If you asked me what my top 3 favorite movies were, you'd get a lot of different answers, depending on when you asked. But one movie will always be there, even when I'm old and grey and my eyes are so bad I couldn't see a TV screen two inches from my nose.
The Princess Bride.
I first saw part of it in music class in...second grade, I think it was. I really liked it then; when I saw the whole thing, I was caught. Completely and utterly. I really truly love this movie. It's become such a strong anchor for me, whenever I'm sad or scared of angry. It's just...wonderful. I'm quite sure how to say it more simply.
The book is amazing, hilarious and full of heart and warmth, and I suggest to EVERYONE OUT THERE that they go buy it. However, the soul of the book is different from the soul of the movie. The book is witty and more complex than the movie. Its characters are just as wonderful and vibrant, and the story is expanded upon, made even better and intense...but the movie is still in a different arena than the book. The movie is so full of beauty, sincerity, magic, tenderness, excitement, adventure, and comedy that I don't think anyone, whatever age, race, gender, or mentality, can ignore it for long.
It's hard to explain the spark that captures you mind, heart, and soul as soon as you begin to watch. The sense of magic, of the perfect fairy tale, is everywhere: in Fezzik, the slow, good-natured giant with a sense of a fair play. In Inigo Montoya, the fiery Spaniard whose unparalleled skill with the sword is spurred on by his thirst to avenge his father's death. In Vizzini, the ridiculous, yet frighteningly clever Sicilian who kidnaps Buttercup and battles The Man In Black to the death, using nothing but his wits. In Prince Humperdinck, the megalomaniacal, cowardly prince of Florin who plots against the heroes and can hunt like no man alive. In Count Rugen, the Six-Fingered Man, a chilly henchman of Humperdinck's who's fascinated by pain, invents the infamous Machine, and eventually turns out to be more ruthless than anyone could imagine. In Max the Miracle Man and his wife Valerie, who have the chutzpah to try and reverse death. Even in the Grandson and the Grandfather, who carry us through the movie with a comforting outsider's perspective.
And finally, that spark lives and breathes in Wesley and Buttercup, whose true love makes it impossible to separate them, through distance, pain, or death. Buttercup, the most beautiful woman in the world, engaged to the vicious, cowardly Humperdinck...and Wesley, her farmboy in masked black, every inch the hero and the devoted lover. The love story is what endures throughout the laughs and the swordfights and the Rodents Of Unusual Size. The love story, more perfect and pure than anything I have seen, read, or heard of since, is what we all want, just a little bit. Just a taste of that love and commitment, a whiff of what it must be like to find the person who cannot be stopped by death...only delayed for a little while.
I would not change a single thing about this movie. Nothing at all. It was beautifully made, lightning striking once. The cast is amazing: Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, and Wally Shawn as the Sicilian Crowd, Chris Guest and Chris Sarandon as the two villains, Billy Crystal and Carole Kane as the nutty Miracle couple, and Cary Elwes and Robin Wright as the lovers. The Princess Bride is a work of art, in many small and many large ways. It's very comforting to me. When I've had a bad day, The Princess Bride makes me feel better again. When I want to feel young again, The Princess Bride helps me do that...and also makes me feel older in a good way. It has every element of a film I could ever want, and I don't think I'll ever grow tired of it.
Here's how deeply The Princess Bride is ingrained in my soul and memory: my friend Mira and I have memorized the entire movie. We can (and have, several times) recited the entire thing to each other. Swordfighting and wrestling included.
For those of you who read this and know what I'm talking about--and for those of you who don't--I have one thing to say.
As you wish.
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