I think the idea is more that a “love story” doesn’t have to be for girls only. It starts out all lovey-dovey, which turns Fred off, but then it turns out to be a high-action adventure that really draws him in.
:eek: :mad:
Umm…robots…death rays…tactical nuclear strike…something!
AAIIEIEEEIIIEEE!!!
BUT [spoiler]The bad guys don’t all die. Remember the scene between Fred Savage and his grandpa: “But who kills Prince Humperdinck? Is it Westley? Inigo? Who?” to which grandpa replies “Nobody kills him. He lives”. At this point, the grandson assumes Humperdinck ‘wins’, leading to the “Who says life is fair?” bit.
It’s only later, when Westley has the ability to kill Humperdinck, that Westley says “No, whatever becomes of him, I want him to live a long lift alone with his cowardice”.[/spoiler]
This is a departure from tradition. Surely, if they’d just gone all “Hollywood”, it would have been different. I liked it better Reiner’s way.
That was kind of covered in my “the only thing that runs counter to expectations” bit (the second spoiler) - I just couldn’t remember Humperdink’s name (he was the person being referred to there). That’s the only part that doesn’t go formulaicly, everything else does, and I think that, for the movie being what it is, there should have been more.
Other names were really cheesy/silly (Prince Humperdink anyone?) That was another thing that reminded me of Python.
BTW, is it just me or does Inigio (especially up close) look like Larry from “Three’s Company”?
I asked her (back when I first created this thread) if she’d seen it and she said she had. Several times. (And I don’t think for the “swashbuckling adventure tale” aspect either. I can guarantee that’s not why my seven year old daughter, who has seen it “four times now” by her telling, likes it) I think it is as, as a few posters have said, that “chicks dig it” for some inexplicable reason.
As I said in the “post viewing post”, the casting didn’t grab me either, but some of the best casting, imho, was Vizzini (although, as I posited earlier, I think Jason Alexander could have done that role just as well, but he’s the only one), Fezzik (of course), Billy Crystal (of course), and possibly even Peter Falk and Fred Savage. Peter Cook pulled off his role well, but I’m not familiar enough with him to know how much of that is good acting chops, or whether others could do justice to that role).
Oh, and one more thing I think puts this movie in the “like” column for geeks (and I’m surprised wasn’t mentioned before here, or anywhere, really), the very first shots are of classic 1980s video games! That made me sit up and take notice!
The ending is supposed to feel like a sappy contrived tacked-on happy ending. In the “original book by S. Morganstern”, it actually ends with everything falling back apart at the end, but Goldman’s father omitted that part when he read it to him. Goldman’s book, and hence the movie, is the “good parts version”.
I don’t see how it would have made the movie any more enjoyable had the things in your spoiler box not happened. I don’t expect every movie to have a happy ending, but The Princess Bride isn’t The Usual Suspects or something.
As Chronos says, you might find the ending of the book more satisfying. However, while that ending works well enough in the book I think it would have been very disappointing in the movie, because the book and movie are presented in quite different ways. The framing device for the movie is that it’s a story being told to a child, and the ending we get is one appropriate for such a story. The framing device for the book is that an adult is abridging a book he’d had read to him as a child and discovers in the process that the “original” book was more a heavy political satire and that his father had simply left out everything he considered unlikely to interest a child. The book closes with the re-discovered “last page” of the “original” novel, with some final comments from Goldman as the “abridger”. This ending is appropriate for the way the book was written, but I don’t think it would have been possible to pull off that type of narrative device in the movie* and the book’s ending doesn’t work without it.
*Or maybe you could, but only if it were a very different type of movie, something closer to Adaptation.
It is more then just a “love story” as implied here
It is about the love of Wesley and Buttercup (eros)
It is about the love of Inigo for the memory of his father (agape)
it is about the love of the fellowship that unites the 3 men to to rescue the princess (philia)
In it we also see the love of a life’s work (Miracle Max), the love of a couple after many years together (Max and Valerie). Two instances of love gone wrong, to obbsesion (The Prince and his power, and the Count and tourture).
And lets not forget the love between a sick young boy and his Grandfather who, when asked if he could come back tommorow and read the story again, simply said…“as you wish” Could there be a more simple declaration love anywhere on film?
I firmly believe that Ferris is a construct created by Cameron who in actuality spends the whole day sick in bed.
And “The Cliffs of Insanity” - that’s a very Pythonesque name.
Although it was not specified in the film, I believe in my heart that one can never just say “The Cliffs of Insanity” in a normal tone of voice. It has to be shouted wildly, preferably with spittle flying out:
“The Cliffs of Insanity!!!”
It’s a little known fact that the ruins at the top of the cliff where the sword fight took place are actually the remnants of the Castle of Aaargh.
Bumped.
“Have fun storming the White House!”
One reason alone to see the Princess Bride: Andre the Giant as Fezzick. The “villains” which include Fezzick, Inigo and Vizzini are worth the price of admission by themselves.
If The Princess Bride has a flaw, it’s that the first half is better than the second half. From the beginning through Vizzini’s death is brilliant. The rest is great, but not quite the same sustained excellence.
Y’know, I never saw it that way before. But yeah, I see it now.
Anybody want a peanut?
I met this cute girl and on our second date she handed me a copy of the book. Princesses? Brides? Pfft… But it was one of the most clever pieces of (dare I say it? All right, I shall) literature I’d seen.
The author tells the story of being read to by his grandfather, but then he sneaks a peek at the book and realizes that the old man’s editing it on the fly, and that the original The Princess Bride, by S. Morgenstern is boring. A poorly-written, needlessly verbose political diatribe.
So, now an adult, the author is attempting to recreate Grandad’s version of the story (with humorous notes on what’s being left out in red: “Here I’ve left out ten pages of what the nobles packed for their voyage…”).
Anyhow, read the book. And see the movie. And if you’ve seen the movie, read the book, then see the movie again.
…
eta: The cute girl? We’ve been married for almost forty years.
Awww… what a wonderful punch line! 