Director:
Rob Reiner
Cast:
Cary Elwes….Westley
Mandy Patinkin….Inigo Montoya
Chris Sarandon….Prince Humperdinck
Christopher Guest….Count Tyrone Rugen
Wallace Shawn…Vizzini
Andre the Giant….Fezzik
Fred Savage….The Grandson
Robin Wright Penn….Buttercup
Peter Falk….The Grandfather
MGM & Fox Home Entertainment present The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition. Screenplay by William Goldman. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated PG. Theatrical release: Sept. 25, 1987. DVD released Nov. 13, 2007.
The Movie
Has it really been twenty years? Inconceivable!
The Princess Bride remains a favorite fairytale film with its evil Prince, a beautiful princess, a human giant, a master swordsman, mega-rats and a masked pirate. The movie is told as a bedtime story. Fred Savage (back when he was a cute kid) is sick. His grandfather (Peter Falk) reads the story of The Princess Bride. The ancient book had been read to a few generations. Fred’s not too turned on to hear about romance. Falk promises him there’s action in the yarn. He pushes the pirate and sword fighting angle, but he sneaks in a little mushy romance action.
Westley and Buttercup are madly in love. He takes to the sea to make enough money to support her. Unfortunately he’s killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. She agrees to marry an evil prince. Before the wedding, she’s kidnapped by the three Sicilians (a giant, a swordsman and a really annoying bald guy). During their escape, they find themselves pursued by the Dread Pirate. Will they all end up victims to the pirate’s sword like Westley?
This film represents the finest moment of wrestler-thespian action with Andre the Giant as Fezzik. While you might debate the Oscar caliber nature of The Rock’s suave turn in Be Cool or Roddy Piper’s dynamism in They Live, they aren’t close to The Princess Bride bar. Before Andre the Giant, few people expected credible emoting from a grappler. This should have been a casting disaster for a film outside the big dumb action genre. Andre showed heart on the silver screen. Andre the Giant was able to bring tears to an audience’s eyes without body slamming them. Andre’s ground breaking work was destroyed by Hulk Hogan’s eye-gouging classics No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando, Mr. Nanny and Santa With Muscles. Only reason anyone cried at a Hulk Hogan movie was realizing how much they spent on tickets. Audiences embraced the Giant as a true actor.
This is the fourth version of the DVD to be released. The good news is the latest mastering of the film looks dazzling. The bad news is that all the great bonus features from the earlier releases aren’t to be found. Don’t dump last year’s Dread Pirate and Buttercup editions. The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition isn’t for fanatics of the film. However the trimmed down version is good for guys who need to have The Princess Bride in their collection. This shiny disc is a great piece of date bait. The normal young man’s favorite DVDs hold little fascination for a woman. She’ll think you’re secretly a romantic softy if you have The Princess Bride tucked between your Dario Argento and Quentin Tarantino titles. You’ll get at least ninety minutes in a darkened room with her.
After 20 years, this film hasn’t dated much outside of the William “the Refrigerator” Perry poster on Fred Savage’s wall. The lines remain fun to quote. Robin Wright comes off as an eternal beauty in her princess wardrobe. Instead of being a product of its time, The Princess Bride has become timeless like the best fairytales.
The DVD
VIDEO:
The picture is 1.85:1 anamorphic. They have buffed up the transfer.
AUDIO:
The soundtrack is 5.1 Dolby Surround and Dolby Surround. There’s a French Dolby Surround and Spanish mono dub tracks. The subtitles are in English and Spanish. There are no commentary tracks.
EXTRAS:
True Love and High Adventure: The Official Princess Bride Game is a sample of the online game. This isn’t quite Halo level interaction. Seems like it was designed for an elementary school kid.
Princess Bride: The Untold Tales (9:06) allows the cast to reminisce about the film. They all have fond words for Andre the Giant. Everyone likes being attached to a timeless film. This featurette should have been longer.
The Art of Fencing (7:07) has Robert Goodwin, a Hollywood sword fighting instructor, talk about the duels in Princess Bride. Strange that they couldn’t interview Bob Anderson, the sword master for the film. Anderson recently worked on the Lord of the Rings movies. They make it sound like he’s dead.
Fairytales and Folklore (9:15) features author Jack Zipes (Why Fairytales Stick) discussing why we enjoy fairytales. It’s also disappointing that they couldn’t get William Goldman to talk about his book and script.
Booklet is a flipper that allows you to either read “The Inconceivable and Daring Tale of the Princess Bride” or “The Positively True Romantic Tale of the Princess Bride.”? Each version is only four pages long.
The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition |
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The Inside Pulse
This is not an upgrade as far as bonus features go. This DVD is best given to a casual fan of the movie.
