At some point in a duel, the hero and villain will cross swords at face level, allowing them to grip each other's weapon while making nasty/sarcastic comments before they break the clinch and continue fighting. (Why doesn't anyone just ram the sword guard into their opponent's face, stun him, and then finish him off?)
If the hero and villain's swords cross at or below waist level, they will break the clinch, fall back, and pause -- despite the fact that a simple upthrust into the opponent's belly after the break would end the duel right there and then.
If there is a candelabra, the villain will show how talented he is with a sword by cutting the candles and watching them fall over; the hero will do the same but the candles won't fall until _after_ the villain has made a comment about the hero's lack of fencing ability, at which point the hero will topple the cut candles, showing that he is more skilled than the villain because _his_ candles didn't fall over from the force of the cut.
During a duel, the hero will jump or climb onto a table/bench/piano/platform that raises him above the villain. At that point, the villain will swipe at the hero's legs, which the hero avoids by jumping up in the air over the villain's blade. _Very_ rarely, the positions are reversed.
Duels usually have one scene where the actors go out of frame and you watch their shadows fighting.
If the villain wounds the hero in his sword arm, one of three things will happen:
hero becomes ambidextrous and fights with sword in other hand;
hero finds something else to defend himself with (tapestry, chain, Mossberg 12-gauge) that can be used with the other hand;
hero's girlfriend/sidekick comes up behind villain and impales him, thus saving hero.
If hero is disarmed by villain, one of three things will happen:
villain will show a trace of honour and allow hero to get his sword;
hero will make mad dash/leap over or around villain to regain sword;
just when it looks like the end, hero's girlfriend/sidekick throws a sword to him, which he manages to grab easily (for the _best_ send-up of this concept, check out ARMY OF DARKNESS where Ash jumps in the air and his chainsaw magically clamps back onto his wrist -- it's beautifully shot and extremely funny!).
If there are stairs, the hero will be forced up them backwards by the villain, at which point the hero will either leap to the ground or swing from a rope/chandelier/tapestry to get away.
If there is a tapestry or chandelier, the hero will cut it loose and drop it on the villain's henchmen _unless_ the movie is a comedy, in which case the hero will drop it on his own men by accident.
On to Fights.
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Back to Movie Cliches.
