Sword fight? Fanning at each other, crossing and smacking swords. Maybe even walking around each other. I don’t think that’s how a real sword fight would look.
In real life most sword fights would be over in seconds with no more than three moves. BUT obviously that’s not very visually appealing so we get insane sword clashes with lots of unnecessary movement and the infamous “sword lock” where the swordsmen needlessly press into each other for that dramatic tension despite that being something that is never, ever done.
Interestingly enough, one of the BEST sword fights in cinema is in The Princess Bride. It manages to be dynamic and engaging and lengthy without giving into a lot of bad swordfighting tropes. This is a great rundown of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0rkUbrPo3k
In real life most sword fights would be over in seconds with no more than three moves. BUT obviously that’s not very visually appealing so we get insane sword clashes with lots of unnecessary movement and the infamous “sword lock” where the swordsmen needlessly press into each other for that dramatic tension despite that being something that is never, ever done.
Interestingly enough, one of the BEST sword fights in cinema is in The Princess Bride. It manages to be dynamic and engaging and lengthy without giving into a lot of bad swordfighting tropes. This is a great rundown of the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0rkUbrPo3k