Tree Ambush Indian, 1960

Sword, Spear & Tent, 1960

These stark two-person fights remind me the bleak, frightening yet comedic scene in Pasolini's Oedipus Rex where Oedipus comes upon his (unbeknownst to him) father Laius's wagon. Laius's guards chase Oedipus down a rocky dirt road for what seems like an hour, running on in sandals, carrying heavy slabs of metal (swords etc) under a hot sun. Finally Oedipus turns and kills one or two of the guards and then chases the last guard back down that same dirt road for what again seems like an hour, till he at last catches and kills him near the wagon where Laius still sits, waiting dully for what will soon be his own death. I probably saw that scene when I was in high school and have never been able to forget its resolute demystification of ancient warfare, whose filmic tropes I had enthusiastically absorbed as a younger child.