The Princess Bride

2010-10-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

The Princess Bride (20th Anniversary Edition) Ah, now here is a truly delightful movie! Originally a novel written by William Goldman in 1973 (and not by S. Morganstern as Peter Falk told movie grandson Fred Savage), The Princess Bride was was brought to picture life in 1987 by Rob Reiner.

The movie promises fierce battles, pirates, action, and the most important, True Love. As in the words of Indigo;

"True love. You heard him. You could not ask for a more noble cause than that."

And to which Miracle Max (played by Billy Crystal) replied:

"Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world. Except for a nice MLT, a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. They're so perky, I love that. But that's not what he said. He distinctly said "to blave." And, as we all know, "to blave" means "to bluff." So you're probably playing cards, and he cheated --"

The Princess Bride is set in the fictitious town of Florin around the Renaissance era. The story centers around Westly (played by Carry Elwes) and Buttercup (played by Robin Wright Penn) as they struggle through hilarious adventures and encountering evil kidnappers, dread pirates, and new friends while losing and finding that elusive 'true love'.

The Princess Bride begins with a young Fred Savage sitting in bed sick when his grandfather, played by Peter Falk, comes to visit bearing a gift. The gift turns out to be the book, The Princess Bride, which he proceeds to read to a disgruntled Fred Savage. Although the movie has parts where it is narrated by Peter Falk, it does not detract from the movie. Fred Savage's reluctant interest and growing excitement with the story is a great compliment to the film, and adds even more comedic episodes.

Westly, played by Cary Elwes (Saw, Twister, Robin Hood - Men in Tights, Days of Thunder) is just a 'poor farm boy', that is in love with Buttercup, basically his mistress (boss) on the farm. He rarely spoke anything to her, except to respond with the infamous "as you wish" whenever she gave him a chore to do. After the two admitted their love for each other, Westly decided to go out and make his fortune before getting married. However, poor Westly was captured by the 'Dread Pirate Roberts', whom we all know 'never leaves prisoners alive'. Five years later (and no, I don't think I'm giving this away if you haven't seen this movie because I think it is fairly obvious) Westly arrives again, this time as the 'man in the mask' in time to rescue Buttercup from kidnappers hired by Prince Humperdinck (played by Chris Sarandon) to start a war. Before Westly can rescue Buttercup, he must duel a great swordsman (Indigo Montoya), beat a giant (Fezzik) in hand-to-hand combat, and outsmart an intellect (Vizzini). And, as it happens, that is only the beginning of poor Westly's trials and tribulations to obtain 'true love' with Buttercup.

Buttercup, played by Robin Wright Penn (Beowolf, State of Grace, Moll Flanders) is basically a commoner, who somehow is able to 'afford' to have a farm worker, aka Westly. At first she denies her attraction to Westly, always calling him "Farm Boy" and giving orders like "Fetch me that pitcher". However, after she admits her true feelings for him and learns that he was captured by pirates, she promises that she will 'never love again'. Five years later she finds herself engaged to Prince Humperdinck, even though she does not love him. During one of her leisurely rides on her horse, Buttercup, now known as Princess Buttercup, is captured by three outlaws who were hired by her fiance to start a war. When the masked man rescues her, she has no idea that he is her beloved Westly, until she pushes him down a cliff and he yells out... as he's falling, "as you wish" to which she immediately responds "oh, my sweet Westly, what have I done?" and proceeds to throw herself down the cliff, the two of them bouncing and rolling until they come to a painful stop at the bottom of the ravine. Now all Buttercup must do is survive the Fire Swamp (which no one ever has), and being once again captured, this time by her fiance, the Prince Humperdinck while she waits for her true love Westly to come save her again, this time with the help of some surprising friends.

Indigo Montoya, played by Mandy Patinkin (Criminal Minds), is one of the villains, at least at first. He is the Spaniard, a hired swordsman who is part of the group that kidnaps Buttercup. He is the great swordsman that Westly must out parry to rescue Buttercup. However, Indigo is not all bad, as he said "I just work for Vizzini to pay the bills". His greatest desire is to find the six-fingered man who killed his father, the great swords maker. He has practiced and studied swordsmanship for most of life so that when he does meet up with the six-fingered man he can say "Hello, my name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!" In an interesting turn of fate, Indigo does get the opportunity to go after the six-fingered man, and help Westly on his quest as well.

Fezzik, played by Andre the Giant (most notably the WWF, Conan the Barbarian), is the lovable giant that is also part of the trio of kidnappers to steal the Princess Buttercup. Despite his great strength, Fezzik was also pretty good at rhymes, and (if you can understand him) liked to spout them off at any time.

"Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?" Indigo asked.

"If there are, we'll all be dead." Fezzik cheerfully responds.

"No more rhymes now, I mean it!" Vizzini, the leader of the 'gang' orders.

"Anybody want a peanut?" Fezzik offers.

The Gentle Giant's sense of fair play has him facing Westly for hand-to-hand combat (instead of hiding behind a rock and bashing him over the head as Vizzini ordered) to keep Westly from rescuing Buttercup. Later Fezzik is on the Brute Squad, working for the castle to clear out villians that are stubborn and need a little more reinforcement to leave. When Fezzik and Indigo meet up again, they join together to rescue Westly from "The Pit of Despair", which is a torture chamber hidden beneath a tree, so that they can combine their journeys to find the six-fingered man for Indigo and Buttercup for Westly.

Although this movie can be classified as a romance, it is full of action and comedy as well, making it a 'must see' for all. It is family friendly as well.

Have you seen The Princess Bride yet? If so, I'd love to hear your feed back. If not, you can view a trailor of it and see what you think.

As always, enjoy your movies!

Welcome

2010-10-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!

I'm quite excited about starting this new blog. I've been looking for something to do to get back into writing again, and especially writing about things I enjoy. I have no idea why it took me so long to figure it out, but at least I have now!

What will this blog be about you ask? Simple, reviews and critiques of movies! Now, I know there are a lot of movie reviews out there, but there are also just as many opinions as well. And that's what this blog is about, MY opinion on movies, both old and new.

I'm not reserving this blog to just the newest movies out on the market because there are so many great movies that deserve to be 'brought back to life' so to speak.

I have a lot of great things planned for this blog, including themed blogging wherein I post several movie reviews that all feature a particular actor/actress, or era, or genre, or whatever mood strikes me!

One thing for sure, my reviews will be honest and forthcoming. I greatly welcome comments and suggestions! Got a movie you want me to review, then throw the suggestion at me, I just might do it!

Most of all, enjoy and if you haven't seen the movie I've written a review on, maybe watch it and give me your thoughts as well!

Thanks,
TT

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The Princess Bride

Welcome