The Princess Bride (film)

The Princess Bride is a 1987 American film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Chris Sarandon, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Christopher Guest and André the Giant. It is based on the 1973 book of the same name, written by William Goldman. It was released in Spanish with the titles The Princess Bride, The Princess Who Wanted to Dream and Black Knight.

Plot

An old man (Peter Falk) visits his sick grandson (Fred Savage) with the intention of reading him a novel that he takes with him as was his custom with his children when they got sick. The boy is annoyed since the idea of listening to a "boring" book does not seem attractive to him, and even less from his grandfather's mouth, with whom he does not want to spend his time; Even so, the old man turns a deaf ear to the protests and promising that he will like the story, he begins the narration of a book entitled The Princess Bride :

The beautiful Buttercup (Robin Wright Penn) lives in a country farm called Florin. She likes to disturb Westley (Cary Elwes), her mozo of stables, asking her to do work for her; he only answers “As you wish” to everything she asks; however, with the time Buttercup understands that these words really mean “I love you” and corresponds to her love.

Westley is going to make a fortune to marry her, promising to return, but her ship is attacked by the fearsome pirate Roberts, a bloody pirate who is famous for his immortality, to be a master with the sword, his superhuman astuce and not to make prisoners. Believing that Westley has died, Buttercup, after a few years, agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), heir to the throne of Florin.

Before the day of the wedding, Buttercup is kidnapped by a thunderous trio of proscribes: the tiny Sicilian genius Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), the expert Spanish swordsman Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and the huge and strong Turkish fighter Fezzik (André the Giant), who were hired by an unknown to start a war between Florin and the rapist.

As they flee they are followed by a masked man and dressed in black, who persecutes them by the sea to the Acantilados de la Locura, where Íñigo Montoya stops to confront him in a fencing battle; although they first decide to rest for him to be a fair duel, thus taking advantage of Iñigo to explain to him that he became a swordman with six fingers in a hand, After this, they decide to begin a duel where they both show extraordinary skill; finally the mysterious man overcomes, but leaves the Spanish alive, admired by his ability and sense of honor.

Vizzini, realizing that Íñigo has failed, leaves Fezzik behind, ordering him to ambush and kill him; Fezzik does not feel comfortable with such a dishonest method, so challenge the man to a fist fight and, although Fezzik has an advantage for his enormous body and strength, he is also defeated, but not dead. The prince and his men, meanwhile, closely trace the kidnappers, reaching the cliffs without finding anyone and then taking Fezzik into force as one of their law enforcement officers.

At last, the masked man reaches Vizzini, who uses Buttercup as a hostage, claiming that he is incapable of defeating him, since he possesses a superior intellect than any wise man who has lived; for this the masked man proposes a "battle of wit to death". Vizzini must choose between two glasses of wine: the one that is not poisoned and make the other drink to his opponent. After a long delay of pretentious reasoning he chooses one, deceiving the masked and changing them at the last moment, yet he loses his life, as he later explains the masked both had a poison against which he had developed immunity.

The masked man takes Buttercup in his escape from Prince Humperdinck and she deduces that it is the fearsome pirate Roberts, this confirms the assumption and knowing for her that Westley was one of his victims acknowledges to remember it because he told him of the woman he loved before he died, so he recriminates her from marrying another and thinks it's better than the young man so had to know that Only after she hears him shouting “As you wish,” she understands that it is his long love and throws behind him down the hill.

Westley tells him how the pirate Roberts attacked the boat that Westley was traveling, but he made an exception and forgave his life, making him his servant and then his trusted man. Over time I would reveal to him that he was not the original pirate Roberts, but someone who, like Westley, served the pirate Roberts, who finally gave him the boat and the name. It seems that the true and original pirate Roberts, or the oldest known, had been retired for more than 20 years. In this way, the name, ship and fame of the pirate Roberts went to Westley after he studied, trained and prepared to assume the name with a new crew who believes it the original. After surviving now both the three horrors of the Fire Swamp (the bubbling fire, the glowing sands and the giant-looking rodents) are captured by Prince Humperdinck and by his servant, the threatening Count Rugen (Christopher Guest).

Buttercup is taken back to the palace to wait for his wedding. Now that she knows that Westley is alive, she feels that it is a fate worse than death, the prince assures him that Westley was taken to his boat and recognizes the love among them promising to send messengers for him, in return that if he does not arrive he will marry him. However, Westley was taken by Count Rugen to the Foso of Desperation, his personal hiding place for experiments of magic and alchemy, there he is received by an albino (Mel Smith), with the help of which the count tortures him with a machine that painfully extracts the vital force little by little. The prince, furious for the love of his fiancée toward the pirate, uses the machine at maximum power and ends the young man.

Iñigo and Fezzik meet again. The second tells the first what happened to Westley and reveals to his friend that while working for the prince's troops he discovered that Count Rugen has six fingers in one hand, so they decide to avenge the death of Montoya's father and prevent the marriage of Buttercup and Humperdinck. Conscious that they two are unable to achieve it, they decide to look for Westley because by defeating them and Vizzini in what each one was better (sword, strength and intellect) they reason that they can lead them to victory. After searching, they find Westley tortured to death by the prince, so they steal the body and look for the Miraculous Max (Billy Crystal), a court magician dismissed by Prince Humperdinck for Rugen, who claims that Westley is only apparently dead, and raises him at the request of his wife Valerie (Carol Kane), as it will be a way of revenge for the prince and because Westley has found true love. With Max's medicine, Westley wakes up but cannot move his body, so he must rely on his colleagues to carry out an improvised plan.

Humperdinck and Rugen, as prevention, have put an unimaginable number of guards and soldiers to secure the success of the ceremony, however this is not due to their love for the young woman, but because from the beginning the wedding has been a strategy to declare war to the neighbors of Florin, being in fact the prince the anonymous contracting Vizzini. Now her backup plan involves the death of the young woman during her wedding night, pretending that other kingdom killers attacked her after the ceremony.

Westley raids the castle by pretending that Fezzik is Roberts, whom thanks to a Westley trick show by floating in flames in front of the soldiers and making them flee from terror to the idea of facing the immortal pirate. The three end up inside and Montoya finds and pursues Count Rugen, who stabs him for treason, but fails to stop him. At the same time, Fezzik faces the bulk of the guards after hiding Westley in a safe place. Meanwhile, a bargaining bishop (Peter Cook) has married Humperdinck and Buttercup, although without her consent, as Humperdinck's contradictions have shown him that he has never looked for Westley and later he has confirmed that he has murdered him, so she is ready to commit suicide.

At the same time, Iñigo meets Rugen and tells him the phrase that I had so much hoped to say: "Hello, my name is Iñigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die." He confronts him, letting Rugen smite him several times to later he attack him and show him that his style of tear is superior. Finally, he kills him and prepares to meet his comrades.

At the last moment, Westley, who managed to reach the royal quarters alone, prevents Buttercup from committing suicide and explains to him that his marriage is not valid by omitting the part of the ceremony where she was to say "fit"; by being faced by the prince, the young man intimidates him only with his words and makes him surrender despite not having the strength to stand, however he prefers to live the life of the prince.

After this they meet with Iñigo and later with Fezzik, who has stolen the prince's top four white corceles to flee. Later, they arrive at the coast, where the ship of Roberts awaits them, however, the desire of Westley is not to separate from Buttercup, so it offers to Íñigo to succeed him as the pirate Roberts while he can stay on land and live with it.

After finishing the narration by his grandfather, the boy is delighted by the story and by the company of his grandfather, of whom his opinion and admiration have greatly improved. Therefore, after finishing and hearing the old man say goodbye to him, he asks him to return the next day to read to him, to which he replies "As you wish."

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released by Warner Bros. in 1987. It was composed and recorded by Willy DeVille and Mark Knopfler, the only person Rob Reiner believed could create music that captured the film's quirk and romance. Reiner was a fan of Knopfler's earlier work but he had not met him before working on the film and sent him the script hoping he would accept. He agreed on one condition: that somewhere in the film Rob Reiner included the baseball cap he wore playing Marty DiBergi in This is Spinal Tap . Reiner couldn't show the original cap, but he did include a similar one in his grandson's room. Knopfler would later say that he was joking.

List of songs

1. Once upon a Time...Storybook Love
2. I Will Never Love Again
3. Florin Dance
4. Morning Ride
5. The Friends' Song
6. The Cliffs of Insanity
7. The Swordfight
8. Guide My Sword
9. The Fireswamp and the Rodents of Unusual Size
10. Revenge
11. A Happy Ending
12. Storybook Love (composed and interpreted by Willy DeVille)

Comments

The book is an alleged shortened version of an earlier version of "S. Morgenstern", which was a satire on the excesses of European royalty. Goldman "remembers" the book as related to her by his father, as an adventure tale, without the complex political overtones. His work is a recreation of this simplification of his father. In fact, the book is Goldman's original work. Morgenstern and his & # 34; original version & # 34; they never existed. Goldman's family is also not accurately described in the book. He has two daughters, not a son, and his wife is not a psychologist. The countries Florin and Guilder do not exist, although before the advent of the euro they were both coins in circulation, in fact the same coin in the Netherlands, and the way the 2 shilling coin was called in the UK. Goldman took the joke further, publishing another book called The Silent Gondoliers (about why the gondoliers in Venice no longer sang to their passengers) under the pen name S. Morgenstern. The Vizzini family from The Princess Bride also appears in this book.

The resource of pretending that the author discovers and edits a very old book has been used by authors as diverse as Miguel de Cervantes or Umberto Eco.

The film was moderately successful: it was not a huge hit with audiences, and it only grossed at the US box office twice the $15 million it cost to produce. However, over the years it has become a cult film.

The role of Fezzik the Giant was offered to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who declined.

The book has several more scenarios than the movie and a less optimistic ending.

The film was filmed in various locations in the UK and Ireland:

• Burham Beeches, Buckinghamshire.
• Castleton, Derbyshire.
• Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland (for the cliffs of madness).
• Haddon Hall, Bakewell, Derbyshire.

Awards and nominations

Further reading

• Elwes, Cary; Layden, Joe (2014). As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride. New York: Touchstone. ISBN 9781476764023. OCLC 878812649.