The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

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DarkImbecile
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#3 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:29 pm


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therewillbeblus
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Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#4 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Feb 27, 2020 7:51 pm

Set photos hit twitter today including this gem:
Spoiler’d only for spaceShow
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willoneill
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#5 Post by willoneill » Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:40 pm

Ridley Scott's The Last Duel. I like historical accuracy as much as anyone, but if you put Ben & Matt in hair like that you'd be expect some snickers.


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Monterey Jack
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#7 Post by Monterey Jack » Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:22 am

...because only women can properly write about/direct other women, of course...

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Never Cursed
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#8 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:43 am

I mean, it's fine if it worked for the process of writing this screenplay. I agree that I don't want to see literal gender segregation promulgated or enforced for most or all movies, but no one is saying that it could, should, or will...

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#9 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:12 am

Never Cursed wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:43 am
I mean, it's fine if it worked for the process of writing this screenplay. I agree that I don't want to see literal gender segregation promulgated or enforced for most or all movies, but no one is saying that it could, should, or will...
This. It could simply be Damon and Affleck (who, let's face it, are not exactly seasoned 'writers') being humble around their limitations, and Holofcener is an amazing writer so if you have her as a collaborator, why not have her assist as much as possible? I'm mostly curious if the dissonance will be obnoxiously obvious in the film itself- though I have to imagine script doctors working overtime to make the dialogue sound even in tone (and wouldn't be surprised to hear that this doctor is Holofcener herself- bring on the "How much of this film did Damon/Affleck actually write?" part deux)

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willoneill
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#10 Post by willoneill » Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:52 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:12 am
It could simply be Damon and Affleck (who, let's face it, are not exactly seasoned 'writers')
I read that and just had Ewan McGregor's voice in my head asking Jonny Lee Miller "despite the Academy Award?"

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#11 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:01 pm

They haven’t written a script since the mid 90s, so seasoned they are not. However, I love their script for that movie so that doesn’t mean they aren’t talented. When anyone takes 25 years off from doing something, it makes sense that they would be somewhat self-conscious about their limitations though.

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willoneill
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#12 Post by willoneill » Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:31 pm

Ben Affleck has written 3 scripts (plus 2 teleplays) between GWH and Last Duel, and Matt Damon has written two scripts in between.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#13 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:43 pm

Okay, Affleck has received a co-writer credit on two strong scripts without testimony as to the level of his involvement, and his only sole screenplay credit is Live By Night, one of the worst I’ve seen. But sure, that sample size totally makes them seasoned writers and they should be able to feel comfortable writing female roles by now.

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swo17
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#14 Post by swo17 » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:02 pm

And one of Damon's credits is for Gerry. Isn't that just for improvising what little dialogue he has in the film?

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domino harvey
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#15 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:07 pm

He didn't write any lines for women in that either

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hearthesilence
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#16 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:14 pm

Affleck wrote the animal crackers scene in Armageddon. That's some Robert Towne shit right there.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#17 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:16 pm

I guess I'm just perplexed by any 'logic' that supposes that writing an Oscar-winning first screenplay translates to having experience writing diverse roles over the course of a career

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willoneill
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#18 Post by willoneill » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:23 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:14 pm
Affleck wrote the animal crackers scene in Armageddon. That's some Robert Towne shit right there.
Really? I had read that Scott Rosenberg wrote that scene for Beautiful Girls but cut it out of his final draft, then re-used it when he did script doctor work on Armageddon.

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hearthesilence
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#19 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:43 pm

willoneill wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:23 pm
hearthesilence wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:14 pm
Affleck wrote the animal crackers scene in Armageddon. That's some Robert Towne shit right there.
Really? I had read that Scott Rosenberg wrote that scene for Beautiful Girls but cut it out of his final draft, then re-used it when he did script doctor work on Armageddon.
I couldn't find a definitive answer but holy shit, Robert Towne was actually one of many writers who did rewrites for it.

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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#20 Post by beamish14 » Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:17 pm

Damon rewrote the last 20 minutes or so of The Bourne Identity completely on his own.

I remember reading about another project that Affleck and Damon were writing in the wake of Good Will Hunting that dealt with the staff of a drug rehabilitation center. Affleck's mother is a clinical social worker, and I think she inspired it.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#21 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:20 pm

I'd love to see that movie instead of this one. They really do well with familiar terrain.

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Brian C
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#22 Post by Brian C » Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:31 am

Well, I have to say that this movie annoyed me a great deal. It's a story that 100% could have stood on its own merits, but the filmmakers decide to dress it up in modern sensibilities and impose a narrative structure upon it that they don't even believe in. It's like they watched Rashomon but completely missed the point, only to realize this at the end and decide that they had to decide which version of the story was "the truth".

I mean, just think of how ridiculous to use this structure in a story where we're supposed to learn that women who make rape accusations need to be taken seriously - "Oh well, you know the truth is subjective, right? WAIT WAIT NO ... not this truth, this truth you can just take our word about." The whole point was undermined the minute the film starts.

It's hard to understand why anyone thought this would be a good idea. And it completely botches the middle section anyway, again seemingly afraid to commit to the narrative's central conceit. The movie from a nuts-and-bolts standpoint is reasonably well-made and passes the time, but it just seemed enormously stupid - even fatuous - to me. And as a movie that strains to make a political point about the trauma of sexual assault, well, all I can say is that it's a movie that doesn't want to let a good rape scene go to waste by only showing it to us once!

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Never Cursed
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#23 Post by Never Cursed » Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:43 am

This blew my expectations out of the water, which is to say it was pretty good. Scott’s issues as a director remain what they are (bless him, but he still hasn’t really figured out how to film a medieval battle scene even after Gladiator), but I thought the multiple-perspectives conceit of the script provided more than just topical political digs (and outside of a couple predictable and ignorable scenes, I don’t think it really does that either). The first two-thirds of the film, which showcase the viewpoints of the victim’s husband and the rapist in sequence, are astonishingly and appropriately anti-feminist, crafting an exciting world of macho warriors dominating others (including but not limited to women) specifically so that the last part can take an axe to these sequences. (Adam Driver in particular is so well-used in the scenes that try to reframe his actions as romantic or socially appropriate, and I struggle to think of another modern leading man that could better embody the confection of enticing sexual threat and menace necessary for the character.) The reduction of the attack by the Damon and Driver characters to a distant property crime or a declaration of courtly love gone wrong is a necessary prelude to the grueling women’s picture about the omnipresence and horror of sexual threat the film becomes in its final third. Sure, the hand-tipping title card is a bit condescending in making sure that the audience knows which version of “the truth” is true, but it didn’t bother me as much as it seemed to bother Brian (or Richard Brody) if only because it wasn’t confirming anything we didn’t already know or wouldn’t experience. It like the whole film is manipulative and heavy-handed, but only constructively so, only in the service of getting at something at least a bit more knotted than mere parallels to #metoo.


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knives
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Re: The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)

#25 Post by knives » Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:55 am

Ironically millennials seem to be the ones most enthusiastic about it.

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