Sunday, January 19, 2014

Movie Review: The Princess Bride



So today, instead of studying we went to the auditorium, to watch the movie: The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride is a movie directed by Rob Reiner in 1987. It has several genres and they are to me: romance, comedy, action, fantasy, and cliff-hanger.
The movie opens with a grandfather reading a story (called the Princess Bride) to his grandson.
This is the story that the grandfather told:
Princess Buttercup is to be Prince Humperdink's fiance. However, she has still not forgotten her true love, Westley, who was killed 5 years ago. The princess is kidnapped by three bandits, but she is rescued by a mysterious black man. It turns out that this black man is actually Westley. The two are united, but only for a few moment because they are captured by an angery Prince Humperdink. With the help of the two former kidnappers, Westley is rescued and the trio plan to infilitrate and rescue the princess from her forced marriage. I will stop here because I don't want to spoil the movie for yall. 
Here's the trailer and please excuse Prince Humperdink's large and quadilateral(square) shaped face.



This movie was very impressive, especially considering the fact that the movie is 27 years old. I really liked how the grandfather was reading a story to his grandson. I felt like my own grandfather was telling me a story, when I was really in a dark room looking at a screen.
In terms of leadership, I didn't really see what to do, but I did see what not to do. For example. Vizzini, the bald kidnapper showed me an example of bad leadership. He treated his fellow kidnappers like they were fools when he himself wasn't smart either. From this example you can clearly see that if you are the boss then you should treat your subjects with respect, duh. Here's a clip that shows what not to do in leadership.



Vizzini reminds me once again that people with real talent don't have to show it. It just shows through. Here's the clip that proves Vizzini's thickness. He seems to talk with very clear logic, but when the two men drink, he dies. Well, look how much good Arisotle did to you, Vizzini.



Out of the movie, I didn't really like the end. It left me with a question. What now? Maybe the director stopped the movie here because from this point on, it would just be an obvious happy ending. Although it would have been a little mushy, maybe it would have been better if the movie showed what happened to Buttercup, Westley and the two kidnappers. 
Now, let me talk about 2 technical problems in this movie.

1. ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size)
Remember these more-cute-than-scary creatures from the forest? The moment I saw these guys I got a feeling that there was a human in some sort of costume. The way this thing moved  reminded me too much about the way a human would crawl. Also although you might think that this   
creature is only fictional it actually exists for real. Ladies and gentleman let me introduce to you the world's largest rodent!!!!(Applause) It is  the Capybara, and it is from South America. Minus the teeth, the ugly snarls, and the darker brown fur, you would get this "little" guy down here.




2. Burning Dress and Fire Swamp

As in the picture above, you can see a hole or tube where the fire is coming out. You can see that the princess has caught fire. However, in the movie, after the prince helps the princess to  extinguish her dress, I noticed that there were no burn marks on the dress. She must be wearing a fireproof dress or something.
3. Rolling down the hill scene
For those of you that don't remember, the princess pushes Westley (didn't know at the time) down the hill. While the black man rolls down he manages to say the words "As you wish". Hearing those 3 words, the princess also falls down the hill. I wonder who pushed her. Finding no one else present in this scene, I can conclude that the princess pushed herself down the hill. (Am I starting to sound like Vizzini now?) 

So, these are the 3 technical errors that I found. But, rather than to criticize the director or the movie, I want to say that these errors actually made the movie somewhat more interesting to watch. These days because of all the advanced computer graphics and what not, you can't really tell what's real and what's fake. Although there were several technical errors, and the ending was a bit of a nuisance, overall it was a very good movie for something that is 27 years old. The story was also interesting and it was told pretty quickly. There was also many interesting characters and catchy phrases.(As you wish, Inconceivable, Prepare to die, etc) Although I wasn't really looking forward to this movie because of its title, it really did surprise me in the many aspects that I mentioned before. If only movies like this could be combined with the modern computer graphics…

3 comments:

  1. Bryson- I really like the introduction of your post. You did an excellent job writing this movie review. It is well organized with pictures and the trailer. You were very observant to point out the 3 technical problems as well in the film. Great job!

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  2. Hi! I'm Elina. Thank you for sharing your movie review. It includes unique contents, the problems! Well organized with fancy pictures! However, I'd like to know what you learned about leadership through this movie.

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