"As you wish...."

Where have I been since 1973?  That's the year "The Princess Bride" was first published (written by William Goldman, who made up the name S. Morgenstern as the 'original' author who first published this story). Confused? So was I, at the beginning.

First of all, there wasn't an S. Morgenstern. "The Princess Bride" was written by William Goldman, published in 1973, and as been a "cult classic" ever since.  As I said--- where have I been?  In the film, the book's author is supposedly S. Morgenstern, which I guess William Goldman must have thought was more classic-sounding than his own name.

The other night, my friend down the road invited me and other friends on our road for a "private showing" of The Princess Bride (directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner.)  I had never seen this 1987 movie, never heard of the book.... and off I went to the big-screen private showing of this movie.

And what a movie..... true love, real hate, revenge, fighting and fencing, poison, torture.... romance and adventure and comedy... everything you expect to find in a good movie is there. And for nearly everyone else on this planet who has seen the movie so many times, the dialogue is memorized and repeated with the on-screen characters.  (I was astonished at the identities of some of the characters in this movie.)

That quote--- "As you wish..." is from one of the main characters (Westley) who says those words to Buttercup every time she asks this country boy to do a chore around her farm.  When the movie was over, I came to the conclusion that everyone who lives on a country property needs a Westley.... we could tell him what needs to be done and his answer would always be "As you wish...." (Talk about fantasy....)

The movie "The Princess Bride" is classified as a romantic comedy/adventure fantasy. Call it whatever you'd like.... it's a very good movie that everyone in the family can watch. (And very rare are those types of movies these days.)

Within half an hour of walking in the back door of my house the other night after watching the movie with my friends, I was at my computer, ordering a DVD of "The Princess Bride" and searching for a good edition of William Goldman's book on the Half.com site.  And those 1973 First Editions of "The Princess Bride"--- worth a small fortune.