dueling

His samurai films like 'Sanjuro' and 'Harakiri' explore dueling as a meditation on honor, mortality, and the clash between individual will and social duty.

In 'Barry Lyndon' and 'Dr. Strangelove,' he examines dueling and conflict through formal compositions that reveal the absurdity and tragedy of confrontation.

His spaghetti westerns, particularly 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,' transformed the duel into an operatic ritual of psychological warfare and visual spectacle.