Princess Bride Commentary Transcript

Chief Justice Mike Jackson

July 10th, 2001

And coming up is one of my favorite sequences in the movie, the, the, uh, the duel of, The Battle Of Wits.

[045:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Um, the, uh, the tortured logic that Bill Goldman comes up with as to why, uh, Wally Shawn as Vizzini should or should not pick, uh, which goblet is just, you know, it's masterful, it's, it's brilliant, and it's funny. And, and he winds up with this wonderfully hip [STAMMERS] anachronistic line which is, you know, uh, you know, famous, one of those famous things, never, never get involved in a land war in Asia, which, uh, [LAUGH] is, like, it was a great, a great comment on, on the Vietnam War that's thrown into the middle of this film.

[046:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And here we've got the [SOUNDS LIKE] iocane powder. Odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly. This was actually the first sequence we shot, uh, with Wally Shawn and, uh, he was so good in it, in this, uh, but he was so nervous about his performance that he was totally convinced after we finished the day shooting that I was gonna replace him. [LAUGH] I don't know why. But he, he's so funny in it. I mean, clearly, he's not [STAMMERS] Sicilian, but like I say, it worked so perfectly in this, in this film.

[047:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
You know, it was just this kind of wacky casting where he was, 'cause he, he is extremely intelligent. He's a very brilliant guy and Vizzini had to be the mastermind. He was the mastermind for the, for the, for the, uh, the three bad guys. And he had all the wit and intelligence and, uh, I love that kind of sort of lateral lisp that he had, and it just, uh, it seemed right.

[048:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Adding that little moustache to Cary also was a great touch. That was his idea and, uh, you know, it, it makes him, it, it gives him that Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckling flare. It's a perfect little touch. Also, as you'll notice later, we take the, uh, license that, uh, that Buttercup would not recognize his voice, or later when he, when she sees him, uh, with a mask on that she doesn't recognize that it's Westley from the farm.

[049:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Uh, it's that license that you're allowed to, which was established by, uh, Superman, uh, which, uh, you, the mere adding of glasses would, uh, all of a sudden turn Superman into Clark Kent and completely confuse Lois Lane, uh, and we all accepted that reality that, uh, um, that they look completely different, Clark Kent and Superman. So here we have Westley and the man in black, even though we've added the, the, just added the, the mask, you know, we, we accept that he's completely, uh, somebody else. And there's that great moment where Wally Shawn keels over. My kids laugh every time they see that. So I know it has to be good.

[050:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
We shot this at a place called Higger Tour [SP?]. I remember that name, don't ask me why. But, uh, it was a bit of a trek to get to and, um, when you watch a movie, you never think about, um, you know, the fact that behind, uh, the camera here, there are, there are trucks and equipment trucks and all kinds of things, and it was very hard to find places to park things around here. So, um, you know, we had to cart things up manually and with, you know, four wheel, you know, four wheelers and, um, it was, uh, it was difficult, but it was a great location and it gave that kind of storybook feel to it.

[051:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Now here you'll notice, Cary, when he walks, he's got a little, he's walking kind of gingerly. He had virtually almost broken his ankle the day, a couple of days before we shot this. He was riding around on some kind of, uh, like, dunebuggy kind of thing and it flipped over and, uh, he hurt himself. But you'll see, he, you know, he said, uh, no I can do it, I can do it. And you'll notice he's walking, he, he walked on, he was in such pain when he was doing this.

[052:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Watch, you'll see, he keeps his foot, his, his weight off that one foot there when he put it out, and he made himself look elegant and suave when he, when he sat down there, but he actually couldn't put any weight on that foot. It's amazing how many things you can remember when you watch a movie. It's like, it's like, um, home movies for me, because I remember, uh, you know, more than anything, what was happening on the day when you shot something. Uh, and it brings back those memories.

[053:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Uh, so, and any time I see a movie of mine that I've made come on the screen to watch it on television, it's always like watching home movies for me. You can see he's walking kind of gingerly. And it was also freezing cold up there when we shot that.

[054:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
This sequence is one of my favorites. We have, now these are stunt doubles, obviously, rolling down the hill, but the whole idea of, uh, people, uh, reuniting in this manner, uh, two people just crazily rolling [LAUGH] down a hill, uh, who are falling back in love with each other, it's just such a wonderful kind of anti romantic then wonderfully romantic way of bringing them back together again. Look at the look Chris does when he says Fire Swamp. Oh, he's scared. He doesn't know, he doesn't want to go into that Fire Swamp.

[055:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And this is perfect, because just when they start kissing, that's when the little boy, uh, would not want to hear this part. And so he wants to skip past the kissing parts and get to the action. And that's what so much fun about this. And now they're gonna start heading into the Fire Swamp, and, uh, as you'll see when we get into it, this was built on, uh, sound stages at, uh, Sheperton Studios. That's, uh, all those trees in there are actually matte paintings put in there.

[056:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
But here's the Fire Swamp and we shot this, this was the first sequence we shot in the film. And on the first day of shooting as you'll see, um, Buttercup's dress catches on fire. And, uh, we literally lit our first lady, uh, the leading lady on, uh, on fire the first day of the shoot. And I think this was, we, like I said, this was early on in the shoot, and Bill Goldman, um, actually was on the set for these few days. He came to the first few days of the shoot.

[057:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And I noticed, um, you know, while a take was going on he'd, uh, be, like, having his, he'd have his back to the action and he'd have his thumbs in his mouth and his arms were folded. And I was saying, what are you doing. And he said, this is the way I, uh, you know, uh, by crossing your fingers, I'm, like, hoping for good luck that we'll do, [LAUGH] that this will work out okay. I've never met anybody as brilliant and as talented and as superstitious as Bill Goldman. But, uh, maybe he was right. Maybe he was smart to put his thumbs in his mouth because, uh, uh, it worked out pretty good.

[058:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And you'll see coming up, uh, in a little while, you'll have the, uh, ROUS', the Rodents Of Unusual Size. And, um, uh, one day, uh, we had actually two, uh, little people that were, uh, doing this. They were dressed up in these, uh, big rat suits. And, um, one of them could go very fast. One of them was good just [STAMMERS] moseying and kind of sniffing around, and the other one, uh, could actually move pretty fast in the, uh, in the, in the costume. And it came to a, a, a, a, and we'd alternate them for different things.

[059:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And we came to a sequence where we needed the, the, the rat to move, uh, really fast and I said, okay, let's get Anthony for this one. I can't remember if his name was Anthony, the, the little guy who did it. And they said, no, the other guy can do it better. And I said, no, no, Anthony, he's the one who, he can do it, he's, uh, he's the one who runs fast. They said, uh, no, no, the other guy. I said, I couldn't understand why they wouldn't just get Anthony. And then I found out that he had been, um, he had been, he was in jail that morning.

[060:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
He had been arrested because they owned some kind of kennel with his, he and his wife, and he burned the kennel down 'cause he got mad or something [LAUGH] at his wife and, so basically, one of the little people that we had that was in a rat suit, uh, had to be bailed out of jail in order for us to, uh, complete the sequence. Uh, so that's what I remember about the Rodents Of Unusual Size. It was the little people of unusual deeds.

[061:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And you'll see that, she's gonna go into the, uh, snow sand here, and we rigged a thing underneath the, uh, stage where you could fall through and there was a little trap door thing underneath, but it required a, a really difficult thing. This stunt man did this, but Cary, because in other, when you got right onto the scene, you had to tuck under to, to avoid hitting all these pipes and wires and things that were underneath. And Cary of course wanted to do it himself. Did it the first time, he just stuck with his head in the sand, and we had to pull him out of there.

[062:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And then we said, please Cary, let's let the stunt man do this. See, that's the, the one guy who could kind of sniff in and walk away. He was fine. And then you'll see later when the, uh, action happens that we, we knew we needed, uh, a more energetic ROUS.

[063:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
In the fight scene that's coming up with the ROUS is the sounds that you hear coming out of the ROUS' were actually made by me. I actually, uh, looped all of those sounds. Uh, we put it through harmonizers and we double, uh, recorded them and, uh, added all kinds of effects to it, but essentially, the, um, the base sound was mine. Uh, and, uh, I did it, the first time I did it, um, they didn't, they forgot to push the record button, and I almost completely lost my voice doing it, uh, and was so upset that they had to do it over again 'cause I, I was so hoarse after doing it, all these, [MAKES NOISE], that's all stuff that I actually added myself, so the voice of the ROUS' is yours truly.

[064:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
This is the one sequence that I've heard little kids sometimes get a little freaked out over. But by and large, you can watch this with kids at almost any age and that's how, one of the things I love about it. Now they've come out of the Fire Swamp, and coming up, uh, you're gonna see the encounter between Westley and the Six Fingered Man, and, uh, there's a moment where he gets conked on the head by the, uh, the, the butte of the sword from the Six Fingered Man and actually, uh, Cary said, no, hit me, hit me, it's okay.

[065:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
And Chris accidentally hit him on the head and he had to go to the hospital. Harry, Cary had to go to the hospital that day. We had to stop for the afternoon while Cary had his cut attended to. You'll see when it happens, but you don't see any [WORD?]

[066:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
Here's the Six Fingered Man. Here comes the sword. Bonk, you don't see it. Hit, he went to the hospital [LAUGH] with that shot. And now here we've got, um, in the book, uh, Westley has to go through this Zoo Of Death, but, uh, in, uh, in service of a, of a limited budget, uh, we created the Pit Of Despair, which is not in the book, but it was a lot, uh, cheaper and a lot more contained and, uh, it almost did the job of the Zoo Of Death is great in the book. If you read the book, it's, it's terrific. And this is a wonderful English comedian named Mel Smith playing The Albino.

[067:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
I love that joke. It's such a cheesy joke, but it's great. You know, The Pit Of Despair, and then he clears his throat and of course he can talk normally. First time I heard that joke, my father said it was done I, uh, it was a, there was a bit about a, a train conductor going, uh, calling the next stop for the train and was going, Schenectady, Schenectady, you know, but nobody could understand it and then he would go [CLEARS THROAT] Schenectady, and there was, like, that was, like, and Chris Guest used to do that same joke.

[068:TAPE 1] ROB REINER (CONTINUED)
It was the Indians, uh, going around the, uh, campfire and doing the war dance and you, they go, [MAKES NOISE] they go, [CLEARS THROAT] hey ya, hey ya, hey. It was, that's, that's the same joke, so basically it's been around, but it worked good in, in this sequence. Now, what this brings up is so...