Did medieval combat actually consist of cinematic sword fighting, or were battles more like brawls?

by ottolouis

Watching Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, one would think that medieval combat involved agile knights parrying one another's strikes until someone lands a clean death blow with his sword. I find it hard to believe this happened often: battle fields would be too crowded, unleveled ground would make it difficult, and moving around in armor would quickly cause fatigue. The way the Battle of Agincourt is depicted in The King, with Timothee Chalamet, looks far more realistic to me. (This isn't to say that they accurately depicted the tactics/strategy at Agincourt accurately, just that the style of hand-to-hand fighting looked realistic.) In that film, we see a disorganized fight with men throwing punches at one another, wrestling, rolling on the ground, and suffocating/drowning each other in mud. This seems somewhat more realistic to me than most Hollywood depictions. However, one problem with it is the fact that there would be (seemingly?) no way for the combatants on either side to distinguish friend from foe. So what did most of medieval combat really look like?

J-Force

I replied to a similar question recently. Sorry to disappoint, but medieval combat was neither full of artful duels or chaotic brawls. Instead, it generally consisted of mundane formation fighting similar to the late Romans. That could still get quite chaotic, but not to the extent commonly depicted.