The Last Duel (2021)

The Last Duel is Ridley Scott operating at full command: a sweeping, mud-and-steel medieval epic that feels both grandly old-fashioned and startlingly modern in what it has on its mind. The film’s three-perspective structure turns a familiar tale of pride and grievance into something sharper and more unsettling, letting performances do the heavy lifting—especially Jodie Comer, who brings intelligence and quiet fury to a world designed to deny her both. Scott’s camera revels in period detail and escalating tension, building toward action that’s brutal, lucid, and earned rather than decorative. It’s not for everyone—its depictions of sexual violence and harsh brutality are intense and meant for adults—but if you can handle the subject matter, it’s a riveting, handsomely crafted drama with real moral weight.

The Last Duel is clearly trying to be a prestige medieval drama that interrogates truth, power, and how stories get weaponized, all while building to a brutally staged showdown. Ridley Scott delivers gritty atmosphere and a finale that’s genuinely tense, with Jodie Comer in particular doing standout work, but getting there can feel like a slog: it’s long, deliberately repetitive in structure, and the screenplay can seem cluttered or oddly heavy-handed in how it underlines its themes. The violence is graphic and the sexual assault content is central and explicit enough that it’s not something you can just “get through” if that’s a trigger or simply not what you want from an evening’s viewing. If you like patient, talky historical epics with uncomfortable subject matter and can tolerate a slow burn, it may land; if you want tight pacing, subtle messaging, or a lighter medieval adventure, this probably isn’t for you.