The Princess Bride by William Goldman book vs movie

“What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be…well…a lot less than the man of her dreams?

As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad’s recitation, and only the “good parts” reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He’s reconstructed the “Good Parts Version” to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What’s it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it’s about everything.”

So I had never read this book (but seen the movie growing up). So I thought now would be a good time to read it and then rewatch the movie. I really had no expectations going into this book except to be entertained. Which I was but…..I did have a few issues with the book. So let’s get into it. I will try to refrain from spoilers but it might be hard. So if you haven’t read or seen the movie you might want to hold off on reading this review.

So at the beginning of the book I was so damn confused. I actually had to stop reading and start googling. I didn’t really care for him pretending that he didn’t write the book but that he was going to abridge the book when in all actuality he did write this book and the other guy is just a figment of his imagination. Him talking about how his dad read him the book when he was sick and yada yada was kind of boring. Well maybe not the part where the story got read to a sick kid but the rest could have been left out. All that stuff about his life, and other book he wrote and his adventure with this book and such. So that didn’t entertain me at all. I almost wanted to give up but I held out waiting for the actual story to start.

I LOVED the actual Princess Bride story. I did find myself skipping over the parts where he was “abridging” the story. It was boring and not needed. I felt it added nothing to the story at all. The only parts I did enjoy in the abridged part was when the story-teller and the sick kid were talking. I thought that part of it was very good and it flowed well. But he still didn’t need to “pretend” he wasn’t the real author. Anywho lets move on

Of course about 90% of the characters were extremely annoying but….it was suppose to be! It’s suppose to be a cheesy, annoying, stupid love story. It reminded me of the stuff Mel Brooks did (Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights..). So I was so entertained.

Every time I read anything that Vizzini said I read it in the actors voice. I absolutely loved the back stories we got for Inigo Montoya and Fezzik the giant. I was heartbroken to not get a back story of Westly. I would have loved to know more about him before he became a farm boy for Buttercup’s family.

The ending kind of made me sad. Like what?? You can’t end it like that! I need more, where did they go? What did they do? What happened to Humperdinck? I am sure it was left open so you could make your own ending but I still wanted more.

Rating:

 

So immediately after finishing the book I popped in the movie. of course I loved the movie. Even more than the book actually. But I am sad that a few things were left out. Like always. But being the movie was only an 1 hour and 38 minutes they could have put a few things in and it would have been great. Like when the Count comes to the farm asking about the milking of the cows. I mean come on why did they leave out that part. The beginning just went too fast for my liking.

Vizzini was annoying as hell and I wanted to throw him overboard and let the eels (in the book its sharks) eat him. So I didn’t shed a single tear when he died. I love Inigo and Fezzik. I was happy they turned good towards the end. Well maybe not “good good” but they sided with Westly and Buttercup. Now Mr. Westly. I could have punched him a couple of times. Like right before they entered the swamp. He was kind of an asshole. But as soon as I saw his smiling face and dreamy eyes I was over it. I’m crushing HARD on Westly. More so the actor, Cary Elwes, who played him. Gah he’s so handsome. Oh and just an FYI Cary Elwes plays Robin in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Prince Humderdinck reminded me a lot of two characters…Prince John and Sheriff of Rottingham from the movie Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I can’t tell you exactly what made me compare him to those characters but I kept picturing them.

The ending was basically the same as the book. Open ended. Leaving you wanting more.

Movie rating:

Besides the few differences between the book and movie everything else was pretty much the same. Even though I liked the movie more than the book I still would recommend reading the book.