I rented The Princess Bride on VHS about a year after it was released. The tape that the store gave me, though, had such incredibly poor sound quality that I had a really hard time following the dialogue. And without my being able to hear the just-slightly-warped humor in the lines, the look of the film suffered badly. So I turned it off just before the Cliffs of Insanty duel.
I didn’t actually see the whole thing (with audible dialogue) for some years. But it immediately became one of my all-time favorites.
Interestingly, the Dread Pirate Roberts is the only real character in the movie. A brief page
The thing is, according to my GURPS Swashbuckers, this Pirate Roberts was replaced or preceeded… my book’s not around, in the same way as the one of the movie, by a successor who took the same name.
Okay, quick question about this movie … there seems to be a very slight shifting of frames toward the end, as though they stopped the camera in mid-scene, re-set the actor in position, and then continued filming the scene. It’s when Wesley and Inigo are talking in the window. Wesley tells Inigo he’d make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts, then falls out. Inigo seems to consider the proposition. It’s while he’s pondering for a moment, just before he jumps, that he seems to shift position in mid-frame just a bit.
My first exposure to any of Princess Bride was in an anthology compiled by Spider Robinson. He included the fencing duel scene. I loved it so much that I bought the book. When the movie came out, I was thrilled. As others have mentioned, it did justice to the book, probably because Goldman had a strong had in the movie.
I liked the music enough that I got the CD. As wife LifeOnWry, ‘Storybook Love’ was the wedding dance song for my first marriage. (It would have been for my second marriage as well but (a) That would have been wrong, and (b) We didn’t have a dance.) When it came out on VHS it was a no-brainer to buy.
I’ve enjoyed it in all of its incarnations. I have resisted buying the DVD or the anniversary expanded book version, but this thread has prompted me to watch it again soon.
The first time I saw The Princess Bride, I was laying on the edge of my couch.
I fell off the couch when Fezzik’s rock smashed spectacularly right in front of Westley’s head.
I adore that movie to this day.
And I’m sorry, but I must:
Westley: You’ve made your decision then?
Vincini: Oh not remotely! Because Iocane comes from Australia, as
everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals. And
criminals are used to having people not trust them as you are not
trusted by me so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.
My wife and I both love this movie. For quite some time this movie was watched at least once a week in our home. Now it is watched a couple of times a year. It is one of the few movies that I have had to replace the VHS copy more than once (5 copies in all). It is also the ONLY movie that I own on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD.
One of my favorites, too. For one thing, there’s never in the whole movie a moment where you kind of cringe and think, “oh gee, I wish they hadn’t put that in there.” Every character, every scene, every line belongs. It’s a well-nigh perfect movie–not that I know anything about film.
I don’t think it’s a perfect movie by any stretch. And I do love the movie. I’ve had it on VHS for years, and after seeing that extended DVD mentioned above ($11!?! Sold!!!) I just ordered it.
The first half or so of the movie is well neigh flawless. Every sequence is just perfect. However, after Wesley is captured, the movie stumbles from gag to gag (several of them quite excellent, I’d definitely add. “he’s only mostly dead.”) but with little purpose. The urgency of the story is lost, and the movie searches around for what to focus on - “Iago’s drunk! No, no – Wesley’s dead!! No, wait – stop the wedding!! Yeah that’s it!” For me, the story seems to finally jell again when Iago confronts the Six Fingered Man and then all the story arcs complete in the last 10-15 minutes of the film. But maybe that’s just me.
