Le Dernier Combat/The Last Battle (1983) is a film that fits perfectly into the post Blade Runner/post Mad Max subgenre of the post-apocalyptic art drama. Other examples of this style of film-making can be found in Sogo Ishii's Burst City (1982), Lars von Trier's The Element of Crime (1984) and Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988).
As with those particular films, The Last Battle is notable for its visual design and emphasis on style over narrative; with director Luc Besson creating a dark, dank and depressing world of decay and dilapidation. The visual iconography is filled with rich, if somewhat slightly superficial detail; including distressed buildings, burnt out cars and gangs of feral warriors stalking the shadows. This is combined with a plot that attempts to encapsulate the metaphorical struggle of every day existence, with plenty of room left over for Besson to create a lingering sense of atmosphere and some inventive visual set-pieces. The film would be one of the first to introduce the concept of "cinema-du-look"; a brief cinematic resurgence in French cinema that saw a younger generation of filmmakers looking back to the days of the Nouvelle Vague and combining that sense of playful experimentation with elements of early 80's pop culture. Besson would come to define this movement with his second feature, the chic and silly crime thriller Subway (1985), by creating an archetypical cinema-du-look experience to stand alongside Diva (1981) by Jean Jacques Beineix and Mauvais Sang (1986) by Leos Carax.
In keeping with the high-style/high-concept approach, The Last Battle is notable for its overall cinematic design. Firstly, the film is almost wordless, with no real dialog interaction, only sounds and a smattering of very 80's synth music care of Besson's regular musical collaborator Eric Serra. Secondly, the film is shot in black and white cinemascope, with much juxtaposition between the expressionistic use of light and shadow with the almost cinema-vérité like use of actual, physical production design and, occasionally, hand-held cinematography. It gives us a slight hint of the direction that Besson would follow with later films, such as his trio of 90's masterworks, La Femme Nikita (1990), Léon/The Professional (1994) and The Fifth Element (1997); but really, this could still be seen something of an anomaly within his vast body of work.
The basic plot of the film can be explained in a single line, with the story exploring the devastation of civilization and issues of brutality, hostility and isolation. Here, French pop singer Pierre Jolivet stars as the main character (identified cryptically as "The Man", again, emphasising the anti-plot/anti-narrative approach of the film) who is menaced by "The Brute" (played by Besson regular Jean Reno) on his journey through a world filled with people rendered mute by an unknown incident. It is the titular battle of both cunning and wits between Jolivet and Reno that becomes the backbone of the film, with the two characters testing each other, both mentally and physically, in a series of prolonged visual set-pieces. Alongside these scenes we get some surreal moments and elements of broad humour that owes a small debt to the silent comedy of Chaplin and Keaton and a lot of exploration of the visual geography of the world that Besson creates, quite spectacularly, on an incredibly limited budget. Ultimately the film points towards the futility of conflict in an era when people should be banding together in order to fight the bigger issues, but this is all perhaps secondary to the world that is created and the incredibly visual way in which Besson chooses to interpret it. Obviously having no dialog and only a few minutes worth of dated electronic music, combined with the vague characterisations and emphasis on style over content, The Last Battle certainly won't be a film for everyone. Even if you're already familiar with Besson's trio of 90's classics, or even lesser known cult films such as The Big Blue (1988) and Angel-A (2005), the look and feel of The Last Battle might still be something of a shock to the system.
The film at times feels like an action film, but really, when we think about it, there isn't all that much depicted in the way of conventional action. Likewise, the film could be approached as something of an art film, but again, it seems almost too shallow or too playful to appeal to that particular crowd. So who will this film appeal to? I guess the target audience is anyone with an open mind and a real love for all forms of cinema, regardless of genre or convention. Besson fans too might appreciate seeing his first feature film, which really strays from the sun-kissed cool of Subway and The Big Blue, or the ultra-chic violence of Nikita and Leon. It isn't something that I would call a classic, but for me, personally, the film has a lot to recommend; chiefly that great sense of style and the use of black and white, widescreen cinematography; which really makes it stand out. Likewise, the performances from the two leads, Jolivet and Reno, as well as Jean Bouise as an aging doctor who looks after Jolivet's nameless drifter, are all commendable, drawing on subtlety and a strong sense of physicality to compensate for the lack of dialog and plot.
The Last Battle may not be a masterpiece and may very well prove to be something that alienates many potential viewers; however, having said that, one really has to admire Besson's scope and vision, especially at this early stage in his career. Thematic similarities noted by other critics to films such as Claude Feraldo's Themroc (1973) as well as the aforementioned Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1982) are constant, as is the vague feeling of nostalgia when you consider how much subsequent music videos and TV commercials have borrowed from this particular style. So, a real cult film for anyone with a keen appreciation for underground art-cinema, post-apocalyptic sci-fi or the work of Luc Besson.
