France, late 14th century. The relationship between the knight Jean de Carrouge and his companion and neighbor Jacques Le Gris is gradually deteriorating, and it comes to an insoluble conflict. The offended Carrouge turns personally to the King of France Charles VI for help, and he decides that the opponents must resolve the dispute in a deadly duel.

4k movies reviews
I am telling the truth!
the words of Lady Marguerite and mine, urging everyone to see this film!

I love Ridley Scott’s films. To say that I was waiting for “The Last Duel” is not to come close to what has reigned in my rebellious soul since August, as soon as I saw the news or a snippet of the trailer. No, of course, like everyone is no longer a young man, I didn’t collect photos from filming for my daddy, I didn’t write tearful comments in very bad English on the actors’ accounts, but my heart skipped a beat, it was worth seeing the trailer before other movie shows. The first time it was a direct shot in the cardiac aorta – Adam Driver on the big screen (more on that later), style, music. A sweet anticipation of a thunderstorm, which should fall on you, humble one, like a waterfall of rain. Something like that, if pathetically. As passion as I love everything that is beautiful, aesthetically inspiring and exciting, well, and with meaning (lately, this is a strain, I’m not talking to you).

And here is a film about the conflict between the two knights, about the trampled honor, about the desecrated woman, the violence against whom in those dark times was considered a property crime – since she belongs to the man who took her into the family (I remember, getting a second education, I read these laws and was given how scary and creepy it was to live at that time, in fact, whoever you were: a noble lady or even a knight, what to say about commoners). It is easier to be born and immediately abandon what plague, less trials would fall on your long-suffering lot. In addition, Ridley Scott is a “Gladiator”, watched and mourned in childhood, when the heart still does not know any other torment than worries about a brave and brave hero. In general, for the first time in a long time, I went to the cinema like on a holiday, except that there was not a huge white bow on my head.

In addition, I was extremely attracted and seduced by the cast, assembled under the wing of a master director. All the same Driver, who in just a few years from the character that frightens me (I am a lover of canonically beautiful faces) from Star Wars has turned into an incredible sexy woman with charisma, whom you look at and barely have time to wipe a string of saliva from the corner of your mouth. Now I’m watching a TV show, where he is still so green and young, but already resembles a full-length figure, which, here is a quote from my friend, was stretched out with a pump. And now I look at him from all angles and I just like it with some incredible animal energy, a strange but attractive face, huge statues that make him either an animal or a demigod. And already being Jacques le Gris, his persona becomes completely wrapped in the spirit of unrestrained, indomitable bourgeois and arrogance, which, if not attractive, but at least does not leave you indifferent.

I love Jodie Comer, again, the close-ups of The Last Duel are an incomparable aesthetic pleasure. She has an incredibly beautiful face, she is all so alive and at the same time self-possessed, reminiscent of a nervous pulse, which either slows down or rushes at a gallop with a double frequency. Here she showed a real woman of the Middle Ages: albeit beautifully brought up and even well-read, but absolutely deprived of any rights whatsoever. And because of its determination to change something even more incredible. A sort of symbol of fortitude, again, a tribute to feminism blossoming with a violent color.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are two professionals, and although I don’t really like the first one at all, and the second one is so-so, I wouldn’t watch a movie especially for him, I should pay tribute that this is a very strong tandem of professionals. And if in the trailer Affleck’s rather strong secondary role was not revealed (I generally thought that he yawned twice there and hid in the accounting department for a fee), in the film he appears before the viewer as a kind of mocking Colossus, at whose feet all thirsty for recognition gathered or handouts (depending on the strength of the spirit) vassals. And this role was very successful for him. If there was no censorship, a few swear words would describe the licentious, vain, completely devoid of morality and any foundations of the patron, who does not go to the toilet without a goblet of wine. But he doesn’t look stilted or fake, even without looking at the blonde braids and beard, he’s just such a tough scoundrel. Well, I just don’t like Damon, although I admit that he is a great actor. And the character here is already so ambiguous. It seems that a person really fights for what is due to him by right, but at the same time manages to antagonize absolutely everyone, and even the viewer, who is also tired of the protagonist’s litigation, his eternal and not unsuccessful attempts to “get into the bottle.”

In fact, this is a strikingly cool picture of how differently we all perceive and see the same situation. Recently, I often think about this, because earlier youthful maximalism dictated life in impulses, and it seemed that only my opinion was truly correct, and the first impulse was the most honest and sincere. Now I think more and more that each person perceives the situation in his own way, due to his worldview and upbringing, therefore I am in no hurry to draw hasty conclusions, and in my statements I sometimes prefer to remain silent than to express dissatisfaction boiling inside. So it is here: the viewer sees three completely different views on violence and the events that preceded it. And what I was just carried away in this dark Middle Ages is that the rapist, in essence, does not even understand what he is guilty of. Such were the foundations for those in power. He is used to taking, he is always welcome in any bed, he bask in the rays of admiring glances, which he perceives a fleeting smile as an invitation to sex. So, apparently, it was scary to smile because of nothing to do – dirty scoundrels would immediately drag into the bed. And this is the attitude towards a lady who, after being raped, hears “do not be tormented by your conscience, we could not resist it”. We??? Then I just slid down in my chair, and like any person who takes any injustice extremely painfully, I just wanted to gouge the bully and Bonvian Le Gris out of his eyes. Or something else, more intimate to tear off.

A magnificent visual sequence of galloping war horses, spilled blood, faces distorted by rage, who fought for the king and believed that they were doing a just cause. A worthy ending of the film, about the best – you shouldn’t even dream of it. This is a fantastically cool action movie in the spirit of those old films from childhood, when dad brought films on cassette, and watching them became an event. I left the cinema under a powerful impression with the thought: to forget and see again. A story to be lived!

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (43.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Italian: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, German, Italian, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish.