WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Last Duel, now playing in theaters.
Ridley Scott's The Last Duel is a powerful film that uses the story of a nearly eight-hundred-year-old conflict to comment on the mistakes society still makes today. One of the best ways it accomplishes this is through its narrative structure, where the primary events of the plot are repeated and examined three times from different perspectives. In many ways, The Last Duel shares DNA with 1950's seminal Rashomon -- which established the same narrative trick and told a quietly similar story.
The Last Duel is a retelling of the final legally sanctioned duel in France. In the 14th century, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and his bride Marguerite (Jodie Comer) control a small swath of land. One day, Jean's former friend Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) comes to Marguerite and assaults her. The film explores this crime, as well as the events that proceeded it and the bloodshed that followed, from the perspective of all three characters. Jean sees himself as a quietly noble knight, while Jacques sees him as a petty man and Marguerite perceives him as a casually cruel fellow. Notably, while Jacques remembers Marguerite resisting him, his perspective also suggests his feelings for her are far more important than her safety. This method of storytelling has its roots in Japanese cinema.
Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa, is one of the most influential films to come out of Japan in the 20th century. Notably, the film pioneered a storytelling style that features multiple perspectives throughout its runtime, retelling a single event from different points of view to affect the overall narrative. Based on the short story "In a Grove" by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, the story recounts the trial of the bandit Tajomaru (Toshiro Mifune), following his encounter with a Samurai (Masayuki Mori) and his Wife (Machiko Kyō). Kikori (Takashi Shimura), Tabi (Minoru Chiaki) and the Listener (Kichijiro Ueda) discuss the different perspectives, with Kikori -- secretly a witness to the actual encounter between the Samurai, his Wife and Tajōmaru -- eventually revealing the truth.
Like The Last Duel, both films tell a singular narrative from different perspectives. From their own points of view, the assaulters see themselves as charming and honorable men, while from the view of witnesses and their victims, they appear as a far crueler sort. Both films deal with heavy topics, notably the sexual assault of an innocent woman, and how the men around women in these older periods weren't allowed the justice they should have deserved for the acts committed against them. And in both films, the truth is ultimately revealed in the final act -- although in The Last Duel, Marguerite's recounting is presented as the truth, while the Wife from Rashomon is revealed to have invented some of the details of her story.
Looking at The Last Duel in this light, the thematic device makes even more sense. It allows the filmmakers to explore the ways people can justify their actions, even when they were unforgivable in the eyes of others. In particular, this is used to highlight the terrible acts that men of the past -- and the present -- are always attempting to explain away. Both films also explore the times they are set in, quietly condemning many of the societal elements that made such acts possible. Rashomon is one of the most influential films the renowned Kurosawa ever made, and it's fascinating (and heartening) to see creators like Scott and The Last Duel's writing team of Damon, Affleck and Nicole Holofcener keep the creative styles he pioneered alive and relevant for modern audiences.
To see Ridley Scott's version of Rashomon, The Last Duel is currently playing in theaters.