Dueling in the past

Duelling in the past was meant to describe the arranged combat between two people with pre arranged rules. originally duelling was made with swords, traditionally rapiers, although with the development of gunpowder, pistols were introduced. (Jenkins B, 2005) The last duel in England

The four most common forms of duelling that have been seen in media with some variations are the olden style flintlock pistol duel, the rapier sword fight between an antagonist and the protagonist, the wild west style stand off and finally the Bruce Lee style fist fight.(Salomon, 2008) Top 10 duels

One of the first pistol duels (Jenkins B, 2005)

The traditional pistol duel is a very common occurence in books and films, especialy if the setting is in that of the victorian age, its incredibly recognisable and very iconic of that era.

The original form of dueling with little to no safety measures (Rosame 2011)

featured a lot as an adaptation in the star wars series of films, Fencing is represented as the "honourable" and more dignified form of duels based around finesse. The classic fencing style is a very regal style and is often linked with knights or royalty.(Steinmetz  A,1868) dueling

Wild west stand off's are very popular in media and can been seen anywhere with cowboys.(Rockstar 2010)

The wild west stand off is very similar to the classic flintlock pistol duels and is featured a lot more than the other two, even without the wild west theme, the "calm before the storm" attitude is featured a lot in books and movies. (Dirks T, 2010) Western Films

He's probably been in over 100 duels by now (Sheehan H, 1992)

The most iconic old west standoffs are in John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies like The good, the bad and the ugly. These wild west films almost always feature some form of stand-off. (Dirks T, 2010) Western Films

The martial arts are one of many forms of dueling in movies, games and other media.
(Ching G 1999)

The martial arts have always been a very popular form of fighting in movies and games, but they also inspire a lot of clubs and society's.  (Mathews G 2007) Martial arts

Martial arts clubs gather popularity as martial arts is featured in media like movies (Mathews G 2007)

 While looking into the wild western duels i looked into the "Mexican standoff" the effect in films where two people locked in a duel both have their guns pointed at each other but cant pull the trigger for the fear of the other pulling theirs faster. (Multiple authors, 2011) Mexican standoffs

My research into the past so far is littered with mainly cowboys and stand offs, albeit there is evidence of battles in most media, only the cowboy western and martial arts media show consistent dueling to be popular in the media in the past.

Mexican stand-offs aren't limited to just two people: "A stalemate where everyone has a weapon pointed at someone else. All the threats are equally balanced; no one is walking away from this standoff with what they came for — or walking away at all, since everyone realizes that if you get to shelter, you can fire on them without suffering in return."

(Multiple authors, 2011) Mexican standoffs

A very apt image of a Mexican standoff from the webcomic: CTRL-ALT-DEL 

Mexican standoff's are seen as a "classic" scene in action films from the past especially in cowboy films where the phrase itself was coined. They're a classic way of adding instant tension to the movie or eliminating characters in a dramatic way.

An example of a Mexican stand-off but with an actually winner (Unforgiven 1992)


Following on from my research into competitive games in the present, I decided to look into some of the earliest games. Horseshoes was a popular game in its time but its less glamorous and exciting style has led to its decay, As it is rarely seen in media today.

An incredibly early form of competitive gaming. (Bowman C, 2011)

One of the oldest examples of "a duel of wits" is chess. Chess is the age old game between two players which is seen as the battle of intelligence, that only the smartest person can play. In reality, anyone can play chess and the strategies can be committed to memory. In movies chess is always the "gentle mans sport" usually between two characters.

Humphrey Bogart, the star of Casablanca was very talented at chess, and his celebrity status increased the popularity of the game (bogieonline.com 2005)

While looking into seeing chess in the media, I decided to see if the popularity of the game in general has changed over the years. (Mangahas M, 2009) Chess popularity Some comments on the  national Survey of Leisure Time and Sports lead me to believe that chess has been popular for an incredibly long time and its definitely no going to die down.

"Chess is the No. 1 game. It turns out that chess is the Filipinos. most popular game, meaning non-physical sport." (Mangahas M, 2009) Chess popularity

In its literal sense, there was a movie made in 1971 called "duel" about a massive truck that starts attacking and constantly following a random driver, the movie was directed by Steven Spielburg and features a  1960 281 fuel truck as its "main star" (Amanda, 2009) Duel movie review

The 1971 movie Duel was Spielberg's precursor for Jaws (Spielberg s,1971)

"Duel works on the most primal of levels, employing a great deal of mystery as to the trucker's identity or appearance, and keeping his motivations completely to the viewer's imagination. It starts slowly, building up the premise, with Spielberg taking his time in letting the ambiance of the open road envelop us." (Leo V, 2005) Duel review

My research into the past of dueling has shown me the most popular forms of media featuring dueling are combat oriented such as western and martial art games and films. Although the wild western style of films was incredibly popular in the past its popularity has evened out as my research into the present has shown. on the horizon I will research into a more specific sport for dueling as well as the future of combat.