This story plays better when you understand the context. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jodie Comer, the co-writers of Ridley Scott's The Last Duel movie, didn't write scenes from the viewpoint of the film's female lead. They wrote only for the main men characters of the film, Adam Driver and Damon. This means that if you want to be unfair and clickbait-y, they only wrote for the male characters. Nicole Holofcener was hired to write for the female characters. It's as if the men who wrote Good Will Hunting, a Boston bro epic, are incapable of writing women.AdvertisementThis is where context comes in handy. It turns out that the division of writing duties actually served an important purpose. The Last Duel takes place in Olde Timey France. It is about a knight (Damon), whose wife (Comer), has accused him of rape. This leads to two former friends to insist that the matter is settled by a duel to death. ET spoke with Damon, explaining that the movie was about perspective. Therefore, it made sense for men to write the perspectives of the men, and women to write the perspectives of the women. Damon says that the movie's architecture was established by him. This means that scenes with different characters will feel distinct, possibly introducing a Rashomon-style angle in which it is unclear who you should trust.Damon claims that Affleck and he had much more success writing The Last Duel than Good Will Hunting. ET reported that they were able to complete the project much faster than expected and that it was less time-consuming and more enjoyable than they anticipated. This is the second screenplay they have co-written together.
