Time to speak of The Princess Bride
First of all, no one is allowed on this blog ever again unless you admit with every cell of your body that The Princess Bride by William Goldman is the best movie ever made, and for those of you who have read the novel, that it is the best novel ever written.
Are we square?
Okay. At times like these (dropping husband off at the airport at four this morning so he can go have “fun”, so much work to do right now, screenplay due in a few days, really no time to spare at all), one MUST watch The Princess Bride at least twice in a row. It’s . . . research. Because William Goldman is the master screenwriter, and that kind of skill can be absorbed through the eyes.
Don’t argue.
Every now and then I’ve been in groups of people where as part of our introduction we have to name our favorite movie. It’s been gratifying to hear how many people feel the same way I do (although not as deeply–it’s not possible). We can all recite our favorite lines (“Incontheivable!” “As you wish,” etc.), our favorite scenes (the sword fight on the Cliffs of Insanity, etc.), and all of us wish we were as cool as Westley.
So there’s really nothing to discuss here, but if you feel like sharing your own deep, abiding love of The Princess Bride, I open up the blog to you today. That movie makes me happy every time I see it, and it’s about time I gave it its proper due in this space.
Oh, and that kiss . . .
Technorati Tags: Movies, Films, The Princess Bride, William Goldman, Screenwriting
Hello Robin,
I’m a frequent visitor at The Biting Edge Blog and love conversing with Mario,Marta and Jeanne on the various fun topics there.My dumb blog is:http://vamprowler.blogspot.com
The Princess Bride, huh? All time best! How could anyone disagree?
Favorite line:
HELLO! MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA. YOU KILLED MY FATHER. PREPARE TO DIE.
What a charge! How cute is Mandy Patinkin?! I have a 16 year old daughter who is magically in love with that film and is nearly done with the book to boot. She’s an avid reader of just about anything she can get her hands on, and that makes me very proud. Barnes and Nobles rules over computer gaming. What a relief.
I too am an avid reader, devouring anything from historical research to, well, vampire novels! I’ve read to my daughter since the day she was born, incorporating Mark Twain and Charles Dickens and even Shakespeare into her routine. She loves Twain to smithereens.
Hi, Lorri, welcome! I checked out your blog–scary! Love the vamp pix. Any of you out there have a hankerin’ for vampires, head over to Lorri’s site.
Yes, favorite line for sure is that one from Inigo–SO perfect and perfectly-delivered.
Glad to hear your girl is a manic reader. Gives us hope for the future of this world, doesn’t it?
My favorite bit about The Princess Bride (and I noticed it the very first time I watched it) is the way Goldman studiously avoids any and all profanity or swearing…with the end result that Inigo’s final “I want my father back, you son of a bitch!” hits you in the gut like a sack of bricks.
Genius.
I never noticed that before–you’re absolutely right. And obviously smarter than I am. Sigh.
Sigh, indeed. And you call yourself a writer?
Yeah, but unlike you, I’m not a mean writer.
Quotes that I work into everyday conversations.
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is “Never get involved in a land war in Asia”
Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.
I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now.
You remind me of the babe.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Also,
“Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed in Greenland!”
It’s all in the punctuation of the lines, and the actors not letting on that they’re about to say something funny.
Pray for a good director and good actors to bring your script to life…also a good DP, set designer, grips, best boy, editor, AD, 2nd AD, 2nd 2nd AD…and craft services person, because if the coffee sucks, so will your movie.
curse you patrick–another hour a googlin’. it’s a very good thing i have no real life.
“As you wish.”
Gives me warm fuzzies everytime my dh says those three words.
And what did you find out by googling? It’s not like I said Mandy Patinkin or Cary Elwes.
Did you find David Bowie in a spandex outfit that was a little to tight for comfort? My comfort, not his.
omg–i am so semi-publically humiliated. having only seen pb once, and not the whole way through, and being unaware that it was, at some point in time,apparently a book (stop, stop, i intend to immediately rectify this horrific ommission to my education, as it has obviously replaced “the canterbury tales” in classic literature) i thought these were just, you know, like your favorite quotes. what a warthog faced buffon am i!
please rb, don’t banish me from the blog–i’m sure that pb is the very best movie ever and i promise to watch over and over and over again. in the meantime, remember i’m not one of you, i had a farm in africa…
Hi Patrick,
Your quote says: I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now.
Another superb movie! Labyrinths.
In fact, when my kid was little I used to threaten her with that line but never finish the sentence because if I did finish the line then the goblins would come take her away! She certainly didn’t want that! So she played it safe and went back to behaving herself! I could say the line right up to ‘right’ but never say ‘now’ and she was in the safety zone! LOL
No spankings, just that one sentence did the trick!
She did watch the movie with me so she knew exactly what would happen!
Lizzy,
Another one of my favorite lines!!
Your Quote:“Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed in Greenland!â€
I love the way he said Greenland!! It was so damn funny!!
So last night I saw a midnight showing of Labyrinth in a movie theater. Just as fun as you think it was. Wow, did that theater like David Bowie’s… outfits.
Ahem. I like how in the book, you actually see what happened to Fezzik in Greenland.
My favorite line is “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.”
My boyfriend’s is, “Don’t even think ::cough cough hack grrrrkkkgh:: Don’t even think of trying to escape.”
And from the book. “Wait, are you saying that my love is like the sand and your love is like that other thing? Help me Westley, I was never any good at math.”
And of course, land war in Asia.
Also, most amazing sword fight. NO joking…
Wow, Diana, you definitely qualify as a PB fan. You can come to my birthday party.
Best line from the book that’s not in the movie:
“Feel free to fly.”
I was pointed in this direction from Diana’s blog. Who can resist an opportinuty to squee over Princess Bride??? Not anyone with any bit of decency or sanity, I’ll tell ya!
It’s definitely a staple in my movie library and I have seen it hundreds and hundreds of times… and yet I can always watch it one more time.
My favorite 2 PB stories:
I used to babysit for a friend every Friday night. She was 5 and I thought it high time she be introduced to the wonders of PB. Initially, all she cared about was that there was a princess (are everyone’s little girls getting into the princess fad?). I had mentioned that I really loved Vincinni and she wasn’t impressed, until I tried to explain the word “inconceivable” to her. It quickly became our favorite car game, coming up with wildly ludicrous scenarios (I saw a blue cow kissing a mermaid) and then yelling out Vincinni style, “INCONCEIVABLE!”
My second story starts off as I used to be a bartender. One night in the dead of winter I was working and had HBO on (PB was due to start any minute). In walks 4 local guys, the tough-guy machoism oozing out of them. The see the beginning of PB and start asking me to put on a ball game or something. I adamantly refuse telling them if they don’t like what’s on the TV, they can go elsewhere. And they ended up staying and watching the movie start to end and LOVING it!! They were so impressed with the movie and promptly thanked me for making them watch it with a big tip.
PB rocks!!!
Annie, love those stories! The power of Princess Bride never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for adding to the lore.
Ok, am I the only loser who went all over the place looking for the S. Morgenstern version of the book? And this before Amazon and other cool internet sites?
‘Course, all the people in Chapters were bending over backwards trying to find it for me, and they didn’t know either. *grin*
PB and Labyrinth are too all-time faves, too.
Lara, that’s too funny. For all of you who don’t know, there is no “S. Morgenstern” version of the book. William Goldman made up that whole conceit about there being an S. Morgenstern version. In one of his memoirs (which I highly recommend to anyone trying to write screenplays) he talks about how pretending there was a longer version by the (fake) original author S. Morgenstern allowed him to skip around the story and pull out only the juicy parts.
So no, Lara, you’re not a loser. It just proves that William Goldman is a master.
Ahhh…The Princess Bride. I just watched it the other day with my two little boys…getting them indoctrinated early I guess.
They liked the ROUS’s (of course), and I love the “Inconceivable” repetition, the “Anybody wanna peanut” rhyming dialogue between Inigo and Fezzik, the swordfight interplay, and on and on.
GREAT, great movie…always puts me in a good mood. But oddly, I haven’t read the book.
Alyssa, the book (I know this is hard to believe) is even funnier. Please treat yourself to that soon.
Followed the link over from Diana’s blog. Sadly, I haven’t read the book. Will have to remedy that! *g*
Favorite scene, I love the sword fight scene hands down, such good dialogue there too. Then when he’s on the torture rack. Love it!
If my memory wasn’t so fogged from the heat I’d try and think of my fave line from the sword fight.
Lis, maybe it’s this:
INIGO: You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.
WESTLEY: You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/quotes
(Here’s where they keep the quotes on the net. psst– this is for you annette.)
Inigo Montoya: You are wonderful.
Man in Black: Thank you; I’ve worked hard to become so.
Inigo Montoya: I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black: Then why are you smiling?
Inigo Montoya: Because I know something you don’t know.
Man in Black: And what is that?
Inigo Montoya: I… am not left-handed.
[Moves his sword to his right hand and gains an advantage]
Man in Black: You are amazing.
Inigo Montoya: I ought to be, after 20 years.
Man in Black: Oh, there’s something I ought to tell you.
Inigo Montoya: Tell me.
Man in Black: I’m not left-handed either.
Vizzini: Finish him. Finish him, your way.
Fezzik: Oh good, my way. Thank you Vizzini… which one’s my way?
Vizzini: Pick up one of those rocks, get behind a boulder, in a few minutes the man in black will come running around the bend, the minute his head is in view, hit it with the rock.
Fezzik: My way’s not very sportsman-like.
The problem is, the whole movie is worth quoting.
(I’m not sure Robin has seen Labyrinth, I keep sneaking in comments and quotes and she misses them all.)
The Worm: ‘Allo.
Sarah: Did you say… hello?
The Worm: No, I said “‘allo,” but that’s close enough
Patrick, it just so happens I haven’t seen Labyrinth, but enough people have mentioned it lately, I’m renting it tomorrow. I hate to feel left out.
And you’re right: all of The Princess Bride is worth quoting. I might as well post the whole script.
patrick, thanks for cluing me in. can’t deny, pretty darn funny. that said, i must admit i’m somewhat frightened, i’m not sure i’m ready to join the cult of the pb. i may be more comfortable simply surfing the web for celebrity nudity. it may be that i’ve already have been voted off the blog–rb’s silent disdain is palpable!
i did try to rent the movie this weekend but was prevented from doing so by a power outage (true, totally true). it may have been a sign, walk away annette, walk away. have to say though the references to labyrinth are irresitible, so i’ll check it out and see if i can humbly worm my way back to the island.
I’m waiting for the full report on David Bowie’s balls. They are amazing.
okay, i have no idea what connection david bowie has to pb, or much of anything else, but i bit. taking a tip from barry, i googled “david bowie naked”. PAY DIRT!!!!! first entry, i got no futher, no need, is an awesome site entitled, “david bowie’s area” complete with a 50 question test to determine if you really have the “balls” to be, or to aspire to be, an aficionado of db’s “area”–dba.
http://www.areaology.com/areapure.html
i must say dem are some kinda man jewels!!!
if you do not think this is one of the funniest sites (other than of course rb nation) you have ever seen, i’m sad to report there is no hope for you and you should drive to the nearest wal-mart, buy a gun and end it now. (i decided to ramp up rb’s challenge as it pertains to pb, just a little bit).
Annette, I worry about you.
Me too. Very concerned…
I can see how the whole David Bowie thing is confusing, especially since I have been slipping in references to Labyrinth.
When either of you *see* the movie,(like you said you would) you’ll realize that it is a double reference… It’s actually quite funny. Don’t worry, I’ll laugh for you.
ahh, all will be revealed–can’t wait. in the meantime isn’t that a KILLER WEBSITE??? admit it, you love it! did you take the test? come on, what was your score?