"The Princess Bride" - 01/12/03 - 01/18/03

[Morticia]

This is a thread to discuss the technical and/or thematic merits of "The Princess Bride".

The purpose being to foster intelligent discussion of films without resorting to "It's a piece of crap." or "It's the greatest film ever." (And so that we all can gain a bit of a film education from everyone.)

We'll discuss a new film each week. Either slade or I will post the film in this forum in advance, and lock the topic until the first day of discussion.

Thanks everyone. We are open to any ideas about running this forum.

****SPOILER WARNING**** of course this entire thread is going to be full of spoilers.

DOES ANYBODY WANT A PEANUT??

[aintnosin]

This was one of those perfect family films, meaning that it was clean enough for the kids and smart enough for the grown-ups. It was perfectly cast (introducing Robin "" Wright), written by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner. It would have been hard for this film to go wrong.

It manages to be funny without being forced or winking at the audience.

The universality of this film is summed up by two separate incidents. One from the documentary on the DVD. Rob Reiner leaves a New York restaurant where John Gotti has also been eating. He sees a very "goobah"-looking guy standing next to a limousine, who recognizes Reiner and shots, "Eh! You killed my father! Prepare to die! I love that movie."

The other happened to me at work a few years ago. I was talking to my supervisor and, for some reason, he said something was "inconceivable," not once, but twice. I did my best Inigo Montoya voice: "You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means." Poor guy took about five minutes to recover from that.

[mlemmond]

The Princess Bride is one of those films that has a magic or charm to it that you never seem to get tired of. Beautifully directed and containing some of the best performances offered by the actors in it. The most overlooked aspect of this film is an amazing score, the music is fantastic. I upgraded from my worn out vhs to dvd last night.

This movie also manages to reach me on an emotional level that very few films do. It's not the love story but the grandfather reading to his grandson. After losing my grandfather last year, seeing this on the screen reminds me of time spent with my grandfather and that is invaluble.

[C Roberts]

The Princess Bride has always been one of my favorite movies. When I was younger I never really liked the scenes with the kid and his grandfather. I think that much like the kid in the movie I wanted to get to the cool parts of the story and skip all the sentimental crap. Nowadays I appreciate those scenes as an essential part of the movie. Not many movies that you grow up with actually tell you just how much you've grown when watching them. This movie does that for me.

[Morticia]

"The Princess Bride" is one of my favorite films of all time. The humor, the action, all of it. Tons of fun. I think the one big reason I like it is that it crosses genres -- is it a comedy? a swashbuckler? a family film? Why, it's all three and then some.

I got the biggest kick out of the first big swordfight the first time I saw it, in the theatre. There's only about 5 films I remember seeing in the theatre as vividly: Star Wars, Ladyhawke, Princess Bride, Batman, The Matrix.

I did read the book later, and while I can see the complaints from the people who liked the book better (or read it first), I still think the spirit and heart of the book remains intact. Sure, True Love was put to the forefront of the movie, but I think it worked well that way.

I really enjoy this film, and watch it often. Yes, Andre the Giant's accent makes it tough to understand him, but this is such a sweet and simple film that it doesn't matter.

This film does recall a day when movies were simply about boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. Except in this case its, boy meets girl, boy dies, boy2 gets girl, boy2 plans girl's death, boy comes back, boy gets girl. And they ride off on white horses.

[3DMan]

Plus it has Cary Elwes one great performance!(although I enjoyed him in Shadow of the Vampire)

"There is something you do not know. I am NOT left-handed!"

[Morticia]

You got that right, 3DMan!! (I too enjoyed SotV)

I wonder if there's a list somewhere of the Actor's Equivalents of One-Hit Wonders...

(oh but actually -- Men In Tights. While not a Great Mel Brooks film, Cary did have an English Accent!)

[Anti-Hero]

FEZZIK!! HAHA!

[Welles and Ford Fan]

I read the book back in the 70s and am one of those who didn't like the film as well. I didn't hate it or anything, but I felt it wasn't very compelling and have never cared to see it over and over. While I remember laughing out loud at some of the humor in the book, I remember the adventure/romance parts more. I thinkthe film had the makings of a classic. It was quite well cast (though I would have used a real villain rather than Christopher Guest). I think Reiner was the wrong choice for director. He is good at subtle comedy, but I think he lacked the ability to make the film truly thrilling. I think it needed a touch like Richard Lester's with the Musketeer films. Those films jumped from silliness to slapstick to adventure to tragedy with the lightness of a feather.

When warner Bros made The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938, they replaced the original director (Wm Keighley) with Michael Curtiz, because they felt that Keighley concentrated too much on the comedy rather than the adventure of the story. I guess that's how I feel about The Princess Bride. I've always felt it was a near miss rather than a bullseye-a pretty good film that, with the appropriate director, could've been great.