The Princess Bride (1987) dir. Rob Reiner
@itspileofgoodthings:
#murder me#the princess bride#I used to think they were only good because of their chemistry and faces#(bc they actually say so little)#but the script deserves so much credit too#because even though they barely speak they say ENOUGH#and then Cary and Robin fill the spaces in between with such TRUTH#Iām obsessed with the balance in writing romance between saying too much and not enough#both pitfalls and commonly made mistakes#the princess bride strikes that balance perfectly#this exchange alone says so so so much#through their words and their expressions#the moment starts out so Playfully Hard#sheās still in her bossing him around/tossing her head at him mode#but then he stands up and looks at her Like That#and sheās suddenly caught off guard by his humanity on a deeper level#so she softens and adds the please#almost as an apology- or at least an expression of gratitude#like she knows sheās just been kind of unfair (even if just in a fun way)#and then he Looks At Her Like That Again#and says what he always says#As you wish#and heās so deliberate with it#and itās like- itās like#[screams into the void]#itās like heās saying āI donāt care what you ask me to do or how you ask me to do itā#āI will always love you and I will always do what you ask me to doā#heās almost (almost) laughing at her a little#but more than that heās being pointed#to let her know he loves her and look at her face in the last gif. it takes!
Me after this post:
I am WILD about how they chose to frame the romance in this movie because, like.
The book doesnāt let them be this sincere. Buttercup is stupid. Wesley doesnāt even seem to like her a lot of the time. Thereās this spiteful little bit at the end about how Buttercup will lose her looks in ten years and theyāll immediately fall apart. Itās satire.
But to make the movie, to make it work in this medium, theyāand this included Goldman, he was reportedly very involved in the processāwent no, no. No one is going to enjoy that. Film is a different animal. The metanarrative is experienced on different terms.
So the movie version of Princess Bride, while still well supplied with genre jokes, wound up with better developed characters and relationships, in a lot of waysāthe exact opposite of what you usually get in a movie adaptationāand a fucking classic, and I am never over it.




















