Script vs Film (50pts)

The original script stays true to what we have seen in the movie. One difference, and this may seem insignificant to some but I find it really important, is that as Westley is preparing to leave, and Buttercup is expressing her worry about if he’ll return, the final product added a word. The script says “Hear this now: I will come for you”(6). This just reads a bit of annoyance towards her worry. However, the movie gives a little more caring and passion to the line, “Hear this now: I will always come for you”. One of my favorite descriptions in the script is “The Man in Black (Westley) copies Inigo. Not copies exactly, improves”(33). This resulted in the scene in which Inigo swung on the overhanging vine to the lower ground to retreat his sword. Then Westley threw his sword into the ground and jumped for the same vine. However, where Inigo just swung on it, Westley pulls out some gymnast moves during his swing. There is much more “carrying”(36) of Buttercup by Fezzik than actually appears in the movie, too. He more or less just pulls her around in the movie version. The showdown between Westley and Fezzik is a bit more on Wesley’s side in the script than the movie. He read things like “tremendous blows” and “twists his arms severely”(38). However, the movie makes it apparent that Westley knows he’s rather screwed. He tries so hard, but we just see no fruit of his work and Fezzik just stands there smiling. It is only when Fezzik starts charging him that we get the similarity back. Another difference in this scene is that when Fezzik is explaining why fighting one person is harder than a group, he faints as he finishes his sentence. This differs in the script because he finishes his line, slams Westley into the boulder again, and THEN proceeds to finally collapse from lack of air. He is even still trying. I think this was a good change on the movies part, because this just sounds tedious (40). In the battle of wits between Vizzini and Westley, the script states at one point Westley is nervous (45). However, Cary Elwes never shows any signs of nervousness in this scene. I think this was very important because showing nervousness in this scene would have made him seem like he was in trouble. Elwes poker face was perfect; it almost gave a taunting effect to Vizzini (Wallace Shawn)’s monologue. The scene where Buttercup dreams of becoming queen plays out different in one way. The old woman booing her not only is insulting, but the script reads she also holds out her hands to Buttercup’s throat which is what is originally supposed to wake her up (72). Not just the booing and insults. I’m not sure why they changed that, other than making it not as scary for young children. However, I don’t agree with that change, I think that would have been quite important to the story. Humperdink grabs Buttercup by the arm and leads her away in anger in the movie after she has insulted him, but in the script he grabbed her by the hair (84) and was more forceful about it. Again, maybe making it more watchable for kids. This was a hard script to critique, because overall it was close to perfectly in sync with the movie. But I found a few things that seemed significant. I have always thought that movies end up cutting or changing quite a bit, but this movie stayed very true to the original script. It was a very fun read.