21-03-15, 09:25 AM
(20-03-15, 09:47 PM)Punkstig link Wrote: Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!
How long since you last read it? The reason I ask is I told my kids exactly the same thing, and forced them to read it. They thought it ok but little more. Determined to prove them wrong I re read it and proved them right instead.
William Goldman is a brilliant screenwriter involved in some of the epic films of our time, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the Presidents Men, Marathon Man, A Bridge Too Far. He also has two brilliant autobiographies (3 but I have only read 2) Adventures in the Screentrade and What Lie Did I tell?
I am a big fan of Goldman and I know he claims to be more proud of Princess Bride than anything else he wrote. I think his opinion is perhaps a little biased because of all the hassle he had getting it made into a film. The story had been picked up and dropped by almost every film company and would likely never have been made if Rob Riener (a family friend) wasnt looking for a first film to produce. The film suffers the constraints of low budget and the book is an imaginative story, with a thread of self depreciating mockery of its genre but these days neither really live up to the hype.