel is anything but a mainstream, popcorn movie…
I know a great way to get younger audiences into movie theaters: shame them!
I think I would have been right in the bullseye for this movie, but I barely heard about it and what I did hear was just not interesting to me.
I was listening to a Paul Schrader interview. He was saying that he needs last cut now because back in the day, not having last cut was okay because the people with control were also opinionated movie people. So even if they made a decision he disagreed with, the result was art and he could trust them to impose their perspective. Now, the people who want last cut are business-oriented and thinking of how the movie can serve other form factors, so he has to get last cut to make sure that it’s done by someone who cares about the movie, as a movie. Seems he and Scott are complaining about the same trend.
Promoting two films at 84 is wearing Ridley out.
Seems like a joke that the lack of any context and facial mask wrecks.
Not sure how things are in other places, but over here in Germany this one seems to be available on Disney+ now.