The Princess Bride

A special hello to all you dads (and dads to be)!

Yesterday I was watching The Princess Bride with my dad, and well, I figured I'd write about it. Most of you out there have probably seen it at least once (I've only met one person who hadn't, and we remedied that issue later that evening), but it's a classic, so here's my summary!

It starts out pretty basic, girl (Buttercup) meets boy (Westley), Buttercup torments Westley to no end, but he loves her anyways. She finds out he loves her and loves him back... Then 'cause they're dirt poor, he goes off to the country across the sea to seek his fortune (to later come home and get married) and never comes back due to a pirate attack (the Dread Pirate Roberts never leaves survivors). Buttercup is devastated, to put it gently. She later describes it as "I DIED THAT DAY!"

Fast forward five years.

Westley is still dead (duh), and Buttercup is engaged to Prince Humperdink. Still not happy, she was picked for her looks though Humperdink does an ok job of pretending to love her. She goes out horseback riding, gets kidnapped by a Turkish giant (Fezzik), a Sicilian genius (Vizzini), and a Spaniard swordsmen (Inigo Montoya). They bring her to a boat to cross the channel and kill her on the frontier of the opposite country, Guilder (sworn enemy of Florin, Humperdink's country) to start a war. Halfway across the channel or so, Inigo realizes they are being followed by a boat all in black and Buttercup jumps off their boat to be eaten by shrieking eels.

I'll leave off there with the same reassurance a grandfather spoke to his grandson "She doesn't get eaten at this time."

Tis an excellent movie. Sure the monsters aren't freakishly realistic, but they're not supposed to be. It's a mixed up fairy tale, not a horror story. It's got a cast with a lot of people you'll probably recognize, and the story is superb. It never gets old no matter how many times you see it, and it's a LOT of fun to quote lol they've got some awesome lines in there.

Another thing, and I'll quote the grandpa and grandson here to illustrate my point;

"A book?"
"That's right. When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I'm gonna read it to you."
"Has it got any sports in it?"
"Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..."
"Doesn't sound too bad. I'll try to stay awake."
"Oh, well, thank you very much, very nice of you. Your vote of confidence is overwhelming."

Basically it's got something for everyone. I read the book too, and it's even better than the movie. There are a few differences, as is normal when switching between a book and movie of the same title, but nothing too bad. I highly recommend them both. If you're the analytical type however, watch the movie first so you don't get upset that they changed a couple things in the book. Nothing too big was changed, but you gotta remember that they have to fit a few hundred page book into a movie that is no more than a couple hours long.

Questions? Comments? Write it in the comment box!

Oh, and before I forget, the movie isn't mine, nor are any of the other movies that I've written about thus far.

'Til tomorrow!

-Kj