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.
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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)
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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.)
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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)