Deadly? Yes. Entertaining? Not so much.

Take, for example, the very famous duel between James, 4th Duke of Hamilton, and Charles, 4th Baron Mohun. The duel took place at Hyde Park on the morning of November 15, 1712. The descriptions of the duel claimed that it was quite a short, nasty affair. Both Hamilton and Mohun were covered in wounds and died of their injuries on the spot.

Many other accounts of duels followed a similar description. Duels were often short and brutish because people getting into duels weren't always very skilled at it. But, even at that, nervousness and panic can take over and one can get sloppy in their technique.

If you're interested in learning more about duels, please check out the following works:

• Banks, Stephen. A Polite Exchange of Bullets: The Duel and the English Gentleman, 1750-1850. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2010.
• Bellacois, Francois. The Duel: Its Rise and Fall in Early Modern France, edited and translated by Trista Selous. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
• Cohen, Richard. By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions. New York: Modern Library, 2003.
• Kelly, James. ‘That Damn’d Thing Called Honour’: Duelling in Ireland, 1570-1860. Cork: Cork University Press, 1995.
• Peltonen, Markku. The Duel in Early Modern England: Civility, Politeness and Honour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Stater, Victor. Duke Hamilton is Dead! A Story of Aristocratic Life and Death in Stuart Britain. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.

European swords like cutlasses and rapiers

You'll have to be specific here. What kind of swords are you referring to, and in what kind of movies?

For example, katanas are generally portrayed with varying degrees of faithfulness. Some movies, usually Japanese samurai films, portray the art of kendo with a high degree of realism. Other movies may portray the katana as some kind of legendary super sword.