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A review by rkaufman13
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
5.0
Guyyyyssss.
The Princess Bride.
Of COURSE I'm going to love this book and OF COURSE I'm going to read it in literally a day and a half.
Look. If you don't adore this movie, you will probably not like this book, which is a first-person account of the making of the film. It's a really easy read, almost beach book material, and even if you aren't trying you will probably finish it very quickly. The writing is peppered with in-"jokes," so that, for example, when Cary Elwes is talking about Wallace Shawn, he says something like "It was almost inconceivable that he would have said that." Har har. All I can say is it's a good thing Cary (and/or his ghostwriter) were not in charge of the original movie script.
The book is also very tame - very few people get drunk or belligerent on set and everyone is very *nice* to each other. Whether that is because that is actually what the making of the movie was like or because William Golding had to sign off to allow Cary to write this, I guess I'll never know.
THAT SAID. The book is peppered with adorable/fascinating anecdotes. Christopher Guest filming his swordfight scene with Mandy Patinkin and getting so into it he started making "swsh, swsh" noises on camera. Andre the Giant actually drinking himself to passing out (I would love to know how much alcohol that was, since he was apparently good for a case of wine a night) in the hotel, and the hotel staff putting a little velvet rope around him because he was too heavy to move. Billy Crystal's ad-libbing in the Miracle Max hut (though most of that story is pretty well known already). This book is crammed full of stories like that, as well as others. So basically this is what you would call the Greatest Book in Modern Times and I want to watch the movie again. The end.
The Princess Bride.
Of COURSE I'm going to love this book and OF COURSE I'm going to read it in literally a day and a half.
Look. If you don't adore this movie, you will probably not like this book, which is a first-person account of the making of the film. It's a really easy read, almost beach book material, and even if you aren't trying you will probably finish it very quickly. The writing is peppered with in-"jokes," so that, for example, when Cary Elwes is talking about Wallace Shawn, he says something like "It was almost inconceivable that he would have said that." Har har. All I can say is it's a good thing Cary (and/or his ghostwriter) were not in charge of the original movie script.
The book is also very tame - very few people get drunk or belligerent on set and everyone is very *nice* to each other. Whether that is because that is actually what the making of the movie was like or because William Golding had to sign off to allow Cary to write this, I guess I'll never know.
THAT SAID. The book is peppered with adorable/fascinating anecdotes. Christopher Guest filming his swordfight scene with Mandy Patinkin and getting so into it he started making "swsh, swsh" noises on camera. Andre the Giant actually drinking himself to passing out (I would love to know how much alcohol that was, since he was apparently good for a case of wine a night) in the hotel, and the hotel staff putting a little velvet rope around him because he was too heavy to move. Billy Crystal's ad-libbing in the Miracle Max hut (though most of that story is pretty well known already). This book is crammed full of stories like that, as well as others. So basically this is what you would call the Greatest Book in Modern Times and I want to watch the movie again. The end.