Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is built around a real 14th-century accusation that ends in a sanctioned fight to the death, but the movie’s real weapon is perspective. Set in medieval France, it retells the same chain of events three times, exposing how status, ego, and entitlement can rewrite “what happened” long before a court ever weighs in.
What makes the film hit harder than a conventional historical epic is its final shift in focus: the story stops being about two men’s rivalry and becomes about the woman at the center of the case, and what it costs to insist on being believed. Below is a complete guide to The Last Duel, including plot, cast, true story background, what critics said, and where it’s streaming in the United States. The trailer is at the bottom of the article.
The Last Duel: All the key details
- Title: The Last Duel
- Format: Feature film
- Runtime: 152 minutes
- Genre: Historical drama, legal drama
- Release date: October 15, 2021 (U.S. theatrical)
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Lead cast: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck
- Produced by: Scott Free Productions, 20th Century Studios
What The Last Duel is about
The Last Duel follows Jean de Carrouges, a knight whose career and standing begin to slip, and Jacques Le Gris, a rising squire with the protection of powerful patrons. Their relationship fractures completely when Carrouges’ wife, Marguerite, accuses Le Gris of rape.
With testimony contested and power shaping every “fact,” the case escalates into a judicial duel: a fight sanctioned by the crown, rooted in the belief that God will grant victory to the rightful party. The film’s structure is the point. It recounts the same period three times, each version colored by the narrator’s self-image, until the final chapter re-centers the story on Marguerite and the stakes of being heard in a system designed to silence her.
Who is the director of The Last Duel
Ridley Scott has long used historical settings to examine institutions, violence, and the stories societies tell themselves about honor. From Gladiator to Kingdom of Heaven, his period films often look impressive on the surface while quietly arguing about who holds power and what it does to people.
With The Last Duel, Scott pairs that large-scale craft with a perspective-driven narrative more commonly associated with modern psychological drama. The result is a medieval epic that plays like an investigation into how truth is manufactured and protected, especially when class and gender decide whose version counts.
The Last Duel cast: the main characters
Matt Damon plays Jean de Carrouges as rigid and pride-driven, a man whose idea of honor is inseparable from status. Adam Driver’s Jacques Le Gris is charismatic and socially agile, moving through the court’s politics with ease and a sense of entitlement that the film gradually exposes.
Jodie Comer delivers the film’s moral and emotional center as Marguerite, a performance widely highlighted by critics for the way it shifts the entire movie’s meaning once her perspective takes over. Ben Affleck appears as Count Pierre d’Alençon, embodying the casual cruelty and indulgence of privilege in a court that treats people as assets.
If you’re mapping the Affleck-Damon collaboration timeline, you can also read our internal guide: Every movie where Ben Affleck and Matt Damon appear on screen together, and our feature on Why Good Will Hunting still resonates as a defining American drama.
Is The Last Duel based on a true story?
Yes. The Last Duel is adapted from Eric Jager’s nonfiction book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France. The duel at the center of the film took place in 1386 and is widely described as the last officially sanctioned judicial duel in France.
What reviews say about The Last Duel
Reviews of The Last Duel often focused on the film’s unusual structure and the way its final chapter reshapes the story’s meaning. In its review, Variety emphasized how the three-perspective format is designed to test what viewers assume they know, with the last section reframing earlier events through a more morally and emotionally definitive lens.
The Hollywood Reporter likewise highlighted the performances and the film’s thematic intent, frequently pointing to Jodie Comer’s work as Marguerite as the emotional and ethical center that gives the film its lasting force.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the overall critical reception reflects a similar consensus in aggregated excerpts: strong acting, a deliberately heavy subject, and a structure that makes its most important statement at the end.
Read the full reviews here: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Rotten Tomatoes.
Why watch The Last Duel
If you enjoyed films that interrogate truth through competing narratives, The Last Duel fits naturally into that space, blending the scale of a medieval epic with the tension of a courtroom drama. It is heavy viewing by design, but the perspective shift is precisely what makes it more than a story about a duel: it becomes a story about whose reality is permitted to stand.
The Last Duel release date on streaming (U.S.)
Available now. The Last Duel is currently streaming in the United States on Hulu.
Release date: October 15, 2021. Watch on Hulu: It may also be available to rent or buy on major digital stores (availability can vary), such as Amazon and Apple TV.
Watch the trailer
Here’s the trailer to get a first taste.
