The Ridley Scott Movie That Reunited Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Flopped, but It Deserves Your Attention

Despite being such an iconic duo in movies and pop culture at large, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have been in fewer films together than you’d think. They helped define 1990s independent cinema with their writing and acting partnership in Good Will Hunting, followed by a farcical turn in Kevin Smith‘s Dogma. However, it took them over 20 years to properly reunite (excluding Damon’s litany of cameos in other Affleck-Smith films), and this reunion was one that few people seemed to care about. Released in 2021 to poor box office returns, the Disney-20th Century Studios merger did no favors to The Last Duel, Ridley Scott‘s overlooked medieval drama that failed to spotlight the reunion between Damon and Affleck as an acting and writing team in its marketing. Luckily, it appears that the experience of making the film rekindled their bond, as the two are now leading a new Netflix action thriller, The Rip.

‘The Last Duel’ Rekindled The Creative Bond Between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck

Directed by Joe Carnahan, The Rip is a familiar cop/drug trafficking thriller, but it immediately gains a level of prestige by the presence of Damon and Affleck, who are also supported by Kyle Chandler, Teyana Taylor, and Steven Yeun. The new film will serve as a welcoming appetizer for one of Damon’s most seismic roles yet as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey.

If any film should’ve been marked as the ultimate reunion between the two Boston-based friends, it was The Last Duel, released in October 2021 to strong critical acclaim but weak mass appeal, grossing $27 million worldwide on a $100 million budget. Developed as a Fox picture, the film ended up in Disney’s hands after the merger, and they proceeded to unceremoniously dump it in theaters with little fanfare, burying the excitement of Ridley Scott, returning to similar stomping grounds as Gladiator, directing a script by Damon and Affleck (along with Nicole Holofcener of Enough Said fame) that also starred Adam Driver. Both a medieval battle epic and chamber relationship drama, The Last Duel centers around a conflict between two knights, Sir Jean de Carrouges (Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Driver), ignited by sexual assault allegations against the latter by the former’s wife, Marguerite (Jodie Comer).

Damon and Affleck only share a few scenes together, but The Last Duel ranks among each actor’s finest work. The experience of writing the film was also an enlightening realization for Damon. “I remember my wife said to me one day: ‘I haven’t heard you laugh like that in 15 years,'” he recalled his enjoyment writing with his long-time buddy to AP. Damon then asked himself one simple question: “Why aren’t we doing this more often?” For people like Damon and Affleck, both in their 50s in an industry that has abandoned movie stars and the kind of movies that made them famous, you have to call your own shot. “If we don’t make it a priority, it’s just not going to happen.” Two years later, the duo reconvened for the Nike biopic, Air, with Affleck behind the camera.

‘The Last Duel’ is a Reinvented Take on the Medieval Epic

The Last Duel, packed with big stars and even bigger sets, would’ve killed at the box office decades earlier, but this kind of original, adult-oriented period piece with vibrant spectacle and sophisticated ideas is harder to sell than ever. Ridley Scott’s construction of 14th-century France is finely crafted, far more immersive and lived-in than his CG-riddled return to ancient Rome in Gladiator II. Scott’s assured direction is reflected in his restraint, as he lets the Rashomon-inspired script (the film’s triptych structure follows the eyewitness account of Jean, Jacques, and Marguerite) by Damon, Affleck, and Holofcener transform this medieval battle epic into a treatise on honor and justice. The film unflinchingly explores contemporary gender dynamics in a #MeToo world, as the central conflict revolves around a perilous he-said-she-said stand-off, and a woman’s account of rape is only validated by the men who use Marguerite’s accusation as motivation to satisfy their hypermasculine urges for chivalrous combat.

Matt Damon has only improved with age, with his performance as Jean, the ferocious yet loyal knight, an indication of his complete lack of vanity. The actor is unafraid to play a character with brazen sensibilities or grotesque features, and he underlines the film’s deconstruction of medieval nobility and justice. Ben Affleck channels his former on-screen persona as a loudmouth, garrulous goofball with the sadsack misfortune captured in his viral paparazzi photos that became the source of countless memes. Cinema has glorified the code of knights and warriors for nearly a century, but The Last Duel stripped away the glamor and nobility of these men who use any cause to fuel their fury and thirst for blood. In a just world, Damon and Affleck will continue lifting daring and artfully-minded films like this off the ground.

The Last Duel is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

Release Date

October 15, 2021

Runtime

2h 32m