‘The Last Battle’: Luc Besson’s remarkable debut that features only two words of dialogue
French director Luc Besson might be best known for his impressive contributions to cinema in the shape of the 1990s classics Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element. However, one must go back to 1983 to find his debut feature, the post-apocalyptic film The Last Battle, which also featured Jean Reno’s first prominent acting role.
The nearly silent film (containing only two spoken words of dialogue) gives a shocking yet minimalist portrayal of a future world rife with desolation where humanity struggles for its survival. The Last Battle takes place in a dystopian future in which society has collapsed and follows an anonymous protagonist as he makes his way through the ruins of a one-time thriving and bustling urban environment, looking for hope and redemption wherever it might rear its unlikely head.
Besson delivers, therefore, an impressive mediation of the human condition amid the horrors of the uncertain future while diving headfirst into themes of isolation, miscommunication, and the eternal need for human relationships. By omitting dialogue from the film, Besson invites his audience to share in the loneliness experienced by Pierre Jolivet’s lead character.
The protagonist makes his way through the ruined city, encountering a diverse range of characters, including a hermetic scientist and a man of genuine anger and violence, each of whom is locked in their personal battle to survive, reflecting the many aspects of the overall human experience.
It’s a truly haunting experience that Besson provides in The Last Battle, and there’s a bleakness and a sense of inevitable decay that runs throughout its entire runtime. However, even amid the hopelessness, there are glimmers of beauty, say the protagonist meeting a strange woman, played by Anne Parillaud, who offers just the slightest opportunity for connection despite isolation.
Still, The Last Battle is a rather disturbing work of cinema that asks its audience to dive deep into their minds and hearts with the most profound philosophical introspection. In a world absent of joy and meaning, the need for human connection becomes all the more imperative and Besson’s tragically dark imagery drills against this hope with unrelenting despair.
His first foray into feature filmmaking showed Besson to be something of a visionary when it came to directing movies and served as a showcase of the kind of thematic routes he would take in the following years. With genuinely harrowing imagery and a unique take on the post-apocalyptic genre, The Last Battle is not an easy watch, but it might just be an essential watch all the same.
