Sci Friday: Mawage is What Brings Us Togeva. And also, THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

~ Post by Marie. Original Artwork by Alex Rosental

“Mawage.  Mawage is what bwings us togeva, today.”

This is perhaps one of my favorite movie quotes of all time.  So much so that I requested my best friend and maid of honor to consider incorporating it into her toast at my wedding, maybe, if she wanted to. The quote comes from the movie The Princess Bride, and needless to say, I am quite obviously a fan of this movie. I think it is truly a wonderful and entertaining film with all the right things in it: adventure, pirates, kidnapping, fencing, fighting, horses, giants, hunters, lies, truth, miracles, true love!  When I read the book many years later, I was pleased to find another similar, yet distinctly different, yet still excellent version of one of my favorite stories.

William Goldman, already a published novelist and screenwriter, wrote The Princess Bride and published it in 1973.  It received generally good feedback, but wasn’t a smashing success.  Several years later in 1987, Goldman wrote the screen play for the movie The Princess Bride to another somewhat tepid reception.  Once it was released to video, though, it became somewhat of a cult classic, and it continues to have a strong following even today.

The book is actually titled The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure: the “Good Parts” Version, Abridged by William Goldman and is framed by a false account of Goldman being read this story for the first time as a sick little boy by his father. When he finds the book again as an adult, he realizes that his father had been abridging the story on the fly, and is then driven to create an abridged version for his own son with all the boring, ironic political blather that S. Morgenstern wrote into his satirical novel on Florintine culture.  There is not actually an original Princess Bride written by S. Morgenstern, though there was some intentionally perpetuated confusion about that for a while.  The movie also has a framework story of the book being read to a sick little boy in bed (this was Fred Savage’s big break).  In fact, in the novel, Goldman interludes often in italics to make some commentary about why he’s abridging, and those same interludes come through as interruptions by the young boy about the progression of the story.

There will inevitably be some parts of a book that are cut or altered when converted to film state.  The Princess Bride is no exception, but it has the virtue of having the same author as both novelist and screen writer. It is no surprise then that there are literally lines right out of the book, and the story loses very little in the translation. For those poor unfortunate souls who have never encountered this story in either form, let me give you a brief shake down of how things go.

Once upon a time, in the country of Florin, there lived a beautiful peasant girl named Buttercup who lived on a farm that employed a dashingly handsome orphan farm boy named Westley, whom Buttercup called Farm Boy.  They fall in love.  He leaves to seek his fortune pledging to return, as their love is true love, and will stand all tests of Time.  He is killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts, and Buttercup is heartbroken.  Over the course of several years, one thing and another happen, and she finds herself betrothed to Prince Humperdinck, whom she does not love, as she has vowed never to love again.  One day while riding in the forest, she is kidnapped by a Sicilian, a Giant, and a Spaniard.  There’s a rescue, a betrayal, Ultimate Suffering, devious plotting, a wedding (mawage), and another rescue.  And it’s all so exciting!

There are little details that differ from book to movie.  The book does a much more satisfying job of describing the back stories of Inigo the Spaniard fencing wizard, and Fezzik the Turkish gentle giant.  The book also makes a large case for Buttercup being the most beautiful woman in the world and that important character development, in addition to her betrothal to Humperdinck being a mutual agreement, not predicated on love or affection or developing anything of the kind, is a major difference between the book and the movie.  Humperdinck is a skeaze any way you look at it, though he comes off as more repugnant in the book than the movie.  There is no Zoo of Death in the movie, which is where Humperdinck houses all the animals he hunts, for he is a great hunter in both book and movie.  Most disappointingly, the priest never actually says “Mawage is what bwings us togeva” but he does say plenty of ridiculous things to compensate.

All in all, these two formats of a fabulous tale are great on their own, and are each wonderful and entertaining.  In case there’s any doubt, let me leave you with a few quotes which make it both in the movie and the book.

“As you wish”

“Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.”

“We are men of action; lies do not become us.”

“Death first!”

“What I’d give for a holocaust cloak!”

_____________________________

Sci Friday is a weekly post focusing on all things Sci Fi. Booksellers Tommy and Marie are you intrepid leaders on this journey through awesome new books; the best and worst of what’s come before; Sci Fi film adaptations and more. Check back next Friday for more!