Oddly enough, this weeks script is a film that it took a while for me to fall for. But after many viewings, I am now a true fan and absolute lover of this story. This weekโs humdinger is THE PRINCESS BRIDE.
Plot in a nutshell: a poorly child is regaled by his babysitting grandfather with the tale of The Princess Bride. A romp of derring-do, princesses, pirates, swordsmen and true love!
Been awhile since my last review. I wanted to read something that just picked me up in a great big hug and welcomed me back to the incredible world of script writing and script reading. Canโt do much better than this beauty.
Weโve probably heard this story a thousand times before as kids reading fairytales. Princesses. Pirates. Snarling villains. Magical lands. Itโs all here. William Goldman (making his THIRD appearance in the top 100 best scripts of all time list. What a legend!) has hard-lined from the veins of all the best fairytales and injected them into this script. It just has an excitement to it thatโs gripping. The pace never lets up and the characters carry it perfectly. They are all so likeable. Even the nasty villains. Who are truly, moustache twirlingly, despicably, villainous.
The truly mesmerising thing about this script is it keeps on building the tension. There is a masterful scene across pages 16 to 17, where Goldman takes a phenomenal set piece with Buttercup escaping her captors into the eel filled ocean, creatures hard on her tail, captors screaming to get out of the waterโฆjust to stop it to return to the grandfather reassuring his precocious and annoyingly impatient grandson that all will be well if heโll just be quiet and listen. As realistically jaunty as this interruption is, this throws the tone momentarily. And yet, still keeps you eager, pushing you to want to return to the story. Which is such a neat trick. It borders on annoying, because I donโt want the pace to stop, but just like the rest of the script, the story wants to tease you as well as thrill you. Which is so cheeky, that it just makes it adorable. Who knew cheekiness could be part of a script?
The dialogue here is utterly delicious. For those actors out there reading this review, this is a script to be excited about. You want to play these characters. Hell, we all would be grateful just to have some of these fun conversations. Theyโre just so involving and witty. Really cracking wordplay and you can feel your brain screaming to juggle more of the delicious banter. Thereโs a reason this is a favourite with so many.
So, what did I learn from THE PRINCESS BRIDE?
ย Character names. This is a grandstand lesson in creating memorable, fun and sometimes unpronounceable names. No Gregโs or Sarahโs here. Fizzig. Buttercup. Humperdinck. The Dread Pirate Roberts. The list goes on. Itโs fun for the writer. Itโs fun for the actors. Itโs fun for the audience. Embrace and enjoy!
This is how to write a fairytale style piece. The daring-do, the adventure, the magic, the love story. There is so much here to be inspired by. Just a fantastic example.
Pages 30โ35 is a riveting example of how to write a sword fight. It is described by the writer as one of two of the best sword fights ever written, and here you can see why. Itโs not just the moves or the repartee between the combatants. Itโs the pace. It is so clearly important here and so well structured, anyone thinking of writing a duel should read this sequence. These five pages are absolute gold for not only writers, but directors, stunt crews, fight choreographers and actors. Woe betide the poor storyboard artist who has to try and sketch this out!
That rarest of tricks; building an action set piece steadily, with absorbing flow, to a riveting denouementโฆand then interrupting it to go somewhere else. Jarring yes. But used just right, a very clever little tool. Can be used for comedy, shock effect, or even just to keep the audience on their toes. Whatever the reason you want to use it, there are some amazing examples in here.
One of these days, Iโm going to have to start reading some bad scripts. Donโt get me wrong. Iโve read quite a few for festival screening processes, auditions and low budget features. But when youโre spoiled with a script like this, it really helps as both writer, actor and producer that you can see what real quality looks like. As an actor you can get excited about the lines. As a writer, you can get excited about the structure and the overall story arc. As a producer, you can see how easy it is going to be to pitch this project. Thatโs not what itโs about, but when the writing is this good, it can only infuse everybody thatโs involved with an elevated confidence. Read this for the magic, absorb it for the underlying learning lessons. This is how you build love for a story.
Link to the script:
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