9:31 "The horrifying lesson that Lady Margeurite learns is that she probably never should have spoken up to begin with. Nobody really saw her anyway." Spot on Nathan

Terry Pratchett wrote “Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.” Not only was Lady Marguerite a prop between two men and their egos but she also was one for all the facets mentioned before either to be held up as an object of scorn or symbol of outraged honor and whether justice was serviced or not was of very little consequence because it was all good show.

I feel speechless right now, but I really enjoyed the video. This is also horror, despite the different genre of film, and your style of analysis on it and your sensibilities are appreciated.

Didn't think this was a horror movie but others had it right, it is. To be nothing but a tool in society, it's a horrible pain and terror that screams at you at every quiet moment.

The Last Duel IS a horror film. Ask any woman who's seen it.

I saw a video about this movie that I absolutely didn't like because the creator failed to grasp the message (the creator's blind spots in that case I guess). But your video made up for it a thousand times. For some reason, it made me feel seen. Even though I was never raped or anything, it just... I feel like, as a woman you can really feel that whole collective hopelessness of women sometimes. It makes me sad and angry, even just the thought of "I'm lucky I never had to go through something like this", when there shouldn't even be a source for such a thought to begin with. But seeing both women AND men (it's important that it's men, too) shedding light on it, believing, speaking up when others will forever just look away DOES feel like hope. Sorry for my English and the whole sappy text, I just wanna say thank you

In a way the movie serves as meta commentary on itself and the film industry - this story about rape culture had to market itself as a film about two big male stars duking it out to draw attention to itself.

This analysis is so effective and also SO concise!! That’s amazing. The editing where different perspectives take up different thirds of the screen work fantastically to capture what movie is doing

your work is, as ever, magnificent. You're so eloquent in these matters that are so terribly hard to fully lay out in words. Like you said of Lady Margeuritte, it's the world that surrounds us and articulating precisely the hows and whys of this culture is hard even now after decades of trying to unpick and display its wounded underbelly

Brilliant. What really shocked me is that I found myself wondering where the actual truth lie. Were any of he stories completely true? The fact that Jacques truly believed that he and Margarite had a hot romance going on, was infuriating and a little heartbreaking. He never repented because he saw himself as a victim. He doesn't believe rape is acceptable and wants to see himself as a Lothario. It makes me wonder; What can punishment do if the person you punish doesn't know what they've done wrong? Watching Jacques version of the coy lady, undone with passion vs Margarites version of the unlawful entry into her home and callous rape are frightening to compare. Jacques doesn't know what he's done. The fact that whomever won the duel was supposed to be correct, is completely unreasonable. The idea that Margarite would endure a hideous and grueling death, if her husband lost, was absurd. To me, the most depressing message of the film, is that everyone is isolated in their own story and truth is as irrelevant as a mediaeval woman's point of view.

That punctuation at the end was such a great encapsulation of the essay. Really well done, super interesting as always.

Another phenomenal analysis! I'm so glad I found this channel

For those of you Incels out there ranting about Marguerite's 'guilt' in this story, let me clear up a few misguided, misinformed, and mistaken facts. 1. This is NOT fiction, it's FRENCH HISTORY. 2. The guilt of Jacques was established in a court, as per the verdict of the duel. As to whether he really raped Marguerite or not doesn't matter for the purposes of the court. That truth probably falls somewhere in the middle. 3. The DUEL was brought upon by Jean pitching a fit about the verdict of the FIRST trial, which JACQUES WON. He had to petition the King to get that done, and REFUSED a settlement of property, simply because he was pissed off at Jacques FOR OTHER stuff. In those days, there was NO crime of rape against women, it was a crime against PROPERTY of men, and should have been handled as such. Jean thought the duel would just bring about a verdict as to who the better fighter was, not result in the DEATH of his wife if he lost. In reality, that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. He was too far in to reverse it. As for Marguerite, I have no doubt she was forced into sex by Jacques, who fancied himself in love with her, but it was ALSO in retaliation for Jean trying to humiliate him in front of the Duke. The MEN created this problem and Marguerite was sick of being in the middle. There's NO evidence she lied to anyone, and put herself in jeopardy with the King, who tried to talk her out of it. AFTER her husband passes away later, she NEVER remarried. So the nonsense about her being 'forced' to marry again is bullshit. She lived a long life.

This was a well made video, and is a good breakdown of some of the main ideas. I'll mention some things I noticed and did not expect that I haven't been able to fully interpret. The main issue is her rape, yes. But like you were saying, there were other aspects of each character explored. In some ways, Carrouges' victory in the end and parade is somewhat gratifying on it's own. At least it was for me. I did not get the impression that he was as debauched as Le Gris and Pierre. Although he was a professional soldier and able to display true courage and a sense of duty (as his Scot allies flee, he seems bewildered that they would run, as arrows are flying around him), along with a serious, not insincere religious devotion (he seems to truly believe that his fight with Le Gris was the work of God, and God would vindicate he and his wife against Le Gris), he is often kind of goofy, and stumbles about awkwardly, unable to handle almost any important situation competently, outside of warfare, and in his enemy's minds at least, not even in warfare. He is mocked and despised. Pierre infinitely prefers Le Gris' shallow, fornicating, worldy wise, unserious behavior to Carrouge. When Carrouge defeats Le Gris and is celebrated in the streets of Paris, while Le Gris is unceremoniously dragged naked through the street, the triumph is mitigated by the overall strange and awful trophy-like presentation of Marguerite, for sure: but man, can you imagine a rapist being treated like that today? For all of its awful nature, when the rape culture dealt with rape, it did so in a harsher way than we ever would. How many of our rapists and guys that randomly assault women you find out were released after similar charges? I found that very thought provoking. In the end though, I agree with much of his breakdown of the main theme. I think the portrayal by Matt Damon of a harsh, medieval man (who had killed who knows how many people), in charge of lands and hundreds if not thousands of people, who could not write his own name...was perfect. I also felt like although his treatment of Marguerite was in no way a path to a fulfilling marriage by our standards, it seemed like he didn't remember things he said that we would find offensive or uncaring (directly or contextual), like his remark about her dress when she met him after his return from a campaign. In his perspective, he was a loving and gentle husband, devoted to duty and willing to die for his wife's honor. Marguerite probably did not know the reality of the love he had for her, or maybe what we consider "love" was just a different thing then. That sparks another interesting question. What Le Gris considers "love"....looking back on his quick exchanges with her over literature, his passionate descriptions of her, full of compliments, his statement that she was married to a brute that did not love her......is that closer to our imagination of what love is, than whatever Carrouge was? Man, this film was better and better as I think about it.

Theres a scene where she looses her shoe in one and doesnt in another. Its the little details that make the film interesting. Poor Margurette though.

I absolutely love The Last Duel 😍

Just watched this today and love your content. Perfect timing!

Fantastic video as always. Love how you split the frame, great editing technique.

BRAVO!!!! Yet another thoughtful and insightful video delivered with compassion and consideration. As usual... well said sir!!!

That music at the end stuck me hard, I’ll be watching this with my wife, it looks fantastic.

fantastic work as always. you're inspiring!

Your reviews are absolutely appreciated! ThankYou👍

I've been waiting for a post release video essay about this movie. I think it's one of ridley Scotts best films in a long time.

We have all just watched this happen to a woman. We watched every facet of society turn on her. We watched her face the world alone. We watched and laughed and cheered at two teams fight a game of chance. We watched a woman go through multitudes of hell for speaking out. The difference here is that she lost the game of chance, she wasn’t burnt at the stake but she was punished and is still being punished.

Great video! Thank you for all of the energy you put into these!

I really enjoyed this movie, and I’m glad you made a video about it. Love the insight, great job :)

brilliant as always, thanks for making these videos, i know how hard it is to put so much time and effort on the channel. hope you'll be able to do this full time and give us more awesome videos.

Bravo bravo 👏🏽 👏🏽👏🏽 this is exactly what I was looking for. I struggled in putting it into my own words when I was explaining this film to my friends. And you did it flawlessly.

Dude, you are some kind of genius! And I havent even finished watching this. Your take on the Lighthouse and Midsommar come to mind.

So glad I caught this! Although I'm subbed to all notifications. It's 11:30am in Australia & this has made my Sunday! 👍

Your last line was so on point. Well said.

Stunning! Simply stunning!

Great analysis. I saw this in cinema and it was very impactful, pure horror. This makes me want to watch it again and look for the subtle differences but watching at home will be boring in comparison

As always, masterful

your work is so good every time ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟

Spot on! And great job editing this video!

So glad I found your channel. Amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

loved this movie, I wish it would've been more successful

Love your videos. Looking forward to catching up on all the Patreon-only ones!

Amazing editing

Excellent analysis, thank you. Not many seem to have covered this great film.

A wonderful video as always!

Just subed and love your stuff! Upset I was able to binge it all in a day 🤣

That was excellent

Very interesting. Thanks for the vid

Great video!

Thanks.

Amazing movie, and a great breakdown & analysis!

Thank you for this analysis. I found this film so haunting to watch, it did not leave me for days.

I like the use of aspect ratio Good job :)

A fantastic video!

Fantastic!!!

Damn man awesome video. Make sure all of you watch til the end!!!

Fantastic!

Been subbed for a while, another great video, keep it up! Watching the subtle differences in the first 2 stories was very interesting to me, seeing them side by side is so cool. I liked the movie up to the 3rd story but after that last part it really got great for me, the final battle was so tense. Great movie, great video!

Scott did a wonderful job with this film.

great video, thanks!

Great movie. Great video.

You know how the Western genre had a rebirth through all these gritty anti-westerns a couple of decades after the genre had died and.tyats mostly what we get nowadays? I feel a similar thing is happening to fantasy or at least things that focus on "knights". You don't see a lot of fun, period pieces nowadays, it's mostly a gritty look at the issues of that period as well as ourselves. The Green Knight and The Last Duel are two perfect examples. My question is, when will this finally happen for Pirate movies and media?

The way you did that in just 10 minutes!

I LOOOOOVED THIS MOVIE!!! 💯💯💯💯💯 Is sad more people didn't go watch it... 😔

Spot on 🙌

Great movie. The last duel scene was magnificent!

A short and sweet video essay, nice!

Awesome review

The style of the story was based on the Kurosawa film, but the story itself was a true story of the last legal duel in France during the middle of the 100 years war.

Excellent critique!

great video dude

this movie is soooo under-rated. great essay!

Thats the kind of review what i looked for.. I missed some of the conclusions of the movie so thamks for clarity

This is an absolutely fantastic analysis of this movie

yuh!

Another great video. Shame audiences slept on this film.

Damn.

Interesting analysis, thank you. I'm raising my score from 8, to 9 out of 10. There are many layers to explore in this well-made film.

This is great! I hadn't had that interpretation but I definitely see it now. Yet it does make me wonder, since films are ideally purposeful: 🤔 ..... If the ending intentionally had this layer of interpretation, that "Lady Margeurite learns ...she probably never should have spoken up to begin with [because] [n]obody really saw her anyway", perhaps one of the filmmakers' goals would be to challenge the audience to consider that "lesson" as more of a question... ..... Didn't we all _just_ see her? _Yes, because movie._ ..... Don't those who feel unseen or have been kept invisible still have voices? _Indeed, even when most won't or can't listen._ ..... Does not "really" being seen somehow negate the importance of speaking up? _Not at all, or else change towards something better would never happen!_ ..... Even if the outcome were different in this film, that she _still _*_chose_* to speak up might be the more relevant and relatable part of the conclusion. Despite the risks, in a culture overwhelmingly resistant to considering women as people, she spoke anyway. ..... Speaking up today still has tons of stigma. When dealt with in the courts (at least in the U.S.) juries and rulings still too often end up favoring the accused over the survivor in many cases, for a multitude of reasons. Even so, there are more survivors speaking up, getting help, and beginning to heal in recent years than ever before, because people are doing it together. It's an amazing thing. ..... But even though the culture around assault and abuse is changing for the better (from what I see in the U.S.), there are still places in the world where speaking up at all can get you killed, not too dissimilar from this film. ..... Whether anyone sees or not, in each of us there's a deep and inherent drive to express and speak the truth. Each time someone takes that risk it may help others find a way to do the same. Even if it takes several, tens, hundreds, or thousands of years, we all have the chance to change for the better when those who come before us take the chance to speak up about something wrong. I think that's what the ending ultimately gets at. Whether we're ever really seen, or even really heard, we're still here, and can choose what to do with our experience, come what may. ..... At least, that's what *_I_* got from the film. 😊 That's what's so great about art. We can explore interpretations, perspectives, and really dig into things! Thanks for making this video and giving me so much to think about! 😊 To anyone who reads this whole thing, my apologies for the length! 😅 Feel free to disagree if you do. Disagreement isn't a bad thing. 😜

0:57 The truest truth of all truths

I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on Nightmare Alley! Seems like the kind of movie that's right up this channel's... alley.

Could you please do a video about 'The platform'

One story comes to mind that could be told perfectly with this style of story telling is...Lolita. I leave you with that

I just caught the end of the livestream

damn, I *just* listened to the Noble Blood podcast episode on this bit of history! What are the odds??

I felt the same way watching the movie

Would like to hear your take on Antlers.

Wow

This movie deserves to be remembered. Thank you for talking about it.

Hey! Been wondering if you're open to covering Hereditary some time? :) I know it's been analysed a lot but I'd love one about it in your style! Completely understand if that's not in the cards atm though

Hey I love love love your Videos! May I ask you, would you do a video on the movie "Mother" by Darren Aronofsky, would love to hear your thoughts on this one.

You show it as it was; a horror movie. She was trapped in a society where, at that time, her word worth nothing. The r... scene was scary, that scene and the duel were hard to watch for me.

a ''like'' well deserved

👏👏👏👏👏👍

The Last Duel was one of the best movies of 2021. It is such a shame that it got such a bad reception.

Thats why Kurosawa is art and the last duel is messaging, or propaganda. The brave choose in the duel would be to show all 3 stories and all three as different with their own truths and flaws, leaving the viewer to put together the pieces as they wish or to contemplate the nature of truth without it being revealed.

Real life Jacques was innocent. It was a plan concocted by the carrouges to get back at Le Grix

The most dangerous kind of rapist is the one who doesn't consider what he does to be rape....

Not unusual that Marguerite's version of events was not taken into account. She virtually took the blam for her rape (similar to attirudes today). Back then as well as in some cultures today, the wife is used as a pawn for exchange between families. Whatever is hers becomes the husband's, and the wife's family pay money for the groom to take charge of the wife. She's thrown around like a piece of meat. Not surprising that her thoughts etc are worthless. She's a trophy or prize, never mind her feelings - she's there for the aid/pleasure of othfers, nothing more,

in the game of patriarchy, women are not the prize; they are the ball.

Okay, I came to watch this because I like your videos and was never planning to watch this movie in the first place. Now I see that it looks like a pretty fascinating flick and I may have to check it out. They did this movie no favors in the trailers and made it look murky and bland.

Is the english hard to understand? The german blu-ray doesn't have english subtitles and I found myself needing subtitles for The VVitch

I found this movie difficult to watch and so I think my brain decided not to think about it too much afterwards and didn't really take the time to parse it at all, so thank you for this - extremely good analysis.