The Last Duel of Mind and Body

No one wants to see the last duel of DNA occur only by force yet without guile and cunning in the mix.

If that happened, we’d only end up in another Dark Age where only might made right, and not intellect or charm.

The repetition of history has already occurred on this planet, many times if not once or twice.

So the overarching question is, how to avert this cycle in order to achieve sustained development of both humans and planet?

My interpretation of this clip from Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel sums it up.

In it, a young King is sitting on the sidelines while two gladiators pitted against one another by their love and passion for a common woman commence to duel to the death.

To me this scene is as much about how men can go to one another’s throats over their claim to a woman as it is about how a King who is not willing to engage in combat can cause the downfall of his own kingdom.

One of the lines in the scene is about how no sorcery or witchcraft (AKA guile and cunning) are allowed in to the melee.

The irony is, the King would not be the King if he had not had help from cunning and intellectual states craftsmen, yet there he is in the sidelines enjoying the fruits of such a village rather than the results of an individual effort.

There are multiple other subplots and subtextual undertones in the film, some of which are surely not alluded to in this scene.

Ridley Scott has been churning out the best Holywood blockbusters year after year because of his ability to add layer upon layer of subtext and nuance to otherwise mainstream fare inundated with action, passion, and fireworks.

For that I commend him.