THE LAST DUEL REACTION | Brilliant And Brutal Storytelling 

One of the most overlooked film of the year due to poor marketing & also the most uncomfortable/angry I was (twice) during a film this year.

The actress- Jodie Comer plays Villanelle in 'Killing Eve' (also starring Sandra Oh and Fiona Shaw). You NEED to watch this show!!!!!!!!!

Happy new year! Also, shame that this movie failed in box office

Hey you should check out brothers released in 2009 with Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal

In case you are interested in knowing the truth behind the script. Not discrepancies, but additions to the facts: 1.- The rape was more brutal than the one shown in the movie. The story told by Marguerite was one that shocked France by its brutality. It was so brutal, that the simple fact of a woman telling the story, was enough to believe her (Many nobles were on her side, the King is a great unknown, but it is believed that he believed her too). 2.- There was a trial. It was in parliament and in the film we only see small details of Marguerite's testimony. At first Le Gris had popular support, but after Marguerite's testimony and as the days went by, this changed. It is believed that Marguerite became some sort of public figure. She was believed. 3.- The insistence on carrying out the duel was Le Gris's doing, not Jean's. This so as not to look like a coward in the public eye. The trial was going so well for Marguerite and Jean that they were sure it would not come to a duel. But Parliament did not reach a ruling, which caused the duel to take place. 4.- The main source of information is the notes of Le Gris's lawyer, who didn't even believe his client. Questioning his innocence at every possible moment. 5.- The reason Jean's mother leaves her alone in the castle is because she had to stand trial as a witness in another rape case. This idea that she had this mentality of keeping quiet, is invention of the movie. The woman not only testified in favor of her daughter-in-law, as I mentioned. She was already a witness in another case in favor of the victim. 6.- One of Le Gris's main witnesses, who testified on his behalf. He was arrested during the trial, for rape. This fact basically destroyed his defense. 7.- Even when it's true. That the "victim" at this time was considered the husband or the main guardian of the woman. This case truly changed the world. Or at least France. Not only were better institutions created to protect women. The old model of investigation and prosecution was destroyed as it was considered insufficient and precarious (The fact that a duel had to be reached to give "justice" was seen as a failure of the system). The new model, considered more civilized... Torture xD 8.- Following this case, rape was elevated as a crime comparable to treason. Before, as mentioned, it was considered a crime against property. But this case established the idea of ​​seeing rape as a crime against a woman's honor, equating it in punishment and investigation methods to treason.

6 minutes in when you mention the blood effects, that battle scene was directed by Matt Damon on his 50th birthday. We filmed it on a Friday morning. I remember standing a few feet from him in rehearsals as he had the chainmail coif wrapped round his fist. Frantically pummelling the stuntman on the ground with the camera over his shoulder, he said "OK, so blood, blood, blood " as he waved his arms about with a huge grin on his face. There was blood in buckets, fire extinguishers, and 'blood eggs' being chucked about from the edge of frame We nailed the whole thing in a few takes and were wrapped at lunchtime when Ridley Scott had a birthday cake brought to Matt Damon. About 100 soldiers, dripping in mud and blood all sang happy birthday to him on a beautiful sunny day in Ireland. What a surreal moment that was. The guy taking the flaming arrow to the face and cutting the hostages throats by the river is my friend and boss Charlie Allan. He was also the chieftain of the German army at the start of Gladiator and popped up as an English and French soldier in Robin Hood Keep up the good work Brandon and can I suggest you watch the series Boardwalk Empire? It's a masterpiece

Brandon, it's worth going back and watching it again pretty soon after the first viewing as that really helps you to notice all the subtle differences between the versions. One thing I noticed second time round was how the way Jacques chased her round the table in his version is near identical to an earlier scene where a woman is chased and held down but is laughing the whole time. Was she actually into it, or was she another victim? Furthermore, in his version of events Marguerite is saying no but giggling while she does it, and doesn't really protest once the rape starts. Whereas in her version she is sobbing, crying, screaming. More than anything it shows the mentality of men in the time they lived in - and he believed he was innocent right till the moment of his death, as that statement he cries out before he gets stabbed is taken straight from eyewitness accounts.

Brilliant movie deserves awards, Jodie Comer is an amazing actress in what ever she does, outstanding

Whoever was in charge of marketing for this movie needs to never work in the industry again. I had no idea this was even a movie until I saw Chris Stuckmann post about it. Definitely under the radar and I can guarantee no one in my circle of friends and family have even heard of it, even though it is amazing.

I loved this movie! It was a great way to show how helpless women were in those days, and the hero complex men had. Also showed how much power males had, since he thought “raping” her was normal.

Jodie Comer and Adam Driver SUPERB.

I saw this movie on a whim, right before it left theaters, and I'm so happy I did. Adam Driver is always awesome. And this is the first movie where I really liked Matt Damon.

That last duel is one of the best medieval fights I've seen.

Matt Damon wrote part one, Ben Affleck wrote part two, and Nicole Holofcener wrote part three. Affleck was originally supposed to play Jacques Le Gris

PR should be embarrassed. One of the best, most important movies of the year, and barely anyone saw it.

Jodie Comer also plays Villanelle on Killing Eve, a role in which she plays a serial killer who can speak a lot of different languages. She kills the role (lol), and her range is absolutely incredible to me. Definitely an actress to look out for, I'm really glad she's being more and more recognized!

Probably one of the films most hurt by this whole covid thing. Even good reviews couldn't save it. Covid + bollocks marketing put this movie in the smackdown hotel. Any other time, Damon+Affleck+Driver+Scott would be a pure money maker, on top of it being a good movie.

Killing EVE....final season starts in February. Hop on the train and do reactions to all of that series. You will love it.

Jodie Comer had a great year with Free Guy and The Last Duel

Heck yeah Brandon I’m so glad you’re bringing attention to this brilliant film!

Brandon, I don't know if you read all these comments, but if you do, I have to reinforce what some others here have said. Dude, you HAVE to watch the series KILLING EVE. It's Jodie Comer's breakthrough role and her ticket to the big time, and for good reason. Her character in that, the villainess/anti-heroine "Villanelle", is so magnetic and fascinating. It's almost like watching a female Hannibal Lecter in terms of its impact. It's a great series and her role and performance is one for the ages. It's the reason she got cast in THE LAST DUEL and FREE GUY, which are actually steps down in terms of character complexity from KILLING EVE. The 4th and final season is airing this year!

I saw the uncut version where after the battle they hang Adams dead body. That was gruesome.

She had 3 children with Jean before he died on Crusade.

Two words: Jodie Comer. One of the most interesting British actresses of this decade.

This film deserved so much more attention, everything from the acting to the writing was fantastic!

Saw this at a film festival and the crowd reactions were almost as good as spiderman no way home. Laughs, gasps, and lots of cheers in that last scene. A great viewing experience

I was able to enjoy this film in the cinema on its release date. I think for me, as a complete experience, only Dune has surpassed this year. A shame that such a careful and high-quality product did not have the best time to debut with the entire global pandemic context and the tastes for cultural products that are easier to digest in these hard times.

Ridley Scott directed a movie called The Duellists that is EPIC. Its about 2 soldiers played by Keith Caradine and Harvey Keitel who are adversaries and have several duels spanning decades during the Napoleonic era.

You should give Killing Eve a shot. Jodie Comer is phenomenal in it.

The "It's just science!" made me WTF harder than any other part.

Jodie Comer did great in a lighter role this year in "Free Guy"

This will be a grower, a la Shawshank.

Visit Jodie Comer's wiki...she's largely been in UK television projects--but there have been a lot of them and she's won and been nominated for numerous awards. Worth checking out her other work.

The movie was marketed as a medieval SJW flick, which is quite unfair to how good it actually was.

I loved this movie I wish more people would have saw it in theaters

The rape scene in this film disturbed me. The last film that had a scene that disturbed me that much was Boys Don’t Cry (that one was like 10 minutes long). Rape scenes are one of the things that I can’t stomach in films.

Yes!!! That’s crazy, I just watched this a few days ago. Fantastic film, brilliant acting. This is a good birthday present for me to watch later. lol. Jodie Comer was really good, so was the other cast.

It really upsets me that since this movie came out a lot of people are complaining about that the rape scene is in the movie twice and they don't really get the idea behind the storytelling. There is a storytelling technique called "Rashomon" in which a certain incident being told by different characters, and we see each one of them on the screen. Usually in these movies there is only one person telling the true story and the others are lying. This movie also a has the Rashomon technique but with a cool twist, which is no one is actually lying. And the brilliant thing here is how they were able to introduce the same story 3 times, but with different perspectives. The story is the same, but the perspectives and the characters' explanation to the same events is different. For example, Adam Driver's character never lied about sleeping with Jodie Comer's character against her will, but in his story she fought at the beginning but she was okay after a while, but we see in her story she actually didn't stop fighting and resisting. Which gives you two perspectives to the same events. And that's why we saw the rape scene twice, it's the same incident but with two different perspectives.

Jodie has been in Killing Eve, an amazing series and she won an emmy award for it, you should see it is a masterpiece

how the hell did i miss you posting this?? this was one of my favorite movies of 2020 and i’ll forever be sad over how horribly it bombed at the box office. it was a return to form for ridley in my opinion and the better movie of his released last year by far.

This film and Dune are both the best films this year Brendon are U gonna react to dune as well

This movie is awesome and it should not have bombed at the box office

Jodie Comer's biggest role so far is Killing Eve. She deserves every award for her performance there. I would recommend checking it out.

The women cheering for Marguerite is disgusting because you can bet just moments before they were all pitted against her. Just like her friend who turned on her at a moment's notice. Still an awesome movie.

my favorite movie of last year

22:00 He's not simply telling someone, it's a confession to a catholic priest. Then, the priest tells Jacques whatever he wants to hear. Welcome to the middle ages.

Ridley Scott is a master!

I hadn't even heard of this before now. I'm going to have to find a way to see it. I think it has a certain "Dangerous Liaisons" vibe (a film you definitely need to watch) but even that doesn't get quite as dark as this does. Also - Jodie Comer comes from the same part of the world as me and she is an insanely gifted actress. If you can find a way to watch Killing Eve series, do it. I think that would be right up your street.

Watching the end of the duel I almost thought Jean was gonna believe him. When he said "Then you be DAMNED" I literally started clapping 😝😝

Also Jodie has some great roles in some tv series like killing eve but she has recently done a movie called HELP alongside Stephen graham and they are both fenomenal. I really recommend it

I only watched this film for Jodie (I thought it was just a 'battle' movie, so wasn't too interested before watching), but the storytelling blew me away. Disgusted me to no end, but kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time. And Jodie's performance was so powerful. I was rooting for her, but of course, it was still a bittersweet ending. I was so happy when it read that Marguerite never remarried. 😂🙌

I didn't know the history before I watched this movie and didn't know who would win, and I was on the edge of my seat during the duel

I think an important thing to take from not only Jacques insistence on his innocence, but also Jean's perspective of himself as a noble men, that the point is none of these men believed themselves to be the monster in the story, but they both were in their own ways. So I think the more important take is the system that creates men like this as being the real thing we should focus to change. Because men like this will continue to exist, without any sense of guilt or morality, if the systems around them continue to be the same.

You should check out Kurosawa's Rashomon, this film took the structure of the three different perspectives on a crime from that film.

Great movie. Like how they showed the different perspectives on the whole thing.

I stopped at "Jodie something, I'm sure she's great". You have no business making YT videos about movies when you cannot be arsed to check the name of the leading lady. Ironic how this is a movie about neglecting the voice of women. Makes you positively medieval.

Actually really liked this one. Glad you’re checking it out.

Adam Drivers character was not a liar IMO, I think he truly believed that this was not rape, you can see how he lived and behaved with women, he simply thought that this was another chasing game (ofc does not make it okay), but this is not as black and white as truth and lies.

Some great foreshadowing with Jacques acting inappropriately but in his mind "fun and exciting" in the context of the party with Pierre where he's chasing girls, as well as the black horse coming to rape the white horse representing Jacques and Marguerite. Note Jacques laughing as he begins his "I'm in love with you" plea. The movie is obvious commentary on current the Me Too movement and broader wave of believing survivors. The Last Duel has long used story telling methods in which writers use past histories and settings to comment on modern social and political issues. It dates back far all the way to 16th century playwrites using pre Spanish rule/ Roman empire setting as a backdrop to comment on current (of the time) Authoritarian terrible rule of Spanish Monarchy, without directly criticizes them, as that would surely lead to their death during the time of The Inquisition. I think it's a really interesting story telling method in how it juxtaposes antiquated behaviors, customs and medieval times with current persistent social issues. The contrast really shows how barbaric the injustices towards sexually abused victims and survivors are treated. This was a well performed movie, all around I saw it last night and made sure to come back to your reaction.

This was a great theater film. I came out very pleasantly surprised and emotional after.

So underrated.

To me this movie isn't really about which POV is correct. They could all be correct. I really think that the reason the different POVs are shown are not because you are supposed to guess which is right, but it is to highlight the POV of when you are the person with less power or are weaker and are put into situations like Marguerite. Men like the ones in the movie might view her actions as not combative enough to be a victim, but especially back then, how much of a fight could she put up? Perhaps her survival instinct kicked, maybe due to fear her actions and feelings became disconnected during that time. In contrast, Adam Driver's character would of course feel calmer and in control, his desires and motives more clear and direct. This movie showed Marguerite's POV so you could understand how she really felt on the inside, not so you would judge what she did on the outside. It was trying to open people's minds to the idea that much of what people feel is kept hidden on the inside during situations in which you feel a power imbalance. So rather than look at the POVs as if one is correct. Look at them as if they showing how those people felt on the inside despite what actions they actually took, especially when it comes to Marguerite's POV..

Jodie Comer is really a great actress!

Oh yeah Jodie has been in a ton of things!! My mad fat diary, the white princess, killing eve, doctor foster!! All fantastic shows!!

This movie was epic!!!!!!! This movie COMPLETELY BOMBED AT THE BOX OFFICE WHICH IS ASHAME, BECAUSE THIS MOVIE IS SO EPIC AND BRUTAL!!!! The tension, atmosphere around these 3 truths!!!! This movie is sooooo powerful!!!!!!

if you ever get the chance to watch Rashomon, there are a LOT of similarities.

One of the best films of the year. Can’t wait for my 4k disc.

Jodie Comer also stars alongside Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy. You couldn’t get a more different film or roll for her.

Just watched this yesterday, great timing. Much appreciated

Jodie Comer also in Free Guy from this year, really cool how different the roles are. Definitely worth a reaction.

Great film I just don’t understand given the time period and location why these characters are speaking English?? They speak Latin in some scenes but not French? What’s up with that?

This film was very good, but that rape scene is so hard to watch. I dont know that any woman can watch that without being triggered.

I really liked this a lot when it came out. Nice to see you react to it!

Surprised how little excitement this film had while it was out. Historical films have been my main interest all my life

First telling: "I can't believe Jean was a little bit rash, and reckless." 😆😆

21:00 - The significance of the shot of the shoes at the foot of the stairs is to suggest that she deliberately took them off, a coy way of non-verbally consenting to his advances.

I loved the movie. It was really layered and fully developed in every way.

You should watch The Duelists (1977) if you liked this.

While it is hinted that Margueritte's version is the truth, I personally believe that she is no more objective than the other two characters. For example, I think Jean was maybe not so cold towards her, but just distant and/or boring to her (it was said that he couldn't read, so they probably didn't have many common interests) and the truth in this example is somewhere between Jean's and Margueritte's versions.

I'm glad the real-life Marguerite got the spotlight today she deserved. She deserved it after what she endured! But, the film WAS inaccurate in a few details, including the rape, how it happened, and the lives of the historical figures. I highly recommend looking up the real-life case to learn its facts. Here are a few of the real-life details it got wrong... Jacques's defense was that he never so much as saw Margeurite that day and the rape NEVER happened. Not that it was a consensual affair. The guy who assisted Jacques in getting into Margeurite's home, Adam, also helped him rape her; he covered her face and held her down. Afterward, Jacques bluntly threatened to kill her if she spoke about it. Adam was ALSO challenged to a duel by Margeurite's cousin who wanted revenge for his role in her rape; she got more support from family/friends than in the movie. Also, Jean died 10 years after the duel and had 2 more kids with Marguerite before he died. Jacques was married and had a son, who said his dad was innocent and unjustly accused. We don't know what happened to Marguerite after Jean's death and what happened to her, sadly. She disappeared from history afterward. NOT disparaging the movie, as I'm glad she's remembered as a strong and brave woman who stood up for herself during a time women were seen as being inferior to men. Just pointing out a few real-life facts I think deserve to be mentioned regarding her story and what happened. I'm glad she actually got more support from friends and family than the browbeating she got in the movie, that's for sure!

Yes my friend is back so excited for this ☺️

A masterclass in perspective that owes a lot to Rashomon.

Just finally saw this film and was completely blown away. Will be a real shame if it doesn’t end up in the Oscars conversation

Just watched the movie on Disney Plus. I really miss Brandon on RU-vid. 😢

The cast is everything.

god dammit i need you to watch ''District 9'' Brandon. such a fantastic movie

One of the best movies in the year

Interesting I just rented this film last night and I thought it was brilliant. I have never hated and felt bad for so many people. Especially my lady.

Amazing film. My favorite movie of 2021. Sad it didn't perform better in the box office.

just watched this movie and holy shit man. so fkn good

So far, my favorite movie of 2021. Absolutely brilliant.

Brandon, are you still going to post Paddy's Has a Jumper this week, or was it pushed back?

It's kinda a remake of Akira Kurosawa's movie 'Rashomon' which he won an oscar for.

The annoyance you get from this movie 😂

I'm hoping you also check out the other Ridley Scott movie released this year, House of Gucci. It's just a great true crime story about rich jerks.

This movie was really good but it certainly wasn't one I would have watched in cinemas. Well, seems like I'm one of those bloody millennials Scott likes to blame for his box office failures these days :-D

Hey Brandon. I watch a couple other react channels but you are by far my favorite. There is an excellent movie, Gone Baby Gone, with Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Casey Affleck that you simply have to watch. It's got like 90% rotten tomatoes and the acting, cinematography etc are top notch. Now, saying that, for some reason most people don't know and it might not have the most views. How much would you charge for a personalized request? Thank you for your content and I hope you have a happy new year.

This movie was excellent. Can't wait to watch it again

best movie in 2021 the acting the writing and the directing are great and the set design and costume design are incredible ive seen this movie 4 times since it came out its such a great movie

Really good commentary. Agree with all of your reactions.