#3 AUG 14, 2017 · 8 yr ago
This has been a favourite of mine ever since I first saw it. Why I only got the DVD last week I'll never know. But it was packed with fascinating bonus features in addition to the movie itself, and I learned quite a bit.
Firstly, the sequences with the kid and the grandpa are in the original book as well! Speaking of the book, it was first published in the early 1970s, and author William Goldman tried to get it filmed for about 15 years before finally succeeded. It wasn't that people didn't like the book, but he was plagued by a lot of ill luck in the venture, just as the idea got accepted, studio bosses would get fired and their successors would cancel it simply because it "belonged" to the old boss. Finally in the mid 80s Rob Reiner got on board as director. He'd already made "This Is Spinal Tap" and went on to make "When Harry Met Sally" before the decade was out. He was the perfect person to handle this film.
Incidentally William Goldman in his commentary mentioned that there had been very productive talks in the mid 1970s with Richard Lester, who'd just directed The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Goldman speculated on what it would have been like with Lester at the helm, imagining, almost by default, some of the Musketeers cast in these roles. For my part I reckon that would still have worked. Although possibly not as well.
It's one of the trailers on the bonus disc that describes this film as "Walt Disney meets Monty Python", and I'd never thought of it in that way, but bloody hell it's spot on. There's actually a bit where Westley is climbing the rope and talking to Montoya, where he does sound a little bit like John Cleese, oddly enough!
Which is as good a place as any to talk about that swordfight. Described tongue-in-cheek in the script as "the second greatest swordfight in the history of the movies, the greatest is coming up later on" - it's now regarded as being superior, and for any number of reasons. First of all, it is believed to be the only swordfight in cinema history not to use stunt doubles. Yes, the acrobatic jumps and somersaults were stunt doubles, but every thrust and parry of swordplay in this scene was done by the two actors themselves, Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin. Even more remarkable, both of them use both their left and right hands in this sequence. As well as throwing witty lines at each other, there's a lot in this scene. They go all over the set.
Digressing for a moment here - it's curious how it's so obvious that a lot of these scenes were sets, but it's not a problem. The script and acting are so engaging that this detail doesn't matter! (Possibly because there's so much comedy in it, a more serious film might not get away with it.)
Anyway, that swordfight is significant in another way, because in the course of it we quickly realise that Inigo Montoya is not the black-hearted villain we initially took him for - as indeed we see with Fezzik a few minutes later. Hence it is only Vizzini who is actually killed in the chase, slightly cold-bloodedly in the execution (no pun intended) but as Westley has just dispatched his two henchmen without killing them, and Vizzini is the scheming villain, at least at this point. We later find out who hired him . . .
The cameos in this movie are also amazing. Billy Crystal as Miracle Max, apparently improvised some of his lines, with a skill and tone reminiscent of Robin Williams. Imagine those two trading jokes with each other - the audience would all bust their guts with laughter . . . Mel Smith as the albino, with a voice that reminds me of Bill Bailey (although he hadn't got started yet). Peter Falk as the grandpa is amazing too. Wallace Shawn as Vizzini, I can see why he was later cast in Deep Space Nine to play Zek, the Grand Nagus of the Ferengi.
The leads are no less impressive. Cary Elwes has everything that is needed for this role. He has the wit and the panache, and even the look. They talk about him looking like Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn and they're right. He has the look of a Robin Hood, and indeed played that role in Mel Brooks' parody "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" which I have never seen all through but suspect I would enjoy, being familiar with both the Kevin Costner and the Errol Flynn films of that legend (for my money the Errol Flynn movie from 1938 is still the best Robin Hood film there's ever been). Hmm, thinking out loud here, we could at some point do a Robin Hood fest on here - I need to see Men In Tights, anyone who hasn't seen the Errol Flynn one is missing out, and the Kevin Costner one is still OK if you can swallow the deviations from the traditional story. But not right now, that can wait for another time.
And of course, Mandy Patinkin - who by my count utters that famous line six times:
"My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
With varying degrees of humour and seriousness. Indeed, in the online "back room" of the satire page that I write for, we've been riffing off this film on one thread, and when one of my colleagues made the quote that I was about to make, I said to her, "my name is Liam Callaghan. You stole my punchline. Prepare to die."
Which says it all really. I could go on about how amazing this film is all day, but I'll shut up now. If you've never seen it before, watch it for yourselves and fall in love with it. If you already love it, watch it again because you know you want to. And if you dislike it . . . I don't trust your opinion on anything ;)
