You'd Make a Wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts
Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride. I loved Inigo. And as cute and charming and heroic as Westley was, I never quite went for him. I mean, after all, the dink fell for Buttercup- a more useless wimpy character I've never seen.
I hated Buttercup.
Use the dagger on herself after the wedding she didn't want? Screw that. Use it on the Prince and make sure he won't have a wedding night, if you catch my drift.
But anyway- as I said, I loved Inigo. The image of a little boy seeing his father killed; growing up studying relentlessly so he'd have the skills to avenge the death; and overcoming mortal wounds to finally kill the murderer. Okay, so maybe he wasn't the sharpest sword in the shop, he still fascinated me.
At the end of the movie, I couldn't care less what Buttercup and Westley did with their HEA. I wanted to see Inigo with his new adventures as the Dread Pirate Roberts.
We own the movie, and watch it at least once a month. The latest viewing had me chortling over my favorite line, naturally, Inigo's: (after hearing Vizzini cry 'Inconceivable!' for the 3rd or 4th time) "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." But then I started thinking. There are very few times in movies that I root for the hero. Sidekicks rule. And as dedicated a romance reader as I am, I have to admit it's happened in books quite a bit, too. So many times the sidekick will get the job done when the hero can't. I always manage to get so invested in them I get frustrated when they don't get as much airtime. Or pagetime, as the case may be.
I don't imagine I'm alone in this, because many a romance series has been built on the sidekicks we all fall for. Haven't you ever read a passage giving you a tiny glimpse into a second stringer's heart and thought, Oh, yeah. Sequel fodder. If you read Julie Garwood's The Secret, you just knew sidekick Brodick Buchanan was going to have his own story.
What about you? Do sidekicks do it for you, too?
posted by Robyn | 7:47 AM
11 Comments:
Absolutely! Sidekicks get some of the best lines--they can tell the hero/heroine they're being an idiot or hand out an unforgivable insult to the Snotty Sister In Law (or whoever) and get away with it! Of course, on the downside, sometimes the sidekick ends up taking a bullet or dying of the latest plague. Not great job security there... still I agree, the Inigo's of the world will, more often than not, grab me but good.
I love that movie, and not for Westley and Buttercup. You nailed it...Inigo stole the show in my opinion.
I love Delia Peabody and Ian McNab from JD Robb's In Death Series. They don't get enough pagetime as far as I am concerned.
And Ransom is one of my favorite books ever. Loved Brodick and Gillian's love story, but was very disappointed that she didn't give that much time to the Ramsey/Bridgid angle. I just reread that book last week and was wishing for a more indepth treatment of their realization of "tru wuv".
One of my fave sidekick guys of all time is Steve Zahn. He has been in so many movies and seems to have the best lines in them. Loved him in That Thing You Do and You've Got Mail.
Lula! Lula! I LOVE Lula! She's the bestest sidekick ever! Oh ... and Grandma Mazur!
LOL!!!!
"Mawwige. Mawwige is what has bwoght us togeddaaah... today."
I loved that bishop guy!
I thought Westley was a wimp much of the time.
My favorite line? Also by a side kick. "Don't pester him. He's had a hard day."
I love that series by Julie Garwood. All three of them are in my bookcase. "The Secret" "The Gift" and the other one whose name escapes me.
I'm a sidekick girl, too. I especially loved Inigo. Inigo, Mercutio...oh gosh there's too mny to name them all! I'll have to go think of more.
But this is why I tend not to write sidekicks.
Even as a child, I had a crush on Sancho Panza! Inigo Montoya...mmm...yummy!
Love the Princess Bride movie and recently bought it for my children. One confession - (and this has nothing to do with sidekicks, sorry!) - for the longest time, I thought Mandy Patinkin was Buttercup and Robin Wright was Inigo. Makes sense, doesn't it? Mandy is a girl's name and Robin can be either...
Duh!
Amen, amen, amen to every single thing you said.
PS. I assume you've read the book too? Makes me love Inigo even more.
*Sigh*
I did indeed read the book. In a lot of ways it's more fun than the movie.
Post a Comment
<< Home