Family friendly – Marilyn R. Gardner

It’s a Friday and between “made for movie” plots to kill ambassadors and bomb embassies, to wall street occupiers, it’s been quite a week. So it’s a perfect time on a Friday to move into entertainment and fantasy, and that’s just where I’m going to take you on this (in my part of the world) rainy Friday!

If you take a sick little boy and a grandpa who loves stories, add in a princess, a farm boy, and pirates, and top it all off with giants and sword fights, you get….the cult classic film “The Princess Bride“.

It is a family favorite and this year is the anniversary of its 25th year of entertaining an audience that never grows tired of the lines and the story. Entertainment weekly capitalized on this recently by bringing the entire cast together for a reunion. There at the studio Cary Elwes (Wesley) and Robin Wright (Buttercup) reminisced about the kiss, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane reenacted the “Storm the Castle” line as the white-haired Miracle Max and Valerie; and all talked affectionately about André the Giant who played the fierce but gentle giant Fezzik.

The lines are classic. “Inconceivable!” “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!” “Mawwiage” and “As you wish…” are a few of the many quotable lines that have become well-known and used through the years.

But at heart is a story. A story of a relationship that spans generations and introduces a child to the wonder of imagination and books. A story that doesn’t need gratuitous sex to survive and be entertaining. Most of all a story where a grandpa helps to teach a little boy that stories, princesses, kisses and books are not all bad.