Princess Bride

W is for — Westley from William Goldman’s The Princess Bride

“As you wish.”

Whenever “farm boy” Westley said these words to Buttercup, he was really saying, “I love you.” Buttercup’s realization of this ignited a love so true, it survived pirates, kidnapping, evil princes, Cliffs of Insanity, a Fire Swamp, and the Pit of Despair.

The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, and Westley, played by Cary Elwes, is a perfect hero. He’s smart, strong, and capable, and his love for Buttercup never wavers. He’s an expert with a sword, too, which lifts him even higher in my estimation.

One of my favorites scenes in the movie is Westley’s sword duel with the Spaniard, Inigo Montoya, whom I wrote about in last year’s A to Z “I” post. The moments leading up to the duel are quite funny, too.

Elwes recently published a book called As You Wish that tells about everything that went on behind the scenes during the making of The Princess Bride. According to an article I read about the book, Bride author William Goldman spent a great deal of time researching 17^th century swordfighting to create the duel, and Elwes and Mandy Patinkin, who played Inigo, spent more months learning to fence both right and left handed. Elwes and Patinkin performed every part of the duel themselves, except for the somersaults. They were trained by the legendary sword master and stunt man Bob Anderson, whose credits include being the stunt double for Darth Vader’s light saber battles and training the one and only Errol Flynn.

Photo Credit: http://www.laweekly.com/arts/12-princess-bride-secrets-spilled-by-cary-westley-elwes-5147658

Photo Credit: http://gradingfightscenes.com/2013/03/21/the-princess-bride-fight-1-of-2/

I is for — Inigo Montoya from William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.

“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

My kids looked at me like I was nuts the first time I got The Princess Bride out for us to watch. The fact that I was randomly spouting the above line in a Spanish accent is probably why. Inigo is my favorite character from the movie — a “wizard” swordsman on a seemingly endless quest to avenge his father’s murder. Even though he starts out as one of the bad guys, you can’t help but like him. The initial conversation and ensuing duel between Inigo and the Man in Black is one of the best scenes in the movie. So is the confrontation between Inigo and the Six-Fingered Man. I cheered at the moment of Inigo’s final triumph.

Though I’ve watched the movie many times, I’d never read the book until recently. I was surprised to find that the movie followed the book quite closely, with the main differences being the exclusion of the “Zoo of Death” (which really wasn’t that important) and the book’s weird ending. I have to say this is one of the few cases — and maybe the only case — where I prefer the movie to the book.