The Last Duel

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Ridley Scott

Screenplay:  Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, based on the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager

Starring:  Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Harriet Walter, Ben Affleck

Running Time:  153 minutes

Genre:  Historical drama

France, the late 1300s:  Lady Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) accuses her husband's former best friend Jacques Le Gris (Driver) of raping her.  Her husband, Sir Jean de Carrouges (Damon), challenges le Gris to trial by combat, the last legally sanctioned duel in French history.  However, if Sir Jean loses the duel, not only will he be killed in combat, but Lady Marguerite will also be burned to death.  The film details the events leading up to the duel from the perspectives of Sir Jean, Jacques le Gris and Lady Marguerite.

This is a frustrating film because at it's best it is very good, but it has it's moments of extreme silliness.  The main problem is several of the roles are miscast:  Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck are all good actors but they are just not convincing as medieval French knights.  Affleck, as Count Pierre, Le Gris' patron and friend, in particular plays it like he's in an episode of Blackadder at times.  Jodie Comer however is fantastic as Lady Marguerite, the only character in the film who is in any way sympathetic, and Harriet Walter is good as Sir Jean's mother who hates her daughter in law.  The film looks spectacular, Ridley Scott shows his skill at handling historical epics, and the brutal action scenes are filmed with real dynamism.  The duel itself is savagely intense, and graphically violent.  The film utilises a structure where we are given three different perspectives on the events, and the film does point out who is telling the truth.  We see the friendship of Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris and it's subsequent disintegration, and the troubled relationship between Jean de Carrouges and Lady Marguerite.  The film shows the same events played out in different ways from different perspectives.  Sir Jean sees himself as a brave and noble knight, fighting for what is rightfully his, however others see him as a cruel, brutal bully and a fool.  Jacque Le Gris sees himself as an intelligent, romantic hero, however others see him as an opportunistic sycophant.  Lady Marguerite is caught in the middle, seen as little more than property.  When she tells her husband about the rape, he sees it as an insult to him, and Lady Marguerite's feelings don't really seem to come into it.  When Jacques le Gris goes to the church to defend himself against the charge, he is told that rape is seen as a crime of property, against the woman's husband or father. The rape sequence is brutal, and it is shown twice, from Le Gris and Marguerite's points of view.  The actual events are the same, even in Le Gris' version it is still an obvious rape, but he believes that she loves him really, so what he did was justified, while for Marguerite it is a brutal violation.  The film does discuss the ghastly treatment of women at the time, but not as much as it might have done.  It was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who won an Academy Award for their previous screenplay Good Will Hunting (1997), with acclaimed writer/director Nicole Holofcener who wrote the scenes for Lady Marguerite, and based on a 2004 book by Eric Jager.  While the film has problems with an inconsistent tone, moving between macho, blood and thunder epic, medieval court politics and dark feminist drama, and there are issues with the casting, it is still worth seeing.  The three part structure works well and the film is never less than interesting.

   Adam Driver and Matt Damon in The Last Duel

The Martian

Year of Release:  2015
Director:  Ridley Scott
Screenplay:  Drew Goddard, based on the novel The Martian by Andy Weir
Starring:  Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Donald Glover, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie
Running Time:  141 minutes
Genre:  science-fiction, drama

This thrilling science-fiction survival story is adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Andy Weir.  The manned Ares III mission on Mars is aborted early due to a violent storm, during the evacuation, astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) is hit by a piece of debris and, presumed dead, is left behind on the surface of Mars.  Watney finds himself completely alone on a desolate planet, and faced with finding a way to get in contact with Earth, and keeping himself alive long enough to be rescued, with a rapidly diminishing supply of food, drink and air.

The film moves between Watney's desperate attempts to survive on Mars and the efforts back on Earth to retrieve him.  It's an exciting, straightforward story, which is gripping, despite the fact that it is basically about one man alone on a planet.  Matt Damon makes Watney a likeable and engaging anchor for the film, and he has strong support from a large and impressive cast.  It benefits from the switching back and forth between Mars, Earth and the mission's spaceship, opening up the narrative and making it far more than a one man show.  It's a deeply human film, about people trying to save one life.  All the conflict in the film comes from people arguing about how best to do that.

It is worth pointing out that this is a science-fiction film but there are no aliens or killer robots or anything like that, instead it tries to be relatively realistic.  Although it is worth pointing out that in reality, a Martian storm would only really be like a light breeze, rather than the raging hurricane depicted in the film.

By and large it is pretty faithful to the Weir novel and the dialogue is witty and there is plenty of humour to alleviate the tension, and quirky and amusing details such as the frequent 1970s songs on the soundtrack (the only music that Watney has available to him in his shelter).

Aside from a couple of moments of introspection there is little of the angst and despair that the situation might engender, which strikes a bit of a false note.  However this is a hugely enjoyable film.

 
    Matt Damon is The Martian

Jason Bourne

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Paul Greengrass
Screenplay:  Paul Greengrass and Christopher Rouse, based on characters created by Robert Ludlum
Starring:  Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles, Riz Ahmed
Running Time:  123 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, action

Back in 2002, The Bourne Identity, based on the 1980 novel by Robert Ludlum, was hailed as a breath of fresh air for the spy movie genre, which at that point was completely dominated by the increasingly irrelevant and fantastical James Bond films.  Instead this was gritty, pertinent and realistic.  It was followed by The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Bourne Legacy (2012), the odd one out of the series in that the character of Jason Bourne does not appear.

This film, the fifth in the series, and the fourth to feature Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, takes up from the end of The Bourne Ultimatum.  Jason Bourne is living off the grid, making money with illegal fighting, when he is alerted by hacker Nicky Parsons (Stiles) of the existence of files, concerning Bourne's identity and the truth behind his father.  This kicks off a globe trotting quest for the truth, from Athens to Berlin, to London, to Las Vegas, however Bourne is being pursued by CIA Director Robert Dewey (Jones) who wants him dead and the ruthless hired killer, The Asset (Cassel).  Bourne's only help comes from CIA Cyber Ops agent Heather Lee (Vikander).

This is a tense, exciting thriller.  Director Paul Greengrass has a background in current affairs, and television docu-dramas, and that can be seen in his extensive use of fast cutting, and constantly moving, hand-held style of shooting, this can be very distracting in dialogue scenes, but it adds a real intensity and physicality to the film's action scenes.  And this has some of the best action scenes of any film this year.  The chase through an anti-austerity demonstration in Athens is memorable, but a car chase through Las Vegas is fantastic.  A big theme in the film is surveillance, and Greengrass' style does work for that, with the camera zooming and moving back and forth to find the characters in a crowd, does seem at times like it is footage filmed through a spy camera.  However, I would warn you to be careful, if you're prone to headaches or motion sickness.

The film's main problem is the impassivity of Matt Damon as Bourne, never really showing much emotion beyond impatience, it's hard to really care much about him, when he never really seems particularly fazed by anything.  Alicia Vikander is good as the sympathetic agent, but for the most part she doesn't really have much to do.  Tommy Lee Jones is effective though as the avuncular but murderous CIA Director.                  

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne

The Adjustment Bureau

Year: 2011
Director: George Nolfi
Screenplay: George Nolfi, based on the short story "Adjustment Team" by Philip K. Dick
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, Terence Stamp
Running Time: 105 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, fantasy, romance, thriller

Summary: New York City, 2006: David Norris (Damon) is a charismatic US congressman who has just lost the race for the US Senate, and is a popular choice to win. Just before giving his concession speech he meets an English ballerina, Elise (Blunt), and the two are instantly attracted. The meeting inspires Norris to give a more honest speech than he had been intending. The speech wins him a lot of support and marks him as an early favourite to win the 2010 Senate race.
Some time later Norris meets Elise again. However it soon becomes apparent that there are people who are determined to keep them seperate. Norris discovers the existence of the "Adjustment Bureau", an organisation of beings who appear identical to humans, but in reality are not, who secretly control human lives and destiny, according to a pre-determined plan. Norris discovers that humans only have the illusion of free will and that most important decisions that affect people's lives are the result of manipulation by the Adjustment Bureau. However, Norris and Elise were never intended to meet and their romance is seriously affecting the Adjustment Bureau's plans. In order to be with Elise, Norris must pit himself against a seemingly all-powerful organisation, whose operatives can be anywhere, who can manipulate anyone around them, who can predict the future and who are determined to keep them apart.

Opinions: Given the marketing and the fact that this is a film based on a story by legendary science-fiction author Philip K. Dick (whose works also inspired Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002) among many others) audiences could be forgiven for thinking that this would be another action-packed science-fiction thriller, in fact it is at least as much if not more of a romance than it is science-fiction. In fact it's difficult to see exactly what audience it is mainly aimed at. Viewers expecting a science-fiction thriller could probably be put off by the romance elements, while viewers wanting a romantic film might be put off by the science-fiction thriller elements. However, it could work as a good "date" movie if one person wanted to watch a thriller and the other a romance then this film would make for a good compromise. To be fair to the film, there is enough in it to keep both romantiphobes and sf-haters interested.
The movie is only very loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1954 short story which was much more science-fiction oriented, and also had a lot more humour and had no romance elements in it at all. The story the film tells is interesting, but never quite manages to successfully blend together the genres of romance, science-fiction and thriller. A lot of interesting ideas come up, but never quite get developed. For example the Adjustment Bureau themselves are never quite explored, although it is hinted that they might be angels. Also, despite being epicted at times as being near-omnipotent they seems to have a habit of making mistakes (the whole mess is set off when one of them falls asleep on the job), added to that the fact that sometimes they manage to turn up anywhere, and other times they are seen running after buses and taxis. Additionally, they constantly worry about the disruptions caused by Norris and Elise's romance, and yet they seem to cause far more disruption by trying to prevent it. The members of the Bureau are ultimately depicted as bureaucrats, guys in suits who are not basically bad or malicious, they just have a job to do and procedures to follow.
The film is very well acted. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt make for likeable and engaging leads and they have a lot of on-screen chemistry. Terence Stamp also impresses in a fairly small role as a sinister member of the Bureau.
The film does have it's share of good scenes and there are some good ideas in it, even if it never quite comes together. It might also have been more interesting if some of the themes of the Adjustment Bureau's manipulation of individual lives and human destiny were explored in a bit more detail. Still it's an entertaining enough film, even if it doesn't serve up everything you might expect or want from it.



Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau

True Grit

Year: 2010
Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, based on the novel True Grit by Charles Portis
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper, Domhnall Gleeson
Running Time: 110 minutes
Genre: Western, adventure

Summary: Arkansas, 1878: While collecting the body of her murdered father and settling his business affairs, fourteen year old Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) decides to hire a US Marshall to track down her father's killer, a hired hand named Tom Chaney (Brolin). Searching for a man with "true grit" Mattie decides to hire Rueben "Rooster" Cogburn (Bridges), an alcoholic who nevertheless has a reputation of being the toughest and most ruthless Marshall around. Eventually Cogburn reluctantly agrees to be hired by Mattie, however he is much less agreeable to her condition that she accompany him on the trail. However, she follows Cogburn anyway, and discovers that he has formed an uneasy partnership with a Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Damon), who is also on the hunt for Chaney, who is wanted in Texas for killing a Senator. The three embark on the dangerous trail through wild hostile terrain on the hunt for Chaney, who has joined up with a gang of violent armed robbers.

Summary: True Grit was previously made into a film in 1969 with John Wayne playing "Rooster" Cogburn (a performance for which Wayne won the only Academy Award of his career) and has since become a staple of Sunday afternoon television.
The new version is certainly more intense and violent than the earlier film, but it also has more heart. It has a witty and intelligent script and makes good use of wintery New Mexico and Texan locations. It also boasts a strong cast with Jeff Bridges perfectly cast as the mean, tough, but fundamentally decent Cogburn, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld (who was 13 years old at the time of filming) delivering a superb performance as the intelligent and determined Mattie. The movie also boasts a strong soundtrack, primarily consisting of 19th Century Church music which works perfectly with the film's time and location.
Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote and directed the film, are among the best film-makers working today, and the film has a genuine stately grandeur in both it's powerful visuals and soundtrack, and also delivers in the all-important action sequences with some brilliant shootouts.
This film is a great return to the classic Western, which is a must-see for fans of the genre as well as delivering enough action and humour to appeal to those who ordinarily would never watch a Western.



Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges hit the trail in True Grit