The Last Duel

Release Date: October 15, 2021

Watch Date: January 26, 2023

    I think that this movie, at least for a one time viewing experience is amazing. Truly, I do. I think it’s fantastic, it speaks to a problem that is somehow still plaguing society these many centuries later. It is, honestly, a work of art.

    “If a tree falls in a forest, you’ll get three stories, yours, mine and the trees.” A quote that I have always loved since the first time I heard it, and a quote that definitely applies to this film. The events of Marguerite de Carrouges life will be forever shrouded in lore, because three people had three vastly different experiences of it, and it is now buried in history, and we will never be able to extricate the true story. I am, like most women of my age, inclined to believe the victim. Marguerite stood to lose everything, and gain nothing, so lying would do very little to benefit her.

    I think it is poetic, in a way, that the men’s versions of the stories are told before her own. It is supposed to be because she is telling the truth, but I think that is often the case in history, and in modern day. The man’s story is given preferential treatment, deferred to, and it is up to the woman to prove the truth of her own experiences. It is a tragic, brutal reminder that women are still treated and viewed this way today. A woman can be a doting wife to her husband, who never sees the terrible hurts he’s causing her, and a vixen to another man, seducing him into her bed, no matter how innocently she intends to act around him.

    Bob loved this movie, but his very strong opinion is that this is a movie that would not be fantastic on a second viewing. I understand what he means by that, part of the magic of the story is seeing how all three point of views play out and work within each other. But you’d know what to expect on subsequent viewings, and it would take some of the magic out of the retelling.

    In the end, this movie addresses a serious problem that women still face every day of their lives in an interesting way. The last sanctioned duel of France was between two men who were once friends, over a woman, not to defend her honor, but to defend their own. Still, Marguerite should not be pushed to the background of her own story, and it is nice to see her be brought to the forefront, and her version of events shared. Would that every victim of rape be able to be given the confidence that she had to stand up against her attacker, despite the risks she took. There should be no victims, but if there must be, they should never be shamed into silence.