For a long time, Hollywood seemed to abandon the love story in film. With horror, sci-fi, and comic book movies making the biggest impact, there has been no urgency for the powers that be to return to the genre. The past few years have seen a slow change in that, but it was in 1987 that we were handed a timeless love story by director Rob Reiner, The Princess Bride. Love, humor, adventure, and characters that are still quoted today, the film still reverberates today, enduring with a charm that has been hard to match.
This made The Princess Bride the perfect choice for a live orchestral performance over Valentine’s weekend in Toronto. Four shows were accompanied by the always impressive Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the famed Roy Thomson Hall. The mood was captured even more by memorable touches, such as an “In Memory of” tribute to the late Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle, and “inconceivable” appearing on the screen at intermission.
The film follows a poor farm boy, Westley (Cary Elwes), and Buttercup (Robin Wright), who fall madly in love, only to see Westley apparently killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts while he is off seeking his fortune overseas. The story is read from a book by a grandfather (Peter Falk) to his grandson (Fred Savage). We watch the young boy soon become enthralled in the tale, just like the audience watching the film.
Adventure, sword fights, wonderful characters, and a brilliant comedic flair throughout the story, with the love story never far from the thoughts of all the characters involved.
Conductor Nicholas Buc is no stranger to these events, having conducted many of them over his 20 years in the music industry. He has a master’s in scoring for film and multimedia from New York University. He is the only person in the world to have conducted all three original Star Wars films in concert on the same day.
Buc was enjoying this event as much as the fans, rhyming off lines from the film before the show started, with a smile from ear to ear. It should be said that these conductors enjoy this as much as the audience does, as sometimes we forget they can be fans too.
I was curious how the Toronto Symphony Orchestra would approach the score to The Princess Bride. The original soundtrack was created by Mark Knopfler, made famous by fronting the band Dire Straits. With very minimal instrumentation and help (the song “Storybook Love” was written and performed by Willy DeVille, arranged by Mark Knopfler), he created the sound, vibe, and feel that Reiner was looking for.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra took this powerful score and made it their own, weaving and pulsing the strings and horns into key moments. There were a few times they were on the verge of overpowering the dialogue of the film, but the fans most likely didn’t even notice, as they knew the lines by heart anyway.
There was a beat to the show, and conversely, that exists in the movie, that is simply magical. The film is about just that, magic and miracles, and that vibe was merged wonderfully between the film and the orchestra. The ebb and flow of the comedic and action sequences blended well with the live music, and the orchestra’s subtle, powerful, intermittent silences made what they provided that much more noticeable and appreciated.
Sometimes we take the music in a film for granted, but it is a powerful tool and companion. When it goes silent, even for desired effects, it is sorely missed, as it was here from time to time.
The Princess Bride has been a beloved film for almost 40 years, adored by older fans and still being discovered by a new generation. The wonderful thing about events like this is that they bring together people who both appreciate the film and the live orchestra, and some discover, for the first time, just how impressive live music can really be and what it can add to a film.
