‘The last duel’, the first case of ‘Me Too’ in history that was solved with the blow of the sword

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In October 2017 the film industry woke up to a news story that turned everything upside down. The most powerful producer of the last decades, Harvey Weinstein, was accused in two publications of The New York Times and The New Yorker of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of women. A hidden truth was uncovered but that everyone seemed to know. What caused that complaint in the media was an unstoppable movement, the ‘Me Too’. The courage of those women, who had raised their voices against a monster that promised to sink the race and destroy whoever told what happened, invited many others to do so.

Impunity was ending. The cry of those pioneers was a domino effect that has caused women not to be afraid to report abusive practices and harassment against powerful men. There is the case of Placido Domingo, or that of Roger wings. For this they had had to pass centuries of silence, of humiliations. The woman as an object. The man using his position of power to get what he wanted when he wanted. And all looking the other way. A culture of rape that has been established in us for a long time.

So much so that in the fourteenth century, there was already a case that could be considered a precedent for ‘Me Too’. The one of Marguerite de Carrouges, who accused of rape Jacques Le Gris at a time when women were silent about any type of abuse. Her husband, Jean de Carrouges, he challenged his former partner to a duel to the death. Whoever loses would be because God considered that he had lied. A fact that he told in the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France the writer Eric Jager, and that has now become a movie thanks to Ridley Scott.


The director of masterpieces like Alien O Thelma y Louise has premiered in Venice the one that it is his best movie in many years. One more example of his talent as a filmmaker, of his ability to create an overwhelming epic, to shoot the fights in a brutal and exciting way. Now, thanks to a script written byr Matt Damon, Ben Aflleck y Nicole Holofcener, finally with a story that is, above all, a perfect metaphor for ‘Me Too’. In Marguerite’s story are all those who raised their voices against Weinstein.

This is the first script Affleck and Damon have written since their Oscar for the libretto of El indomable Will Hunting, And although it seems like a whim that there is another scriptwriter, it is such a smart decision that it elevates the film to another level. The film is divided into three chapters, each one telling from a point of view the event, the rape and everything that happened until the final duel. Damon and Affleck take charge of the two male characters – played by Damon himself and a Adam Driver that he returns to confirm that he is currently one of the greats.

But they couldn’t write the female point of view. On this bright and smart Rashomon del ‘Me Too’ You couldn’t make the same mistake that Hollywood has made for decades, that men write about things they don’t know. Here is the scriptwriter of that jewel called Can you forgive me someday the one that offers the third act, the one that is told from the point of view of women, an imposing Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) that eats the screen. Until then we have seen women as those two men see them. In the background, how you compare. When she realizes she grows up, she lights up the screen.

Matt Damon en The last duel.

Matt Damon en The last duel.

It also changes how we view rape. From the point of view of the rapist (Driver) there is almost no screaming, it is an act of demonstration of power. When she tells it, the real screams are heard, the photograph darkens. She also shows us the true face of that husband who also belittles her and who believes that he is only good for having children. Be careful, the fact that it offers three points of view does not prevent it from showing which is the real one, since each one is called: ‘The truth according to …’ and the name of the character, but when hers arrives the screen darkens and only lights up Two words: ‘The truth’. Because the truth is that of the victim, outraged at the trial, pointed out by everyone, also by many women who, although they suffered the same, thought that they should be silent.

The first two acts are building -at a good pace and with several scenes of brutal fights- which will then explode in that third act that, in addition, ends with the duel scene, one of the most brutal fights and best shot in a long time. Dirty, bloody, uncompromising and with the best rhythm of Ridley Scott. The Venice Film Festival Thus closes a more than remarkable edition. A pity that this last duel is out of competition. It will be necessary to see if the Oscars recover it.

Reference-www.elespanol.com

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