The Princess Bride

Wonderful film - what's in the Blu-Ray only edition?
This is a terrific movie that has so many different editions of the DVD and now Blu-Ray discs that it gets very confusing as to what is in each version.

A search of the internet shows several reviews that describe the differences between the DVD versions. Basically the "Dread Pirate Roberts" edition and the "20th Anniversery" edition have different special features not in the other edition.

As of this writing, there are three versions of the Blu-ray - the Blu-ray only edition, and the Blu-ray + DVD edition in either a Blu-Ray or the old style DVD case.

What makes it confusing is that Amazon and other sellers of this Blu-Ray only edition list this movie as a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, implying that it might be a different movie cut, while the other two Blu-ray editions are listed as 1.85:1 aspect ratio. No doubt this, together with the fact that the Blu-Ray + DVD edition has almost the same price, has hampered sales of this Blu-Ray only edition...

What's the Difference in all these Editions?
Here's what is new on the 20th Edition DVD:

- "The Princess Bride: The Untold Tales"
- "The Art of Fencing" Featurette
- "Fairy Tales and Folklore" Featurette
- "True Love and High Adventure: The Official The Princess Bride DVD Game

The Dread Pirate Roberts/Buttercup Editions include all of the Special Edition features plus:

French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround) Audio Track

"Dread Pirate Roberts: Greatest Legend of the Seven Seas" mockumentary

"Love is Like a Storybook Story" featurette

"Miraculous Make-up" featurette

Quotable "Battle of Wits" trivia game

Collective booklet: "Fezzik's Guide to Florin"

I prefer the Dread Pirate Robert's/Buttercup Edition, but there are three reasons why you might want to buy the new 20th edition:

1. You don't already own the movie (shame on you).
2. You collect all things Princess Bride.
3. The DVD cover art is fantastic!

I do not think it means what you think it means
I remember when I first saw this movie, around age 13, I had no idea who the Man in Black was through the entirety of the first act. Sure, it's apparent now, given the benefit of hindsight, but because of the actor's anonymity at the time I never made the obvious connection. On top of that, most of the rest of the cast was unknown to me as well (except for the one non-actor, Monsieur Roussimoff, a.k.a. Andre the Giant). The sweeping anonymity of the company allowed the film to do two things: first, the audience isn't distracted by the presence of the Big Star; and second, unknown actors allow for no preconceived notions of their characters. Which in turn allows the filmmakers to subvert character types, and insert some true surprises into the story.

Which, to make a long point even longer, is the whole ethos of the film

William Goldman's book "The Princess Bride", on which this film is based, intended to tell only the 'good parts' version of the story of Westley and Buttercup...

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