The film The Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, is describe as “Thrilling, exciting, very funny and absolute magic”. No wonder the film has entertained audiences since its release in 1987. While its entertainment value in generally agreed upon, The princess Bride is not precisely inventive, nor original. Westley, the hero, fits closely the profile of the Classic Hero. Similar, the film’s plot mirrors the path followed by the classic hero, across thresholds and into a fantastic adventure. And, like the Classic Hero, Westley must undergo a series of ordeals before he can achieve his goal, to rescue “Buttercup”, and prove true love can overcome all obstacles. The Princess Bride, like most contemporary fantasies, is a retelling of the Heroic …show more content…
Westley is of a humble origin- a farm boy working on Buttercup’s farm. He loves her and she loves him. Whenever Buttercup ask Westley for a favor he replies with “As you wish.” He really means, I love you. However the mystery remains of what had happened to his parents, was he an orphan or did he leave his family. Westley had set sail in the seas to seek out his fortune to have enough money to marry Buttercup. His ship was attacked by Dread Pirate Roberts, which is why everyone assumed Westley was dead for five whole years. Since the love of his life was kidnapped, Westley set off to save Buttercup and on the way he encountered struggles/ trials, helpers, thresholds/tests and helpers along the …show more content…
Most of Westley’s struggles were wither fighting with people or fighting death. Once he had climbed the Cliff of Insanity, Westley was requires to fence/sword fight the world’s youngest sword fighting wizard, Inigo. Later, after winning the duel with Inigo, Westley had a wrestling fight with the giant. He unbelievably won by jumping on the giant and blocking his windpipe. The final struggle was when Westley was tortured by Count Rugen and then again by Prince Humperdinck by a life sucking invention, called “The Machine”. Westley was half dead but was bought back to life by Miracle Max. From the help of Inigo and the giant, now his allies, Westley had to break into the church and stop the wedding, struggles appeared when all they had was a cape, wheelbarrow and themselves. Westley had encountered many struggles along the way on the rescue mission but he crossed all of them
In Princess Bride, Westley's quest is to return to his true love, Buttercup, whom he has loved since a young worker on her family's farm. With no money to marry, Westley decides to strike out for his fortune but is taken prisoner; he is mistakenly reported as dead to Buttercup, who is promised to Prince Humperdink as his bride. In his quest, Westley must first survive being taken prisoner by the Dread Pirate Roberts which he is able to do by showing no fear when Roberts announces daily "Tomorrow you will die" (Princess Bride n.p.). Roberts in fact is so impressed that he retires and names Westley as his successor. Upon
The Princess Bride is a cliche love story movie about two lovers and their tale that tells how they became separated and found each other again. It tells this story using archetypes all throughout the movie. One of the most important of the archetypes being the magic weapon. Overcoming obstacles and and achieving goals becomes much easier with the help of a magic weapon.
“As you wish,” said by the Farm boy,westley, a main character who ties the story of love,romance,and action together. The book The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a story of two lovers, Buttercup and Westley. After Westley dies on a boat by The Dread Pirate Roberts, the King of Florin, Prince Humperdinck, started searching for love. After a visit from the count and countess they decide that Buttercup is worthy of being the queen. Even though Buttercup says she will never love The Prince, she still agrees to the marriage. Soon after Buttercup is introduced to Florin she gets kidnapped by the Turk, the Sicilian, and the Spaniard. They all figure out that they are being followed by the man in black, which leads to the adventure part of the story. In The Princess Bride, William Goldman uses many different archetypes like the damsel in distress, the task, and the magic weapon which are archetypes that have been used for centuries and renders them new to make the story flow together and more interesting.
Neill, Alex. “Empathy and (Film) Fiction.” Philosophy of film and motion pictures : an anthology. Ed. Noel Carrol and Jinhee Choi. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 247-259. Print.
It can be argued that Westley of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride is the hero of the story. While he does not portray one in the beginning, depicted as a seemingly incompetent farm boy, he manages to prove himself as one in the end.
Within the very beginning of the film, the wonderful portrayal of William by Billy Crudup gives the audience a lasting impression by Burton of the blatant resentment and distain William has towards his father and his mythological stories. Wallace, while more subtle in his method to reveal the underlying anger of William towards Edward, does not make it any less apparent than Burton of the obvious indifference William feels towards his father. In Burton’s ...
The film’s story does not simply shines forth, but is also the foundation of the plot. The film’s plot makes the traditional guidelines applicable...
“In my day, television was called a book” (Reiner). That is what the grandpa says to his grandson after the grandson questions him about reading him a book. The grandpa decides to read his grandson The Princess Bride. A book filled with true love, comedy, action and adventure. Westley works on the farm for his true love, Buttercup. But after Buttercup gets kidnapped by a sicilian, giant, and Spaniard, Westley goes to search for his true love. After Westley battles and defeats all three of her kidnappers, they are reunited. Soon their luck ends after Prince Humperdinck sends Westley to be tortured and takes Buttercup to be his bride. Westley is tortured by Count Rugen in the Zoo of Death. The giant and the Spaniard, we now know them as Fezzik and Inigo, here the screams of Westley and make there way to the Zoo of Death. Fezzik and Inigo help Westley make it to the castle to stop the wedding between Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck. Westley finally reunites with his true love for a happy ever after. In The Princess Bride there are several lessons that are taught throughout the book. The situations that the characters go through can be greatly compared to the situations that humans experience.
Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.
...tisfy Westley and his needs in order to impress and be good enough for him. However, in the beginning, Buttercup is less susceptible; not concerning herself with Westley at all. Finding out that she loves Westley changes her life. Her transformation from tom-boy to an elegant lady only happens because of Westley; her change has only one purpose and that is to meet up to Westley’s standards. In conclusion, it is clear that The Princess Bride displays a lot of the same issues and conflicts. Whether the characters deal with themselves, others, or the general public, they all grow and develop because of these struggles. Beyond this, the readers of this novel can easily learn a few lessons from the characters of the book. Learning from these lessons, and learning to deal with conflict is a skill that will make a better person out of anybody willing to take the action.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
The Hero Journey undergoes different points in someone’s life. In 1949 a man named Joseph Campbell shared Mythic and Archetypal principals with the world. Christopher Vogler fulfilled all of the Hero Journey steps. In the Princess Bride film directed by Robert Reiner is based on the book written by William Goldman. In the film Westley the farm boy leaves the farm, and goes on an adventure to provide for his true love. Westley is a Campbellion a Hero because the story has Mythic and Archetypal principals and follows most of the twelve stages of the Hero Journey.Westley begins his Hero Journey with a call to adventure out of his ordinary world.Westley is a farm boy, who works for a beautiful girl named Buttercup. The farm is filled with animals, and orders from Buttercup. The only wodds Westley says is “As you wish” (Princess Bride). Westley shows that he loves Buttercup but does not want to live on the farm anymore so that he can get a better life for the both of them. When Buttercup realizes she truly loves Westley, and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. Buttercup would tell Westley to do things just so he could say the magic words. “ Farm boy fetch me that pitcher” ( Princess Bride). This shows that Butercup loved Westley even though she did not show it, and this would send him on his adventure. Tom Hutchsion expressed in his article that “ There is a call to a new experience. This might appear like good news or bad news” (Hutchsion, Tom). Westley does not refuse the call because he wants to provide a better life for Buttercup. Westley entered his special world by getting on the ship, and starting his new life. While on the ship Dread Pirate Roberts keeps Westley on the ship as a passenger, and trains him, and he becom...
To preserve the storytelling style of the epic's author(s), I plan to employ a narrator to guide the action. A recognizable, intelligent, regal, and yet not overpowering voice should be chosen. This voice should give an air of importance to the narration without being so enthralling that the action is missed. I plan to seek out such Englishmen as Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian Mckellan, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and John Geilgud, and to offer them the opportunity of auditioning for this essential role. The selected actor's voice will begin and end the film, while covering breaks in the action and explaining confusing sections of the story.
This is the hot issue of all cinematic adaptation when trying to decide whether or not a piece was a successful adaptation. Fidelity will be critical when examining how critics and audience members justify their complaints or praises. According to Blumenfeld (1995) in his essay “Fidelity as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry”, fidelity is contrasted with truth and characterized as moral in character. Fidelity is further characterized as a betweenness construed as both intersubjective (obligations between teller and receiver) and as a resonance between the story told and the social and cultural context of a story. Fidelity abandons any techniques of simple matching through media for a creative transformation. Andrew (1984) added that it might be better to examine the overall adaptations in terms of being true to the spirit than to look deeper and seeing something as being faithful. Fidelity has also been seen throughout the ages as having a single correct meaning and it is up to the filmmaker to capture this meaning or fail entirely (McFarlane, 1996). The examination of two sets version of Alan Paton’s novel Cry, The Beloved Country will show that the elusive single meaning is an impossibility in
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.