As You Wish Scene from The Princess Bride

Assignment One
Subject: “As You Wish” Scene from The Princess Bride
In the “As You Wish” scene from the Princess Bride, some of the primary themes and motifs of the film are revealed through the elements of cinematography. The scene takes place outdoors, with a backdrop of breathtaking mountain scenery. Across this idyllic background, the two main characters, Buttercup and Wesley, have a discussion. However, Wesley has become the new Dread Pirate Roberts and Buttercup believes she is speaking to the man who killed her one true love. There is a high degree of dramatic irony in this scene given that the audience knows that Wesley is behind the mask. The fact that Buttercup does not recognize Wesley—even though she waxes poetic about his eyes--underscores the humorous, satirical nature of the film.
The editors cut back and forth from Buttercup to Wesley, using middle range and wide-angle shots to enhance the dramatic tension. Because the scene takes place outdoors on a cloudy day, the lighting is even, giving no one character the upper hand. The audience is rooting for the couple to reunite and is not pitted one against the other. Buttercup’s red dress does, however stand out strikingly against the deep green of the grass in which she sits. These are coloring choices that undercore the film being “highly stylized,” (Powell, 2006, p. 8). The director places her in the middle of the screen purposely to enhance her fairy tale beauty.
Wesley suddenly spies the prince’s horsemen on a cliff, the first extremely wide angle shot of the scene. However, only Wesley sees the horses, for at that very moment, Buttercup decides to push the Dread Pirate Roberts off the cliff. Cutting between what Wesley sees, and what Buttercup sees, allows the audience to get inside both of their heads. Finally, Wesley cries out, “As you wish!” so that Buttercup knows his true identity. She throws herself down the hill after him, and the editor cuts between each of them tumbling until they are both prone in the gully, but safely hidden from the Prince.
Assignment 2
Sound is integral to a successful film. Filmmakers rely on sound to enhance or create mood, manipulating audience reactions to the visual and plot elements in the film. Films also rely on dialogue and natural, or diegetic sounds that effectively tell the story on screen. The non-diegetic sounds are equally as important in film, though, because of the way music sets a mood and sound effects clarify what is being seen—or what is taking place off screen, such as an explosion or gun shot that is only heard but not seen.
Dialogue is the conversation taking place between characters in the film. In the “As You Wish” scene of The Princess Bride, for example, Wesley, who comes as the Dread Pirate Roberts, speaks with Buttercup. The bulk of the scene is composed of the interchange between them, as Buttercup expresses her pain and bitterness and Wesley/The Dread Pirate Roberts talks ironically about himself in the third person. The sound editors then start playing melodramatic, emotive music at a critical juncture in the scene: just when Wesley’s tone changes. As Wesley is accusing Buttercup of not remaining true to her “one true love” and marrying Prince Humperdink, the music starts playing but not so loud that it obscures the dialogue. The melodramatic music enhances the already emotional tone of the scene, as well as its humor: for the entire scene and the whole film is a satire of chivalric romance. Another deft use of music in this scene is when Prince Humperdink claims that the couple must be headed into the fire swamp—which cues the sinister-sounding music to make the fire swamp seem even scarier. Finally, this scene also uses sound effects well, such as when Buttercup and Wesley tumble down the hill and the audience can hear the sounds of their bodies hitting the earth. The sound effects are diegetic because they do emanate from within the action taking place in the film, but they are nevertheless effects that are edited into the film.




References

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Powell, J.T. (2006). Pirate story. Syracuse University Surface. https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1609&context=honors_capstone
Reiner, R. (Director) (1987). The Princess Bride. Film clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niul8Hy-3wk