November 12, 1987 Collegian PAGE 6 The Princess Bride a winner by Rob Farnham Collegian Staff Writer The Princess Bride, Director Rob Reiner's attempt to follow up the tremendous commercial success of last year's Stand by Me, seems very likely to follow in the lucrative footsteps of its predecessor. It has received reams of praise from critics, a heavy promotional push from the studio (20th Century Fox), and evidently very favorable responses from viewers. In fact, in some print ads all of the glowing copy has been replaced with a single statement: "Just ask anyone who's seen it." Obviously, those behind The Princess Bride gave a great deal of faith in the quality of their work. Is. this faith justified? Well, just ask someone who's seen it, and the answer will almost cer tainly be yes. The Princess Bride is a witty, well-crafted, and extremely likable film which disappoints only Poetry corner Tears are for joy I cry because I love you. are for happiness I cry because you love me. are for frustration I cry because I must let you go from my sight and my touch. are for joy I cry because I love you. AC Of Future Long have I walked past the cold street lamps, past their lonesome grey poles late at night where nested underneath their protective glow the ladies linger and squawk at sailors sailing down the avenue's straits oh so unlike the sirens and their alluring songs of long ago. Long have I wandered aimlessly down these streets and felt underfoot not grass nor trodden earth but asphalt, and concrete, rock hard and cold, unrelenting in their stoney molds, speckled with cigarette butts and the green and white shards of broken glass. And I have seen the buildings that surround me great grey towers of brick and tinted glass spiring skywards until the sun merely becomes a caster of their shadows and cause men to curse the day and give thanks for the darkness that envelopes the city, and at night their lofty parapets seek to hide the stars. As the city grows ever larger, as its confines lengthen, as the days grow even darker, men will never know others than themselves, silently slipping into prisons of their own flesh and bones, never to truly understand or love one another. Our progress is but a finely crafted skeleton key unwittingly placed in the hands of fate and it slowly turns to lock the cold iron gates of our soul's cell threatening to forever shut love out from the world. Although man shapes and molds his environment it's the environment that shapes and molds man. And so the days pass, the belt of smog that constricts the city like some coiled snake continues to tighten its grip notch by notch, while the men below toil and sweat to make the city better: to fashion a longer street; to design a vaster subway system; to create a larger airport; to build a taller skyscraper. Yes, ignorantly that is what they do They build this great tower as He looks down upon them, furrowing His aged brow, a ponderous yet disdainful flicker in His eyes, as it rises forth towards the heavens far above the plains of Babel. WANT MORE THAN A DESK JOB? Looking for an exciting and challenging career • where each day is different? Many Air Force people - . have such a career as Pilots and Navigators. Maybe you can join them. Find.out if.you qualify. Contact your Air Force recruiter today. Call . in that it does not fulfill quite all of its tremendous potential. Reiner has chosen to use the unusual structure of a film within a film, seating up at first in the "real world" with Peter Falk as an elder ly man reading aloud to his grand son, who has the flu. As he begins narrating the tale of The Princess Bride, the scene shifts to the lovely European countryside where we meet the peasant girl, Buttercup, (Robin Wright) and her true love, Westly, (Cary Elwes). The value of this two-level structure becomes apparent whenever the fairy-tale dialogue starts to sound stilted or pompous, as Reiner is able to break up the mood of high seriousness with a well-timed interruption from the grandson for comic effect. The dialogue throughout alternates the speech of classic fairy tales with the wisecracks of modern movie Tears Rob Eggleston Collegian Staff Writer by Panama Contributing Writer 1- 800 . 7 252 - 2228 Days comedy. The principal storyline is suppos ed to revolve around Buttercups's travails after Westly is kidnapped by pirates and she is forced into betrothal to Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), the heir to the throne. But Wright's performance leaves Buttercup as little more than a stereotype, with little hold on an audience's interest. Despite the princess' top billing, this film really belongs to the secondary characters. Mandy Patinkin is superb as Inigo Montayo, a Spanish swordsman out to avenge his father's murder, and gargan tuan pro wrestler Andre the Giant turns in an excellent comic perfor mance as Fezzik the (what else?) Giant. Sarandon (the vampire in Fright Night) is convincingly slimy as the conniving Humperdinck. and Billy Crystal gets a funny ts thts his performances. When asked his wife's opinion of his performances, Goldthwait replied, "She hates it; she feels sorry, for me." Goldthwait talks consistantly about his baby, family, parents and his friends yet he denies being sensitive. Goldthwait could better be describ ed as sincere. On the subjects of racism, homophobia, and other derogatory issues, which are often topics for many comedians, Goldthwait disagreed that these make for good humor. At a private press conference, Goldthwait arrogantly walked in, smiled at the camera men, and took his seat. Tommy, better known as Tomcat, is his best friend and tour ing partner. Tomcat often opens for Goldthwait and did so at Behrend's performance. "Is this it? I had more fun at the senates" Goldthwait said sarcastically. He went on babbling about his adven tures in Wesleyville. He and his crew announced themselves as "The Dirtbags" when they stopped at Russ' Dinor located on Buffalo Road. He then took the liberty of giving the waitresses free tickets to the show. Goldthwait's nutty charm had the participants of the press conference in hystercs. After posing for a few photographs, by Suzie Jalosky Collegian Staff Writer Thunderous applause and roars of laughter filled Erie Hall Satur day, October 24. A full house of of than 900 students and Erie residents came to enjoy an evening of rasping and writhing humor by Bob "Bobcat" Goldthwait. The "Bobcat," as he is nicknamed stood on stage, Tab in hand as* usual, wearing a worn out t-shirt and a grubby pair of too-big blue jeans. He started his routine by ex claiming, "AAAARR RHHHKKK...If you came here to see my HBO special, aaagh, YOU SHOULD HAVE TAPED ITAAKLMFFH! " he blurted. Although Goldthwait eventually snuck in some of his HBO material, he primarily "babbled," as he calls it, about whatever came to mind. He talked about his bride and his baby daughter. "I call Ann my bride because wife sounds like I bought her from goats! " he said. "My bride and I pounded out a new baby girl recently." he con tinued. "She's beautiful. Most babies have to go through that playdough fun factory of life y'know, but...but my baby's head was nice and round because we had a C-section." he said, pulling his fingers through his thinning shoulder length hair. He then went on to discuss the traumas his daughter would inevitably face, "Is that your old man?" he cried. He reflected for a moment to say that he was every parents dream,..."Hi, aagh, is your daughter home? aaagh." he moaned, forcing a look of innocence through his demented smile. During a telephone interview, Goldthwait admitted that he's ner vous on stage. He bases his material on fear, and uses that ner vous energy as a part of his per sona. "I usually keep babbling un til I figure out where to stop; It's photo by Rick Brooks Bobcat (no caption required) Or' LIONS PRIDE 1 88 You can preserve your college years now for just $l5 - and in 3 easy, $5 installments. Support the yearbook by ordering yours now!! Orders may be submitted in the Collegian/SPC Office at the following times: Mondays 1-4; Wednesday 9-12; Fridays 9-10,11-12 cameo part as "Miracle Max," although you'd never recognize him under the makeup. Montoya's quest for revenge alone could have made a fine movie in it's own right, and that brings up the biggest pro blem with The Princess Bride: Its makers may have tried to do a little too much all at once. For instance, Wallace Shawn appears as Vizzini, a fiendish Sicilian in charge of a kidnapping plot. He is a memorable villian and a very funny character, but his part ends much too early on because there's not enough time for him and everything else screenwriter William Goldmann wants to in clude. Fezzik doesn't get as much screen time as a character of his quality normally would, for that same reason. Overall, there is a sense of scenes and characters be ing rushed by in order to cram pretty scary sometimes." On this night, Goldthwait came to a monumental end with his Bono im pression. "With the risk of being like Joe Piscapo, I'm going to do an impression. It'll either be good, or it'll suck! hhggmf." he said. The lights'-went down and the music to U2's "With or Without You" began. Goldthwait appeared wear ing a -black leather vest, and his hair pulled back to look like Bono. His expressions and movements were performed exactly like the music video. Goldthwait sang the song lust like the music video. Goldthwait sang the entire song as he hypnotically stared into the au dience. When it was over, he walk ed off-stage. The crowd went crazy! As the interview continued, Goldthwait talked about his parents, family, and home life. He grew up in Syracuse, N.Y. with four older brothers and sisters. His father is a sheet metal worker and his mother worked at Sears. He described his old neighborhood as an "ET-like neighborhood." He talked very seriously on the telephone and rarely made jokes. Goldthwait says, "I think it's rude to tell jokes and try to be funny when someone is interviewing you." Goldthwait became interested in "show biz" at a very young age. His parents had always encouraged him to do what he wanted to do, so at 15 he formed his own comedy troupe. Later he moved to Boston where young comedians had a bet ter chance of getting on stage. That's where Goldthwait en countered..."the heckler." "I found that if I didn't get mad, just asked that guy more about what he was saying, sooner or later he would look pretty stupid," said Goldthwait in Seventeen's Apr.l `B7 issue. When asked if he felt in secure on stage, Goldthwait replied, "No, I've always believed in myself. I'm an ego maniac." He also denied finding security within them all into just over 90 minutes of film. Even Westly, the heroic avatar of true love, suffers from this, as he never resolves the issue of whether he is supposed to be a bland, ideolized figure like his beloved Buttercup or the lively swashbuckler he appears to be in his better scenes. None of this is to imply that The Princess Bride is less than an ex cellent piece of entertainment. Reiner and Goldman have done a fine job of applying the fairy-tale tradition to a very modern comedy, and good performances abound. It's just that one wishes the movie were a little longer, with more time reserved for the likes of Shawn and Patinkin to perform. Perhaps they will take that into account if they ever choose to make The Princess Bride IL But until that time, the original will do quite nicely. 6( .9 ~t, lc e& w , it 0,9,90,m t;( i /7/ 1. Scottish cap 4. Oral 8. County In Florida 12. Southern state (abbr.) 13. Against 14. la tke middle 15. Give in 17. Vigor 19. Sun God 20. Boy 21. Inferior 22. Edge of cloth 23. Always 25. Create current of breeze 26. Leave 27. Small rug 28. Heat source 29. Courtesy title for woman 32. Exist 33. Sand build-up on shore 35. 4th musical scale note 36. Law 38. Slck 39. Tap gently 40. Actual weight (abbr.) 41. Homing breakfast Item 42. Cut 43. Fall behind 45. Pertaining to (suf.) 46. Small. temPrwar7 bed 47. 1 am (coat.) r - Present This Coupon ' -- '"l DYNAMITE PIZZA 3206 Buffalo Rd. Ph. 899.8522 i 1 Free Delivery 1 Large Pizza Cheese plus one item $5OO (Tax Not Included) PRESENT THIS COUPON eatures 1:4 404 ow • Goldthwait and his crew decided to depart for a trip to Millcreek Mall. Considering his appearance, I'm sure he blended in quite well. Bob "Bobcat" Goldthwait is probably best known for his HBO Special, and movie role as Zed, the biker, in Police Academy H, HI, and IV. Or as Goldthwait refers to them, "Police Lobotomies." Goldthwait's long list of creden tials doesn't stop there. He co starred with Whoopie Goldberg in Burglar, and is presently working on a movie of his own, entitled Hot to Trot. He calls it ,"a punk Mr. Ed". He is also collaborating with Tim Kazarinski on a film entitled Road to Ruin. Goldthwait says that he really has no preference between film and stage, but he does like the freedom of the stage. "I like to ad lib in some of the movies...that doesn't go over too well. I'm happy with whatever I'm doing at the time." Whether he's on stage, in front of the camera, or doing one of his cable television specials, Goldthwait's deranged sense of humor makes people laugh. As stated in a Goldthwait profile, "It's the laugh you laugh when what you really want to do is scream." 52. Bastion 54. S.E. Asia bird 56. Recent form (peel.) 57. Great Lake 54. 12 months 59. Three (pref.) 1. Blacktop 2. Beer 3. Wooden hammer 4. Fine beach footing 5. Picnic pest 6. Indefinite pronoun • 7. Couch 8. Water barrier 9. Be 10. Disastrous 11. Cheese 16. Listening organ 18. Division of the psyche 21. Wound cover 22. Built to transport bricks 23. Send forth 24. Holds flowers 25. Good time 26. Fish 28. Sit (p.t.) 29. Bad (pref.) 30. From a distance 31. Spouse 33. Repair with thread 34. Large' 37. Pester; annoy 39. Inventor's sole right 41. Foe 42. Poland (abbr.) 43. Living organism 44. Love • 45. Exist 46. Former Russian emperor (sp. var.) 48. N. Amer. Indians 49. Collection 50. Ever (Poetic) 51. Hawaiian food • 53. Southern N. England state (abbr.) 55. You (Poetic)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers