Troubles with truth
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Twitter: @LIGHTNINGWOW
Assistant Directed by Phoebe Kuhlman. As always, she made this video a million times better in so many ways, big and small.
Phoebe's Instagram: @phoebe_is_kuhl
Voice of Akira Kurosawa by Tim Karasawa
More Acolytes of Horror:
How Midsommar Brainwashes You: • How Midsommar Brainwas...
The Lies Of The Lighthouse: • The Lies Of The Lighth...
Annihilation: Surrendering To Creation: • Annihilation: Surrende...
The Dead Don't Die: How Deadpan Dooms Us: • The Dead Don't Die: Ho...
Saint Maud: God As A Self-Portrait: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbcS9...
The Green Knight: The Uncanny Horror Of Masculinity: • The Green Knight: The ...
Pre-Acolytes of Horror Video Essays:
Misery: Monsters Aren’t Always Mysterious: • Misery: Monsters Aren'...
Degenerate Art vs Hitler: • Degenerate Art vs Hitler
Darren Aronofsky: Horror as Greek Tragedy: • Darren Aronofsky: Horr...
The Night of the Hunter: Victims of Faith: • The Night of the Hunte...
SOURCES
Ridley Scott; The Last Duel
Akira Kurosawa; Rashomon
Akira Kurosawa; Something Like An Autobiography
David Lowery; The Green Knight
9:31 "The horrifying lesson that Lady Margeurite learns is that she probably never should have spoken up to begin with. Nobody really saw her anyway." Spot on Nathan
Yes, very well said! That is why I think the film should have ended at the end if the duel. I find the flashforward with the son unnecessary and, anctually, I think it deminishes this powerfull message, suggesting that Lady Marguerite has "gained" her dream life in the end, by speaking out. But in reality, for a woman at that time, being widow and so young would just mean to have to marry another man, who will claim what it's "his".
Coming in here without watching the vid or reading comments because of spoilers. Is the english hard to understand? I needed english subtitles to understand everything in The VVitch and the german blu-ray of The Last Duel doesn't have them
@@nopizzawithoutpineapple I'd say The Last Duel's English is pretty similar to how people talk today, if that helps. It doesn't really try to use archaic language or grammar the way The VVitch does.
@@val_wildling767 I highly highly disagree. Marguerite doesn't have the dream life. She has her kid, but I think the look on Comer's face sells the idea that despite the fact that she lives with her child and was declared innocent, she still carries the nightmare of that ordeal with her.
@@noahwen-li Agree
Terry Pratchett wrote “Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.” Not only was Lady Marguerite a prop between two men and their egos but she also was one for all the facets mentioned before either to be held up as an object of scorn or symbol of outraged honor and whether justice was serviced or not was of very little consequence because it was all good show.
I feel speechless right now, but I really enjoyed the video. This is also horror, despite the different genre of film, and your style of analysis on it and your sensibilities are appreciated.
Is the english in this movie hard to understand or is it modernized? The german blu-ray doesn't have english subtitles and I found I needed them for The VVitch
Amen
Didn't think this was a horror movie but others had it right, it is. To be nothing but a tool in society, it's a horrible pain and terror that screams at you at every quiet moment.
For your fate to be completely subject to other people's interpretation of who you are.
This analysis is so effective and also SO concise!! That’s amazing. The editing where different perspectives take up different thirds of the screen work fantastically to capture what movie is doing
your work is, as ever, magnificent. You're so eloquent in these matters that are so terribly hard to fully lay out in words. Like you said of Lady Margeuritte, it's the world that surrounds us and articulating precisely the hows and whys of this culture is hard even now after decades of trying to unpick and display its wounded underbelly
I saw a video about this movie that I absolutely didn't like because the creator failed to grasp the message (the creator's blind spots in that case I guess). But your video made up for it a thousand times. For some reason, it made me feel seen. Even though I was never raped or anything, it just... I feel like, as a woman you can really feel that whole collective hopelessness of women sometimes. It makes me sad and angry, even just the thought of "I'm lucky I never had to go through something like this", when there shouldn't even be a source for such a thought to begin with. But seeing both women AND men (it's important that it's men, too) shedding light on it, believing, speaking up when others will forever just look away DOES feel like hope. Sorry for my English and the whole sappy text, I just wanna say thank you
Hey I hope you are ok Really i hope you are fine
In a way the movie serves as meta commentary on itself and the film industry - this story about rape culture had to market itself as a film about two big male stars duking it out to draw attention to itself.
What do you expect Jean to do, nothing, if he was not a fighting man, he could never have got justice. It is more than normal people can ever do, trial by combat is better option than nothing at that time. Other other option was given by his mother to his wife to not say anything. The world at that time was not perfect and pretty impossible to use forensics at that time. Jean was an honorable hero for it's time. Things like poetry and romance were invented at later times in the modern era, meaning common usage in literature. Jean believed his wife, otherwise he would have kille her. His animosity towards the bad guy makes not difference as he would have fought for vengeance anyway. Compare it to the honor code to other cultures, not everyone even had trial by combat.
@@boshirahmed Is this schizopost in response to something I said?
@@aspacelex “Schizopost.” I like that.
@@TheWelchProductions Pretty common term. Please use it with no reservations in any context!
@@aspacelex yeah, it's just more verbosely put than your strawberry bush low hanging fruit dogshit attempt at humor.
That punctuation at the end was such a great encapsulation of the essay. Really well done, super interesting as always.
Brilliant. What really shocked me is that I found myself wondering where the actual truth lie. Were any of he stories completely true? The fact that Jacques truly believed that he and Margarite had a hot romance going on, was infuriating and a little heartbreaking. He never repented because he saw himself as a victim. He doesn't believe rape is acceptable and wants to see himself as a Lothario. It makes me wonder; What can punishment do if the person you punish doesn't know what they've done wrong? Watching Jacques version of the coy lady, undone with passion vs Margarites version of the unlawful entry into her home and callous rape are frightening to compare. Jacques doesn't know what he's done. The fact that whomever won the duel was supposed to be correct, is completely unreasonable. The idea that Margarite would endure a hideous and grueling death, if her husband lost, was absurd. To me, the most depressing message of the film, is that everyone is isolated in their own story and truth is as irrelevant as a mediaeval woman's point of view.
We can't know the truth, because this event happened 700 years ago and what we know of it comes from historical documents and hearsay. For example, the filmmakers portray Marguerite in an unhappy marriage - how do they know that? It wasn't suggested in the book. The filmmakers took too much creative licence with this "true story," and I'd have preferred they left the final chapter simply titled "The Truth according to Lady Marguerite." I'd highly suggest reading the book, which is riveting and doesn't spoon-feed easy answers.
Mate you completely missed the point.
@@kermitfrog593 It's not a documentary mate.
@@aspacelex Which part of my comment makes you think I think it is?
@@kermitfrog593 You being so concerned with "the truth" in relation to a movie that makes it clear what it's take on it is.
Theres a scene where she looses her shoe in one and doesnt in another. Its the little details that make the film interesting. Poor Margurette though.
Another phenomenal analysis! I'm so glad I found this channel
This was a well made video, and is a good breakdown of some of the main ideas. I'll mention some things I noticed and did not expect that I haven't been able to fully interpret. The main issue is her rape, yes. But like you were saying, there were other aspects of each character explored. In some ways, Carrouges' victory in the end and parade is somewhat gratifying on it's own. At least it was for me. I did not get the impression that he was as debauched as Le Gris and Pierre. Although he was a professional soldier and able to display true courage and a sense of duty (as his Scot allies flee, he seems bewildered that they would run, as arrows are flying around him), along with a serious, not insincere religious devotion (he seems to truly believe that his fight with Le Gris was the work of God, and God would vindicate he and his wife against Le Gris), he is often kind of goofy, and stumbles about awkwardly, unable to handle almost any important situation competently, outside of warfare, and in his enemy's minds at least, not even in warfare. He is mocked and despised. Pierre infinitely prefers Le Gris' shallow, fornicating, worldy wise, unserious behavior to Carrouge. When Carrouge defeats Le Gris and is celebrated in the streets of Paris, while Le Gris is unceremoniously dragged naked through the street, the triumph is mitigated by the overall strange and awful trophy-like presentation of Marguerite, for sure: but man, can you imagine a rapist being treated like that today? For all of its awful nature, when the rape culture dealt with rape, it did so in a harsher way than we ever would. How many of our rapists and guys that randomly assault women you find out were released after similar charges? I found that very thought provoking. In the end though, I agree with much of his breakdown of the main theme. I think the portrayal by Matt Damon of a harsh, medieval man (who had killed who knows how many people), in charge of lands and hundreds if not thousands of people, who could not write his own name...was perfect. I also felt like although his treatment of Marguerite was in no way a path to a fulfilling marriage by our standards, it seemed like he didn't remember things he said that we would find offensive or uncaring (directly or contextual), like his remark about her dress when she met him after his return from a campaign. In his perspective, he was a loving and gentle husband, devoted to duty and willing to die for his wife's honor. Marguerite probably did not know the reality of the love he had for her, or maybe what we consider "love" was just a different thing then. That sparks another interesting question. What Le Gris considers "love"....looking back on his quick exchanges with her over literature, his passionate descriptions of her, full of compliments, his statement that she was married to a brute that did not love her......is that closer to our imagination of what love is, than whatever Carrouge was? Man, this film was better and better as I think about it.
Neither of them actually loved her; they loved an idea of who they thought she was, what she represented, with not a care for the individual herself. She was a wife, a mother, playing piece, a trophy, a symbol of success, a reward for piety and strength. Never was she a *person*. And the results of her speaking up about her assault was to suffer even more trauma at the hands of those she inconvenienced by trying to exercise her own agency.
@@AndaraBledin I don't think Carrouges was without affection for Marguerite, I just think he was without the capability to express it in any way that we would consider normal. On top of all these things, we have soldiers come back from Afghanistan or Iraq who have problems with marriages and dealing with certain situations. I can't imagine what somebody was like, who just killed people with swords for a living. There's definitely something of the property element going on, just with how the marriage begun, etc. With him not loving her, but loving his idea of her, I think you're probably right, and he missed a great deal of who she was: I didn't get the impression he valued her ability to run the estate (being far more educated than him), show kindness and respect to others (he saw everything in terms of duty and honor, it seemed), or even her beauty (he cared much more about having children). He mainly valued her unwavering support of him, that he could count on. I think in some ways many men and women fall in love with their perception of who somebody is, as that's all we have to run on. But whatever their relationship was, it definitely didn't look like a modern one.
For those of you Incels out there ranting about Marguerite's 'guilt' in this story, let me clear up a few misguided, misinformed, and mistaken facts. 1. This is NOT fiction, it's FRENCH HISTORY. 2. The guilt of Jacques was established in a court, as per the verdict of the duel. As to whether he really raped Marguerite or not doesn't matter for the purposes of the court. That truth probably falls somewhere in the middle. 3. The DUEL was brought upon by Jean pitching a fit about the verdict of the FIRST trial, which JACQUES WON. He had to petition the King to get that done, and REFUSED a settlement of property, simply because he was pissed off at Jacques FOR OTHER stuff. In those days, there was NO crime of rape against women, it was a crime against PROPERTY of men, and should have been handled as such. Jean thought the duel would just bring about a verdict as to who the better fighter was, not result in the DEATH of his wife if he lost. In reality, that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. He was too far in to reverse it. As for Marguerite, I have no doubt she was forced into sex by Jacques, who fancied himself in love with her, but it was ALSO in retaliation for Jean trying to humiliate him in front of the Duke. The MEN created this problem and Marguerite was sick of being in the middle. There's NO evidence she lied to anyone, and put herself in jeopardy with the King, who tried to talk her out of it. AFTER her husband passes away later, she NEVER remarried. So the nonsense about her being 'forced' to marry again is bullshit. She lived a long life.
Just out of interest. How come she was in danger of being burnt at the stake for the duel. Hope did that come about. Was she not in danger of that during the first trial? When jacques won, was she not found to bare false witness then? I would just be so fascinated to know how it got to her jeopardy and what she knew at the time
@@monkeycafe5113 That was strictly a cinematic premise. In reality, she would not have been burned at the stake, but she and her husband would have been stripped of all titiles, land and property and been exiled. Primarily because Jean pushed for this duel after appealing the verdict of the FIRST trial, and going against the Duke, who was a COUSIN of the King. He was a pain in the ass, and no doubt, the court would have assumed he made the whole thing up to get back at Jacques and the Duke for being shafted out of the estate in Marguerite's dowry. THAT started everything.
The Last Duel IS a horror film. Ask any woman who's seen it.
@Biden Cringe thanks for proving the point.
@@RisaPappas Exactly.
I thought is was especially intrusive when they asked her if she enjoyed having intercourse with her husband. We can tell that she didn't, but she said she did because if she told the truth, then the lawyers would've argued that she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between consensual intercourse and sa. They really did believe back then that women could not get pregnant from sa. What's scary is that some people still believe that is true.
It sounds like it's supposed to be subtle "to be nothing but a tool in society", but its a horrible pain and terror that screams at you at every quiet moment... and always has been and always shall be. Excellent point and now to pack away the realization and return to acting normal.
Amen
Just watched this today and love your content. Perfect timing!
BRAVO!!!! Yet another thoughtful and insightful video delivered with compassion and consideration. As usual... well said sir!!!
I absolutely love The Last Duel 😍
Me too😍😍
I've been waiting for a post release video essay about this movie. I think it's one of ridley Scotts best films in a long time.
That music at the end stuck me hard, I’ll be watching this with my wife, it looks fantastic.
Fantastic video as always. Love how you split the frame, great editing technique.
Great analysis. I saw this in cinema and it was very impactful, pure horror. This makes me want to watch it again and look for the subtle differences but watching at home will be boring in comparison
If you have a great TV and sound system, I believe it could be a good experience. I was invested into the film when I watched this one for the first time in my home.
brilliant as always, thanks for making these videos, i know how hard it is to put so much time and effort on the channel. hope you'll be able to do this full time and give us more awesome videos.
Your reviews are absolutely appreciated! ThankYou👍
I really enjoyed this movie, and I’m glad you made a video about it. Love the insight, great job :)
Great video! Thank you for all of the energy you put into these!
fantastic work as always. you're inspiring!
Dude, you are some kind of genius! And I havent even finished watching this. Your take on the Lighthouse and Midsommar come to mind.
Good. You can connect.
So glad I caught this! Although I'm subbed to all notifications. It's 11:30am in Australia & this has made my Sunday! 👍
Your last line was so on point. Well said.
Bravo bravo 👏🏽 👏🏽👏🏽 this is exactly what I was looking for. I struggled in putting it into my own words when I was explaining this film to my friends. And you did it flawlessly.
Amazing editing
Excellent analysis, thank you. Not many seem to have covered this great film.
Spot on! And great job editing this video!
Stunning! Simply stunning!
Love your videos. Looking forward to catching up on all the Patreon-only ones!
So glad I found your channel. Amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
You are always welcome dear
your work is so good every time ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟
Thanks.
As always, masterful
The way you did that in just 10 minutes!
Thank you for this analysis. I found this film so haunting to watch, it did not leave me for days.
I LOOOOOVED THIS MOVIE!!! 💯💯💯💯💯 Is sad more people didn't go watch it... 😔
loved this movie, I wish it would've been more successful
You know how the Western genre had a rebirth through all these gritty anti-westerns a couple of decades after the genre had died and.tyats mostly what we get nowadays? I feel a similar thing is happening to fantasy or at least things that focus on "knights". You don't see a lot of fun, period pieces nowadays, it's mostly a gritty look at the issues of that period as well as ourselves. The Green Knight and The Last Duel are two perfect examples. My question is, when will this finally happen for Pirate movies and media?
Black sail?
Been subbed for a while, another great video, keep it up! Watching the subtle differences in the first 2 stories was very interesting to me, seeing them side by side is so cool. I liked the movie up to the 3rd story but after that last part it really got great for me, the final battle was so tense. Great movie, great video!
Just subed and love your stuff! Upset I was able to binge it all in a day 🤣
A wonderful video as always!
Amazing movie, and a great breakdown & analysis!
Spot on 🙌
Very interesting. Thanks for the vid
That was excellent
Thats the kind of review what i looked for.. I missed some of the conclusions of the movie so thamks for clarity
Damn man awesome video. Make sure all of you watch til the end!!!
I like the use of aspect ratio Good job :)
Scott did a wonderful job with this film.
Great video!
great video, thanks!
A short and sweet video essay, nice!
This is an absolutely fantastic analysis of this movie
Interesting analysis, thank you. I'm raising my score from 8, to 9 out of 10. There are many layers to explore in this well-made film.
A fantastic video!
Fantastic!
Great movie. Great video.
Damn.
Fantastic!!!
We have all just watched this happen to a woman. We watched every facet of society turn on her. We watched her face the world alone. We watched and laughed and cheered at two teams fight a game of chance. We watched a woman go through multitudes of hell for speaking out. The difference here is that she lost the game of chance, she wasn’t burnt at the stake but she was punished and is still being punished.
yuh!
Awesome review
Excellent critique!
I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on Nightmare Alley! Seems like the kind of movie that's right up this channel's... alley.
I loved it! Dunno if I have any grand insights on it worthy of 1-2 months of work... but maybe I'll do a Patreon exclusive informal vid on it sometime
@@AcolytesOfHorror Yeah true, it's probably a bit too heavy handed to generate much discussion. Pretty much wears the themes on its sleeve. Glad you liked it though. I ended up watching it twice before even realizing it was Guillermo del Toro, and then watched it a third time for good measure. Loved your take on The Last Duel too of course! Glad you covered that one.
great video dude
Great movie. The last duel scene was magnificent!
The style of the story was based on the Kurosawa film, but the story itself was a true story of the last legal duel in France during the middle of the 100 years war.
this movie is soooo under-rated. great essay!
This is great! I hadn't had that interpretation but I definitely see it now. Yet it does make me wonder, since films are ideally purposeful: 🤔 ..... If the ending intentionally had this layer of interpretation, that "Lady Margeurite learns ...she probably never should have spoken up to begin with [because] [n]obody really saw her anyway", perhaps one of the filmmakers' goals would be to challenge the audience to consider that "lesson" as more of a question... ..... Didn't we all _just_ see her? _Yes, because movie._ ..... Don't those who feel unseen or have been kept invisible still have voices? _Indeed, even when most won't or can't listen._ ..... Does not "really" being seen somehow negate the importance of speaking up? _Not at all, or else change towards something better would never happen!_ ..... Even if the outcome were different in this film, that she _still _*_chose_* to speak up might be the more relevant and relatable part of the conclusion. Despite the risks, in a culture overwhelmingly resistant to considering women as people, she spoke anyway. ..... Speaking up today still has tons of stigma. When dealt with in the courts (at least in the U.S.) juries and rulings still too often end up favoring the accused over the survivor in many cases, for a multitude of reasons. Even so, there are more survivors speaking up, getting help, and beginning to heal in recent years than ever before, because people are doing it together. It's an amazing thing. ..... But even though the culture around assault and abuse is changing for the better (from what I see in the U.S.), there are still places in the world where speaking up at all can get you killed, not too dissimilar from this film. ..... Whether anyone sees or not, in each of us there's a deep and inherent drive to express and speak the truth. Each time someone takes that risk it may help others find a way to do the same. Even if it takes several, tens, hundreds, or thousands of years, we all have the chance to change for the better when those who come before us take the chance to speak up about something wrong. I think that's what the ending ultimately gets at. Whether we're ever really seen, or even really heard, we're still here, and can choose what to do with our experience, come what may. ..... At least, that's what *_I_* got from the film. 😊 That's what's so great about art. We can explore interpretations, perspectives, and really dig into things! Thanks for making this video and giving me so much to think about! 😊 To anyone who reads this whole thing, my apologies for the length! 😅 Feel free to disagree if you do. Disagreement isn't a bad thing. 😜
0:57 The truest truth of all truths
Another great video. Shame audiences slept on this film.
This movie deserves to be remembered. Thank you for talking about it.
Hey I love love love your Videos! May I ask you, would you do a video on the movie "Mother" by Darren Aronofsky, would love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Could you please do a video about 'The platform'
damn, I *just* listened to the Noble Blood podcast episode on this bit of history! What are the odds??
Would like to hear your take on Antlers.
One story comes to mind that could be told perfectly with this style of story telling is...Lolita. I leave you with that
I just caught the end of the livestream
I felt the same way watching the movie
You show it as it was; a horror movie. She was trapped in a society where, at that time, her word worth nothing. The r... scene was scary, that scene and the duel were hard to watch for me.
Hey! Been wondering if you're open to covering Hereditary some time? :) I know it's been analysed a lot but I'd love one about it in your style! Completely understand if that's not in the cards atm though
Open to it! Just have yet to really come up with anything new to say about it. But it's definitely a movie that is often on my mind, so I could see it happening one of these days
I found this movie difficult to watch and so I think my brain decided not to think about it too much afterwards and didn't really take the time to parse it at all, so thank you for this - extremely good analysis.
Wow
I was on board with you onto the very last sentence, but I conclude it differently. How I see it , is that she knew how things would play out if the duel had won and when it is so, in the context of history , we now, the audience know she is the actual winner and moral compass of this story rather than the husband, whatever the current situation. In this way, I think in the end she knows she's done the right thing.
Not sure about that - she was all too aware of what would happen if he lost - she highlighted this to him - she didn't seem to have the seadfast certainty that he would win because she was telling the truth, she didn't believe in the magic duel. She understood he could lose and that she would be burned alive. She survived the assault and then by telling of it found herself at risk of being burned alive. She faced what every woman who speaks of their assault faces, the risk of what people will decide happens and the cultural and societal response to the abuse of women, we are living in the time of "not all men". We don't get burned alive but the treatment of survivors is far, far from perfect even now. What did she win? Did everyone rush to her side saying "oh my god, he won so that means you were telling the truth - you really were raped - are you ok? What can we do to help you." Was there any support for her? Or just hero worship for the strong man who won a big fight? He won so she wasn't murdered. People to this day question her "story" and that of all women. Her situation was handled in a way that soothed his ego, it was not her wish, it was not for her, it was for him.
👏👏👏👏👏👍
Is the english hard to understand? The german blu-ray doesn't have english subtitles and I found myself needing subtitles for The VVitch
I don't think the dialect is nearly as hard to understand as The Witch. The actors mostly don't bother with putting on an accent either even though this movie is set in France
Okay, I came to watch this because I like your videos and was never planning to watch this movie in the first place. Now I see that it looks like a pretty fascinating flick and I may have to check it out. They did this movie no favors in the trailers and made it look murky and bland.
Thats why Kurosawa is art and the last duel is messaging, or propaganda. The brave choose in the duel would be to show all 3 stories and all three as different with their own truths and flaws, leaving the viewer to put together the pieces as they wish or to contemplate the nature of truth without it being revealed.
Real life Jacques was innocent. It was a plan concocted by the carrouges to get back at Le Grix
a ''like'' well deserved
The most dangerous kind of rapist is the one who doesn't consider what he does to be rape....
Explain to me how this is any different than the times we live in now?......
The Last Duel was one of the best movies of 2021. It is such a shame that it got such a bad reception.