I organized a group of folks to go see this on the big screen last night at the Arclight Cinemas in Sherman Oaks, CA (the chain tends to show a lot of old films on the big screen). I don’t seem to get tired of seeing that film, but it was a blast to see it with a crowd. So many great quotes.
Cary Elwes was on-hand and did a Q&A session after the showing. He told a lot of great Andre the Giant stories, but what seemed to shock us all the most was the fact that he apparently had not watched the film since he’d gone to one of the premieres when it was first released. He’s a very funny man, and the whole thing was just a lot of fun.
I have nothing more of substance to say, so treat this thread…as you wish.
Oh, I would LOVE to see The Princess Bride on the big screen. I was one of the many who didn’t discover the greatness of this film until it was out on VHS.
Oh, COOL!!! Did everyone in the crowd recite the entire film along with the cast? Can you tell us some of the Andre the Giant stories? Are you on the Brute Squad? Anybody want a peanut?
OK, so what I should have said is that when tickets went on sale, I bought tickets for a group of people so we could attend together. My celebrity-fu is not quite that strong.
I think my favorite might have been when he went out drinking with Andre at several different bars in NYC, and at some point, realized that there was someone following them from bar to bar. He said that when he observed this, he asked Andre if he’d noticed the same person. Andre ultimately explained that at some time prior, he’d gotten exceedingly drunk and had fallen on another bar patron (causing some injury, as you might imagine). Supposedly, after that incident, NYPD had been sending an off-duty cop to follow Andre around whenever he went out drinking to try to avoid any further incidents.
The recitation wasn’t as bad as I actually thought it was going to be (and I certainly had to resist some, myself), but it was funny how everyone would immediately start laughing when certain characters appeared on screen even before they’d spoken any lines (the reverend/minister being the most prominent of those, of course).
I read the book several years before the movie came out. When I saw that there was going to be a movie I shuddered–I was sure it would be one of those disasters that ruins the whole book.
Obviously I was wrong. I missed the scenes of Fezzik and Inigo entering the Zoo of Death, but somethings are better left out. I also missed the commentary on the author’s wife and pork-chop son, but, again…
Anyway, that’s my bit. You kids go on now. Have fun storming the castle.
ETA: BTW, great book, I recommend it. Most readers will finish it in a day or two and then read it again.
One thing about the conversion from book to movie is that, in both cases, Inigo’s lines to Rugen as he’s killing him are excellent, but they’re completely different. In the book, he first stabs left of Rugen’s heart, then right, then above, and asks Rugen if he knows what he’s doing. “You’re cutting my heart out”. “Yes, just like you cut my heart out years ago”. In the movie, it’s “Promise me wealth. Promise me power. Promise me anything I want.” “Yes, of course!” “I want my father back, you son of a bitch!”
And I have to expect that it would have taken a heck of a lot of alcohol to get Andre the Giant drunk.
I knew we reached a new point in The Littlest Briston’s life when we found a non-animated movie that would hold her interested repeatedly.
There’s something wrongfully wonderful about surreptitiously seeing a six-year-old girl holding a yardstick up to a giant teddy bear and whispering “I want my father back, you son of a bitch”.
I cannot and will not be held responsible for my local brethren’s lack of participation in Arclight’s membership program, whereby one receives such announcements in email. And while I first saw the news about a month ago and was able to snag a bunch of tickets, the show was sold out by early last week.
