YMMV / The Last Duel

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Given the unexplained Contrived Coincidence of Le Gris coming to Marguerite on the one day she's completely alone in the castle because Nicole has taken all the servants with her (against Jean's direct orders), it is possible that Nicole set the situation up in some way (possibly through Le Gris' servant), presumably because she either wanted Marguerite to get pregnant one way or the other or to break her spirit out of spite and just assumed she would stay silent about it the way Nicole herself had. It should be noted that there is no direct evidence to suggest this, but the coincidence is a big one, and it would seem to be in-character for what we see of Nicole.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Putting a snake on the coat of arms of a man who sneaked into his friend's castle to rape the latter's wife may seem as a very unsubtle metaphor, but the Le Gris family really had such a coat of arms. In medieval heraldry, it represented wisdom.
• Angst Aversion: It's believed this is a factor in the film's box office failure; although critically acclaimed, it's understandable a lot of people were put off by the grim subject matter. It's an unflinching portrayal of the darker side of medieval society and the most (or only) sympathetic character is Marguerite, who is stuck in a loveless marriage and gets raped (which is depicted graphically in two lengthy scenes); she's subjected to Blaming the Victim, the only way she'll get justice is if her husband defeats her attacker in a brutal duel and if he fails she'll be horribly executed for 'lying'.
• Anvilicious: Marguerite's story is pointedly labeled "The Truth," with the words even lingering on-screen longer than the rest. The film quite emphatically depicts the elaborate system of cultural norms and biases that caused her account to be doubted. Marguerite's actress Jodie Comer and director Ridley Scott were visibly upset when an interviewer claimed to have heard an audience member doubting Marguerite's side of the story, assuming the movie was meant to be ambiguous and not an example of this very trope.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: The movie is a gloomy, slow-paced period piece, but which also foregoes more crowd-pleasing fare such as romance or combat (save the final duel and some brief set-pieces battles in the first half), instead being essentially a historical legal drama. For people who read the research the movie was based off of, significant changes made to Jacques Le Gris’s role in events cooled off reception as well. While the film never succumbs to Draco in Leather Pants and clearly portrays him as a rapist, the attempt to “soften” his characterization and crime to make him more sympathetic seems to have caused some minor Misaimed Fandom that frustrated both director Ridley Scott and actress Jodie Comer and exacerbated the Too Bleak, Stopped Caring apathy of some some potential customers; it’s difficult to see what dramatic benefit would come from trying to make the rapist even mildly more sympathetic than he was in history.
• Award Snub: The film was significantly praised, but didn't get any Academy Award nomination in 2022. Jodie Comer was especially seen as snubbed as her performance was seen as one of the best of the season. Lampshaded brutally when, as part of a "consolation gifts" gag during the awards ceremony, Regina Hall offered "the screener for a never-before-seen film, not even by the director," which then turned out to be this film. Though that would be overshadowed by the mention of another Ridley Scott motion picture in that same ceremony...
• Awesome Music: Harry Gregson Williams composed a very neat medieval-ish soundtrack for the film, the crowner possibly being "Celui Que Je Désire".
• Common Knowledge: There are some who believe that the movie's use of three different perspectives intentionally leaves it ambiguous as to whether Marguerite was actually raped and that she can be interpreted as a false accuser. In the film itself, all the narratives clearly present Jacques as guilty; even during Jacques' segment it's made clear that he raped Marguerite (she runs from him, hits him and repeatedly tells him "No") and that his supposed romance with her is delusional, with his POV merely serving to explain why he thinks he's 'innocent', while also trying to deconstruct the attitudes towards women and sex that are often used to excuse or downplay rape (i.e. "She said no but I could tell she actually wanted it", "I thought she was playing hard-to-get" etc). The film also heavily implies that Marguerite's account is the most accurate, something both Ridley Scott and Jodie Comer confirmed. It's worth noting that in real life, the rape was described as brutal to the point there was no ambiguity as to whether it was consensual and it got toned down for the film; other changes the movie made to the historical account potentially contributed to the perception that it was supposed to be ambiguous when this wasn't the intention.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ben Affleck's performance as Pierre was largely praised as an unexpected and welcome source of comic relief in the movie, to the point that him getting nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award elicited reactions of He Panned It, Now He Sucks! towards the Razzies.
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of the reasons Jean de Carrouges is facing financial ruin is because the human cost of the Plague has compromised his ability to make money from his property and the businesses on it, mirroring the long-term impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic (with the pandemic ironically also being a factor in the movie's poor box office performance).
• He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: Ben Affleck's nomination at the Golden Raspberry Award in the "Worst Supporting Actor" category as Count Pierre d'Alençon triggered reactions akin to this, considering he was actually mostly praised for that role. Some think it's due to his character being basically the comic relief in an otherwise grim and bleak film, or even solely because of the bleached bowl haircut and goatee he sports as the character, which look ridiculous outside of the movie's context.
• Memetic Mutation: Old Man Yells At Cloud^Explanation When the movie's opening weekend proved to be a resounding dud, director Ridley Scott complained that the movie failed because of millennials that seemed to only be able to get information through their cell phones. He was promptly mocked for how out-of-touch this comment sounded (not in the least because "millennials" would be past their teen years and had been made a catch-all for "younger people we don't like"), especially as there were many other factors that affected the film's revenue, such as it suffering from Invisible Advertising, the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, and the aforementioned issue of its bleak subject matter appealing less to audiences.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The rape in question is portrayed as extremely brutal with Marguerite fleeing in terrified panic from Jacques, trying desperately to stop him, screaming "No!" repeatedly and clearly in pain the whole time. Even in the version as portrayed from Jacques' perception, it's still clear to viewers Marguerite is afraid and trying to escape him, whether or not Jacques understands that.
  • If Jean loses the duel against Jaques, Marguerite will be tortured and burned alive and it's mentioned that it can take as long as twenty to thirty minutes of unimaginable agony to die in such a way.
• Spiritual Successor: To Rob Roy, another period piece ending with a Trial by Combat between a man who thinks through Honor Before Reason and a cultured and depraved man who raped the other's wife and is protected by his liege lord.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some of the changes made to the story from its original historical research book inspiration have the unfortunate effect of actually decreasing some of the legal drama, and perhaps muddying the waters in a damaging way. The historical Marguerite apparently inspired much more support from both her family and the court at large with the strength of her testimony in spite of the risk (since she knew what dangers she faced, compared to the film version), one of Le Gris’s key witnesses was challenged to a duel by another of Marguerite’s relatives and then arrested and charged with rape himself, and the historical Le Gris was actually married with children and accused of much more overtly vile behavior; apparently his own lawyer (the best one in France, at that) privately thought that he was guilty.
• Unpopular Popular Character: Pierre is regarded by almost everyone in the film as a snide, immature hedonist and a complete dick who even his own wife can barely stand. Many critics however praised him as a highlight due to Ben Affleck's delightful performance.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Matt Damon's choppy mullet and Ben Affleck's blonde bowl-cut and goatee have drawn their share of confused reactions from viewers, although this is justified to an extent in-universe—this article states that Ridley Scott imagined that Jean de Carrouges had cut his hair himself so that it'd fit under a helmet, without caring for how it looked, and that Count Pierre's look was intended to be a fashionable status symbol at the time. It's also a case of Shown Their Work: the bowl cut was favored among late medieval knights for being easy to maintain on campaign without the need for a skilled barber-surgeon on hand, and it fit neatly underneath a helmet.

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