The+Princess+Bride-+Hannah+Knaul

= = = The Pr ﻿ ince﻿ss Bride   =

Hannah K﻿naul




S. Morgenste﻿rn's Classic ﻿Tale of ﻿True Love and H﻿igh Adventure The 'goo﻿﻿d par﻿t's' version﻿ Abrid﻿ged by Wi﻿lli﻿am Goldman



Story

A story of true love and high adventure mainly sums up the story of The Princess Bride, whether you watch the movie or read the book. Which is convenient because the story follows almost the exact same plot in the movie as the book. A few minor things are changed for the better of the movie that don't even change the outcome. William Goldman is sick in bed and his grandfather comes and tells him a story of giants, fencing, true love, princes, and a main character named Buttercup. As a milkmaid, Buttercup falls in love with her farm boy Westley, who then dies at the hands of the Dread Pirate Roberts. Things chain react and Buttercupfinds herself kidnapped by her fiancé's doing, followed by a mysterious man in black, marrying the Prince Humperdink and confused as ever. While Buttercup's story comences, three other side stories will continue at the same time. Fezzik, a Turkish, brawny giant's story of how he got to be so strong and masterly fighter, but a gentle giant as well. Inigo, a Spanish swodsman's story on how he came to be the wizard of fencing. And of course the narrator's back story is also told while he is telling the story, on what he and his grandfather talked about while reading The Princess Bride

Scenes C﻿ut and Added  The director of the movie adaptaion for The Princess Bride, Rob Reiner, matches the events in the book with scenes in the movie for the most part, and the characters in the book as well, with a few added details that were for the better. Being told in the third person omnicient, Goldman can persistantly switch from one character to another. Constantly, you find out more about different pasts of different characters in their own personal cuentas that are just about them. Fezzik, the friendly giant who only does what he's told was something before he was ordered to kill the princess. And Inigo, has a reason that he was hired by the evil Vizzini. You are able to hear more about their backround's throughout the book. In the movie though, individually following these characters would take much time. Instead, these stories are just summarized in maybe one or two lines of dialouge, which could be confusing if you hadn't read the book before, but as you watch the movie, scenes in the remainder of the film start to clue you in on who's who more better. Of course, including every little detail and every peice of dialouge would be impossible for a two hour movie, but The Princess Bride does a very good job at putting in most of it. It even shows how the author Goldman was sick in bed and his grandfather read him the story. But like most movies, there is a scene or two missing from the main plot. As Inigo and Fezzik venture to the fifth level in the zoo of death, they encounter five different surprise for them to fight off. This scene being not included in the movie might have been better for the movie, even though it's in the book. Some things are better left where they are, this particular scene in the book merely emphesizes Fezzik's strength and fright, but also, Inigo's talent at the sword. The probable reason that the movie director cut it out was to save time, and also because you can clearly see how good of a swordsman Inigo is in the other scenes of the movie, and Fezzik shows off his strength in other scenes as well.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2f4cc6; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> Casting <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2f4cc6; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Matching the characters in books to actors in movies, is probably the most pressured job for directors, and especially for Reiner. For popular books specifically, because readers tend to fall in love with certain characters in the book, and if they arn't their exact thought in the movie, the whole movie is ruined for them. And then when they read the book again, they are forced to think of the actors face rather than what they thought to begin with and their original faces disappear from their minds, until their whole understanding of the book is ruined. So it is easy to see how a director might be under pressure while picking the right actor. I can only speak from experience. Watching the Princess Bride, one meets the characters that they like, (or don't like) Buttercup (the princess and the bride), Westley (the love), Fezzik, and Inigo (the two saviors of the princess). You also meet the ones you don't like (or do like) Prince Humperdink,(and evil prince hunter who only wants things for himself) and Vizzini,(a criminal with a big mind in search of money). The majority of the casting is done very well. The personalities are very well, and maybe the added humor in the dialouge that you can't read on a page is for the better of the movie. Buttercup's personality of the actor though, was seen differently than one read in the book. The book reads about a stubborn, selfish, yet lovable Buttercup, in the movie though, one would see a smart and brave Buttercup who would give up anything for her love. Buttercup's dimwittedness in the book shows humor and different styles of plot, having it dropped in the movie made it more predictable. Many would predict that Buttercup bravely begs protection of Westley if she surrenders, which she did. But what Reiner left out of the movie, was the line in which Buttercup says "I would rather live than die I admit it,...I can live without love" she says as she leaves her love for Prince Humperdink. This line of hers puts humor and unforseeable events in the book. Leaving it out in the movie just makes it look more like an ordinary fairy tale.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> Setting and Props <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">An author is able to describe a scene what might be complicated the imagine, while a film director can just show you what it looks like. Reiner used his own imagination in showing the different settings and props used in the book. There were many unimagionable settings in the princess bride, like the fire swamp, with the Rats Of Unusual Size (R.O.U.S's), the castle, the cliffs of insanity and much more as well. The time period of the movie was good too. There was nothing modern in the movie because it takes place millions of years ago. But for things like the fire swamp, and the R.O.U.S's, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I had a hard time imagineing them. Seeing them put on the screen cleared it up for me. Reiner also made the settings realistic, for example, he used real fire in the fire swamp, and actually set Holocaust cloak on fire. What I don't think he did a good job setting to screen, was the R.O.U.S's, youcould tell that it was fake and wasn't a real animal, just a puppet on strings. With their arms and legs that moved jerky, hardly moving at all. On the contray, it's false, but it's funny to watch because if you think about it, a puppet trying to attack you would be very scary. This concept is the same with the shreiking eels. In the book, these are shown as sharks, not eels. Reiner probably put the shreiking eels in the movie to make it look like something that was unique to Florin (the home town of Buttercup). As with the R.O.U.S's, these eels seem to look fake. Another thing that a movie can do that a book can't, is show a sword fight. As this is a book partly about a swordsman, there were a lot of sword fights. Reiner did an excelent job in making the swordfights look real. For instance when Inigo is fighting the man in black, they wern't just standing in one place, but talking and jumping around. The music even went along with their actions. This was a very good aspect of the movie in my opinion because I don't normally like to watch things like sports or swordfights, so when they are actually talking and coordinating their moves with the music, it's much more interesting to watch.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #f7901d; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">﻿Revie﻿w <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #f7901d; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Princess Bride book and movie were both very good forms of entertainment, and is a hard choice to decide which was better. Both book and movie were both enjoyable in their own way. The book offered much humor, more story and more of an unpredictable plot than a fairy tale. The movie though, put the book onto screen well. It had the same humor, and a quick paced more to action story than a descriptive story. My advice would be that if you prefer an adventurous, yet humorous story that doesn't take time to describe things, you should see the movie. But if you would rather a detailed informed story that also includes unimportant events (How many hat's are in the princess of Guilder's wardrobe, to say,) my advice would be to read the novel. Both great and unique in two entirely different ways. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #f7901d; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">