SPOILER ALERT: This book review may contain spoilers for the film “The Princess Bride,” so if you haven’t seen it … what are you waiting for? Go watch it.
If you don’t think “The Princess Bride” deserves its place on the pop culture altar, then, as Westley says in the oft-quoted film, get used to disappointment.
Or let Westley himself convince you otherwise.
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Out Tuesday, “As You Wish: The Inconceivable Tales from the Making of ‘The Princess Bride’ ” is actor Cary Elwes’ account of how this admittedly odd, difficult-to-categorize movie got made, from his casting as the Farm Boy-turned-Dread Pirate Roberts to its enduring popularity 25 years later, when the cast reunited at the 2012 New York Film Festival.
Self-deprecating, humorous and reflective at the right moments, Elwes is the perfect behind-the-scenes tour guide, peppering his story with enough “Princess Bride” references and quotes to please even the biggest fan, or at least anyone who grew up in the ’90s.
It’s not just Elwes’ uninterrupted perspective for 250 pages either. Squeezed literally alongside his narrative are comments from others involved in the making of the film: director Rob Reiner (who also wrote the foreword), screenwriter William Goldman, Robin Wright (Buttercup), Mandy Patinkin (Inigo), Chris Sarandon (Prince Humperdinck) and Billy Crystal (Miracle Max), just to name a few.
It’s difficult to imagine “The Princess Bride” any other way than it is now: low on the CGI, high on the tongue-in-cheekiness, with a brilliantly-cast cast who brought the quirkiest of characters to life. But as Elwes walks the reader through how the movie came together, it’s easy to see that in the hands of a different director (Elwes and his fellow actors heap praise on Reiner’s vision) “The Princess Bride” could have been something totally different … and not in a good way.
Picture someone other than Andre the Giant playing Fezzik or Westley wrestling a computer-generated Rodent of Unusual Size instead of a stuntman in an R.O.U.S. costume. It just wouldn’t be the same.
Elwes has at least one anecdote for every iconic scene in the movie … which is just about every scene, when you think about it. Most stories make for good trivia to throw out next time you watch “The Princess Bride” (and I highly recommend a re-watch after reading).
But a few—like screenwriter Goldman ruining a take with a bout of nervous praying, and Patinkin and Elwes training at every opportunity to perfect the “Greatest Swordfight in Modern Times”—illustrate a point Elwes stresses throughout the book: that there was an awareness even then among the cast and crew that this project was special and they treated it as such.
Because of this, “As You Wish” reads like a fairy tale itself. Elwes has no tales to tell of on-set fighting or secret affairs (though it seems everyone had a bit of a crush on Robin Wright). When the lowest points of a film shoot include some bad English weather and unimaginative catering, and the cast seems two seconds away from skipping hand-in-hand across the Derbyshire countryside, the cynic in me suspects this is Elwes looking back through 25 years’ worth of rose-colored glasses. This is where the asides from the cast and Reiner come in handy, as they corroborate his rosy view.
So if, as Goldman once wrote, “cynics are simply thwarted romantics,” then consider me un-thwarted. “As You Wish” is a sweet, fun look-back that will only enhance your “Princess Bride” viewing/quoting/meme-ing experience.
In fact, the only sad part of the book is when it ends.
Elise De Los Santos is a RedEye copy editor who didn’t see “The Princess Bride” until 2003, but she has loved it ever since.
“As You Wish”
by Cary Elwes and Joe Layden
3.5 stars out of 4
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