2:38 p.m. - 26 April 2001
I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!
I caught one of my favorite movies on HBO (which the cable company doesn't charge us for, shhh) a couple of times last week: The Princess Bride. Both times I found it, I didn't watch the whole thing. No need, really, when you own it on DVD. Ahem. Besides, I can recite almost the entire movie anyway, so actually watching it isn't required.
It's kind of funny, actually, since the very first time I saw The Princess Bride was on HBO. I was baby-sitting – the first and only time for this family, incidentally – and it started while the pizza man was there, so I missed the titles and opening. I was entrance immediately, and knew I had to find out what this fabulous movie was. A quick check of the TV listings gave me my answer, and I was hooked.
Now, this was while I was in high school, so The Princess Bride was already about five years old. I vaguely remembered seeing the ads for it when it came out in theatres, but since it was 30 minutes to get to one, we didn't see many movies then. Besides, I didn't think it looked interesting at the time. I want to think I actively disliked the ads and posters, actually, although I don't think I had any good reason. First impressions have rarely been so wrong.
I think I managed to catch most of it once more while I was in high school. I never forgot about it, though, and looked for the book in the library and checked the TV listings every week, hoping to find it again. It was in college, though, that my love affair with this movie really got started.
My freshman year, there were about half a dozen of us who all hung out together. None of us, unfortunately, had cars, so our entertainment options were limited. One of us had a TV/VCR; we spent a lot of time in her room. One of the movies she owned was, of course, The Princess Bride. We all adored this movie and watched it dozens of times. I brought my car back to campus after Christmas, but we still watched it rather than go to Blockbuster or go out elsewhere. Old habits die hard, I guess.
I ended up taking Fencing because I loved this movie so much. Well, that and the fact that several of my friends were taking it and fencing was a rather painless way of fulfilling one of my required PE classes. We spent one whole class period watching the duel between Inigo and the Man in Black. One of the (admittedly few) highlights of my brief career as a grad student was watching The Princess Bride in one of the auditoriums on campus the first week of school. It was packed, and it seemed everyone in there knew the entire movie. When Inigo explains his quest, everyone said in unison "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoyo. You killed my father. Prepare to die." We applauded when Rugen dies. Everyone cheered when Buttercup and Westley reunite – both times. It was amazing.
I have discovered that nearly everyone who has become close to me feels the same way about this movie. I jokingly refer to it as my friendship litmus test: I'll think you're wonderful if you enjoy The Princess Bride. Professors, co-workers, random people on the Internet: knowing that you can get a giggle out of me by saying "Inconceivable!" is worth quite a bit to my way of thinking. Maybe it's just coincidence, but it's something that never fails to impress me.
So on Saturday, Lee asked me about the movie. He's seen it maybe once. I tried to explain to him the purpose of the framing story, but I'm not sure he totally understood. One of these days, I'm going to force h im to watch the whole thing with me. I consider it his one flaw: that he doesn't completely adore The Princess Bride. I think I can live with it, though.
[PS: It's been seven years and I still owe you for buying the soundtrack, N. I promise I'll make it up to you one of these days.]
