Oh, this was so good. I love love love The Princess Bride. My dad introduced it to us as kids and I’ve watched it over and over. Then I discovered the book a couple years ago, and loved it even more. I enjoy the humor, the romance, the sword-fighting, the framing of it as a story told to a sick child. Much is made in this book about how the film’s marketing department didn’t know what to do with it — is it a fairy tale for kids? An action movie for adults? This evidently lead to its poor showing in theaters, but contributed greatly to audience appreciation later on.
“Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautiful ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Pain. Death. Brave men. Cowardly men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.”
Well, that pretty much sums it up. In As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes (along with a little help from his friends) give us an excellent behind the scenes view of the making of The Princess Bride — how it came to be, what production was like, the struggles and the triumphs of making such a unique film. The stories about his castmates are the best — Andre the Giant stories like crazy, the telling of Cary hurt himself twice — once on set, once off, the humor of Rob Reiner (“It should be noted that all hugs from Rob are bear hugs”) and the insecurities of Wallace Shawn.
For the audiobook, Elwes reads the majority of it, but other cast members (besides Patinkin & Savage, and Falk & Andre) read their parts and contributions. It’s fantastic — funny and interesting and well-done. I kept finding interesting facts and stories that I wanted to pass along to other Princess Bride lovers. If that’s you — read this book!
I loved this when I read it earlier this year. Tell everyone!