By Hank Brockett

Princess Bride

By Hank Brockett

five stars (out of five)

Pop in the new special edition DVD for “The Princess Bride” and bask in the sunset behind Westley and fair Buttercup. Laugh at the quirky tone set in the key of a life filled to the brim with wit. And just try and count on your hands (five fingers or six) the indelible scenes and quotations injected into the coolest of pop culture vernacular.

Then realize the most romantic movie of recent years hardly made a dime in the theaters. It’s enough to throw the most idealistic of us into the Pit of Despair.

Of course, a 7-year-old reared on the comic fable doesn’t care much for box office projections or the number of screens nationwide. Those scruffy kids care about adventure, valorous heroes and despicable villains, great fights and maybe just a tad of that kissing stuff.

Looking back on 14 years of continuous screenings, we know all the reasons future fans should have packed the theaters. But among the impressive multitude of extras, there’s the oft-ignored feature called the trailers. And here we find how true greatness was marketed terribly.

Director Rob Reiner and writer William Goldman, truth be told, created a tone that no snippet of clips could do justice. But because of the trailers, meant to entice a blank-slate audience, potential patrons were turned away by a complicated explanation of the plot, cheesy narration and even worse musical accompaniment.

The actual movie features none of those drawbacks.

What it does have are the classic elements for which we give thanks to cinema. Sure, Goldman’s novel conjures up enough images to let the mind wander fancifully. But on screen, the characters take over an imaginary world, a place children and the young at heart desperately wish existed somewhere at some time.

But we can find it only on the video shelves or in home libraries, a fate somewhat dimmer now that a new DVD gives us the whole package. Previously, the original DVD offered up a pretty picture and not much else. But in the new version, we find that nugget that makes DVDs so appealing: the retrospective documentary.

“As You Wish” gives us present-day interviews with the cast and crew, allowing the likes of Reiner, Goldman, Cary Elwes (Westley) and Robin Wright Penn (Buttercup) to wax poetic knowing full well that legions of fans find this film their definitive work.

Other featurettes and two commentary tracks let us into the fable-filled world without tarnishing the magnificent dream of it all. The tale of a farmboy who loves, loses then loves again isn’t cliche. Lovable rogues the likes of Vizzini (Wallace Shawn with the ultimate short man’s complex), Fezzik (Andre the Giant) and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) each have backstories and great lines, all while keeping the pace blistering quick. And Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) and Count Rugen (Christopher Guest) balance the comic elements and fear factors with thief-like precision.

But if “The Princess Bride” works in just one way, it’s the thing that confounded the marketing types. No one has orchestrated a film with such great comedic lines that buoys a true romance and epic adventure like we see here. Genres are blurred and changed with the glee of toddlers playing with Play-doh -- who just happen to create withstanding works of art in the process.

But ranking great moments is the work of wannabe critics, not true fans. Fans can accept the film for all it is, including the golden-age Fred Savage appearance and a swordfight of epic proportions.

Its name is “The Princess Bride” ... it was killed at the theaters ... prepare to buy.