Princess Bride...
Feb. 9th, 2004 04:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katsarisOn Friday, I got 'The Princess Bride', the book, and the same day read it in its entirety...
Enjoyable book -- ofcourse the movie is one of my all-time favourites, not to mention one of the most quotable ones *ever* -- but somehow it didn't manage to excite me *or* amuse me nearly as much the movie did.
That may have partly been because I read it in its Greek translation rather than the original, and so not all the wittiness could come across... still I have to wonder whether this was one of the cases where the movie adaptation was just *better* than the original. Especially because many of the book-scenes seemed to me actually designed to work better on screen than on the page -- e.g. the bit where Inigo kills four guards so quickly that the fourth dies before the first one had the time to fall to the ground? And the count just turns and flees?
Very cinematic. In the book it felt a bit like ho-hum, we're just told he was just so quick and efficient, so it means little. When we actually *see* it in the movie, that's when we can get impressed and wowed and amused at the same time.
I have to believe that the author actually wrote the book with the movie in mind.
Anyway, the movie was of the most faithful adaptations of a book *ever*, even though I definitely missed the characterisation for Buttercup (uglily translated "Neragola" for some reason in the Greek ) of the first chapter.
*g* First chapter was my favourite, btw, probably also because it was the chapter pretty much left out of the movie and so I could come to it fresh -- but people who've read the book probably also know why "first chapter was my favourite" is a comment to be amused by where 'Princess Bride' is concerned.
Second favourite bit the flashback to Inigo's childhood -- again one could say that this is because it was left out of the movie, but I think a more accurate guess would be that I simply loved those character scenes.
Didn't like the Fezzik bits, though, since I tend to think that gentle giants are mostly a cliche that needs to be put to a slow agonizing death.
...
Beginnings of a political ramble in a new post.
Enjoyable book -- ofcourse the movie is one of my all-time favourites, not to mention one of the most quotable ones *ever* -- but somehow it didn't manage to excite me *or* amuse me nearly as much the movie did.
That may have partly been because I read it in its Greek translation rather than the original, and so not all the wittiness could come across... still I have to wonder whether this was one of the cases where the movie adaptation was just *better* than the original. Especially because many of the book-scenes seemed to me actually designed to work better on screen than on the page -- e.g. the bit where Inigo kills four guards so quickly that the fourth dies before the first one had the time to fall to the ground? And the count just turns and flees?
Very cinematic. In the book it felt a bit like ho-hum, we're just told he was just so quick and efficient, so it means little. When we actually *see* it in the movie, that's when we can get impressed and wowed and amused at the same time.
I have to believe that the author actually wrote the book with the movie in mind.
Anyway, the movie was of the most faithful adaptations of a book *ever*, even though I definitely missed the characterisation for Buttercup (uglily translated "Neragola" for some reason in the Greek ) of the first chapter.
*g* First chapter was my favourite, btw, probably also because it was the chapter pretty much left out of the movie and so I could come to it fresh -- but people who've read the book probably also know why "first chapter was my favourite" is a comment to be amused by where 'Princess Bride' is concerned.
Second favourite bit the flashback to Inigo's childhood -- again one could say that this is because it was left out of the movie, but I think a more accurate guess would be that I simply loved those character scenes.
Didn't like the Fezzik bits, though, since I tend to think that gentle giants are mostly a cliche that needs to be put to a slow agonizing death.
...
Beginnings of a political ramble in a new post.