Way back in the day A spry young Ridley Scott brought out his directors debut, The Duellists, based off historical accounts of two duelling frenchmen during the Napoleonic wars. The film landed with critical acclaim and launched Ridley’s career on to the many projects we know and love him for today. The 1977 classic still holds up today and is a brooding and sometimes bloody study on honour and customs on the cusp of extinction.
His latest film is The Last Duel, (not slated to be his last film if you were wondering whether he was being poetic with his career). This time set in medieval France where two knights duel to the death after the wife of one, accuses the other of raping her. Staring Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer this is a gritty tale split into three chapters and told from three perspectives. It’s solid and came with critical acclaim. Unfortunately it didn’t come with large audience numbers on it’s release and somewhat bombed in the theatre, which leads us to our first duel:
Ridley Vs Millennials
Let’s be honest, chances are you didn’t hear about The Last Duel coming out, I didn’t, and it’s my job to know this stuff. Marketing really let this one down. Ridley defended the marketing teams though and instead went after millennials saying “what we’ve got today, [are] the audiences who were brought up on these f***ing cellphones. The millennian do not ever want to be taught anything unless you’re told it on a cellphone.”
I dunno man, maybe it’s the ongoing pandemic and zero awareness of the films release that had more to do with the tanking. I’m giving this point to the millennian, whatever that is.
Ridley Vs The Critic
During an interview about the Last Duel the interviewer made the dire mistake of comparing it’s realism to Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood. Ridley was very articulate in his response.
“Sir, f— you. F— you. Thank you very much. F— you. Go f— yourself, sir. Go on,”
Personally I love the “go on” at the end. I’m giving this point to Ridley.
Ridley Vs The House of Gucci
Gucci was upset by Ridley’s latest film with one member stating that the film was “stealing the identity of a family to make a profit to increase the income of the Hollywood system.”
Ridley wasn’t having any of it, saying on BBC’s Today ““It was about murder. They forget: He was murdered. One of the brothers went to jail for tax evasion. So don’t talk to me about making a profit. Are you kidding? When you do that you tend to become public domain.”
Gucci members were also upset that Al Pacino was used to portray their family, saying he didn’t physically resemble his character at all.
“And yet, frankly, how could they be better represented than by Al Pacino?” Said Ridley “Excuse me! You probably have the best actors in the world, you should be so f***ing lucky.”
I’m giving two points for Ridley for these.
Ridley Vs Super Heroes
“The best films are driven by the characters and we’ll come to superheroes after this if you want, because I’ll crush it. I’ll f***ing crush it. They’re f***ing boring as s***.
Match point to Ridley. Ridley Wins. Congratulations Ridley, you can make another movie.
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