The One With The Challenge: My Favorite Movie

Oh man.

Day 2 and another hard one.

This challenge is proving to test my brain in ways I never thought possible. And making me look deep inside in regards to some of my favorite things in the world. I live for entertainment. I love music and movies and TV. I even work in one of the mediums, although not in an entertainment capacity. So these questions are challenging because I love most forms of entertainment and pinning down a favorite out of each category is difficult.

Which is why this blog challenge is proving to be a lot of fun.

So my favorite movie. I thought long and hard about this one and it proved to be just as difficult as choosing my favorite song. I could choose several movies that I would call my favorites because I could watch them over and over. But then I realized there is a movie that is my favorite movie of all time. A movie that I can quote inside and out. That whenever it is on I have to watch. A movie I can recall watching since I was about 11 years old.

Going to the video store every Friday to pick out movies to watch on the weekends when I was growing up was something my brother and I looked forward to each week. We loved having a VCR and the ability to watch movies in our own home. It was a fascinating luxury I know not every family had. My parents would take us down to the tiny video store in town and we would spend a good half an hour perusing the shelves looking for the perfect movie to rent. We were allowed to pick out one movie apiece and my parents usually got one for them as well. The challenge was to find something good enough to watch over and over all weekend so we could "get our money's worth" as my parents would say. On one of these trips I saw something that caught my eye as soon as I walked into the store. A new release, with the picture of a couple holding hands in shadow, a majestic castle looming in the background swathed in clouds. To an eleven-year-old girl, even the title was enough for capture my attention, since anything to do with princesses was a sure sell. I snatched the cover up and brought it to my parents as my selection for the weekend and walked out of the store happily clutching a copy of The Princess Bride.

I must have watched that movie a dozen time over two days. In fact my whole family enjoyed it. What was not to love? There was sword fighting and dangerous forests, a love story and lots and lots of laughs. The easy way the story fit together, the fun times the grandson interjected and reminded the audience he was hearing it for the first time with us as well. It was the perfect movie in my young eyes and I loved it. I rented that movie over and over and still could not watch it enough. Soon it was on HBO and my parents recorded it off the TV so I could watch it whenever I wanted. I watched it when I was sick, when I was feeling blue, when I needed a laugh, with friends, by myself. I could talk along with all of the characters and quote lines on a whim. As I got older some of the comedic parts I didn't understand as a child became clear and I enjoyed the movie even more. I watched the movie on tape so many times I wore it out and had to go buy another copy. Then when DVDs came out I made sure to purchase it first thing. In fact, I bought that movie on DVD before I even had a DVD player to play it on.

To this day I can still quote thet movie on a whim. In fact one of Charming and I's favorite things to do is when ever someone says "It's possible" we wait a beat and both say "Pig." And while there are several other movies I can quote as well (Christmas Vacation immediately comes to mind) The Princess Bride reigns supreme as the first movie that I remember making me fall in love with how a good movie can stay with you over the years. Like an old friend you can always count on to make you feel better.

As you wish.