Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jodie Comer and Nicole Holofcener break down what's true and what's invented in Ridley Scott's historical epic 'The Last Duel.'
Spoiler alert: The following story includes details from the historical account behind the new film “The Last Duel” and narrative twists specific to the film. If you’d rather experience the film first, please save this to read after watching.
Still, “The Last Duel” does stick closely to historical fact. Jager counts the film as “at least 75 percent historically accurate, maybe more,” noting that while evidence may not exist for specific moments, there is a general record that supports the re-creation. Even the characters’ haircuts — which have been the butt of some online jokes —match up with what we know about the period, according to Jager.
“We gathered from research that she was really capable and educated,” Holofcener says. “But other than that, I made up a lot. I gave her a friend, who ultimately betrays her. I gave her the opportunity to go get a low-cut dress in the style of the queen, which she was later shamed for wearing. But that was from research as well. We read that the queen had pierced nipples and that the dress was almost low enough that you could maybe see them.
“Ultimately, that [would have been] a movie about a courtroom evidence drama,” Affleck explains. “Like, ‘I couldn’t have gotten there. I would have had to have taken this many horses, and I didn’t have time to get back.’ It would have become about whether or not it could have been him, or it must have been somebody else. It was the equivalent of a kind of forensics case.”
In Jager’s book, the detailed description of the duel between Le Gris and Carrouges, held on Dec. 29, 1386, was drawn from several sources. The film’s version of the brutal fight is a more cinematic variation on what Jager reconstructed in his book, but it’s reasonably close to what may have transpired.
Affleck adds, “It hinged on the weight on the armor and the fact that once you fell, you couldn’t get up and you were like a trapped lobster. We gave Ridley, ‘This is what took place.’ Because it was such a famous event, there was a record. We gave this great filmmaker the opportunity to dramatize the essence of it and make it compelling to an audience, rather than do literally what happened.”
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