We all understand that Ridley Scott‘s The Last Duel (20th Century, 10.15) is a medieval #MeToo yarn about conflicting recollections of a brutal rape.

Two depictions are shown, one from the perspective of the victim, Jodie Comer‘s Marguerite de Carrouges, and a second from the perspective of the rogue perpetrator, Adam Driver‘s Jacques Le Gris. A third perspective from Marguerite’s husband, Matt Damon‘s Jean de Carrouges, is recited but not visualized.

A pair of 20th Century films offered likely inspiration with similar tales of violation. First and foremost was Akira Kurosawa‘s Rashomon (’50), which focused on four differing versions of the rape of a wife and the murder of her samurai husband. Decidedly inferior was Martin Ritt‘s The Outrage (’64), a Rashomon remake that costarred Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson and William Shatner.

Nobody wants to think about The Outrage now because (a) it has a mediocre reputation (I haven’t seen it in decades, and even that viewing was one too many), (b) it briefly tarnished Rashomon and (c) Newman played a heavily made-up Mexican with a broad Pancho Villa accent…a racist felony that probably requires posthumous cancellation for Ritt and Newman both and a permanent ghost status from the Academy Museum.

Still these films were forerunners of The Last Duel and perhaps warrant a looksee, etc.

There’s a decent-looking Rashomon Bluray from Criterion; The Outrage is only available as a 480p Amazon streamer.