I mean, how often would you have two armies running full speed at one another just desperately seeking to destroy the other one, followed by a simple clash of arms in the middle of the battlefield, that might last for several minutes/hours? Or, was it more of walking up to each other, doing some stabs, someone breaks, not a lot of people die, everyone else goes home?
I would imagine that this varies by the culture in the fight, but the picture in my mind is basically the Battle of Stirling [Bridge] in Braveheart.
Eh, I'm inclined to various grades of "No" ranging from "Nope" to "Nooooooooo". Suffice it to say that Hollywood has a lot to answer for. More can always be said on the matter, especially from anyone else with a different model of how combat might go. For the meantime, the following previous posts may be of interest to you:
Some more threads in next post because argh tag limit.