A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

In July of 1989, Columbia Pictures released “When Harry Met Sally…” a witty romantic comedy written by the late Nora Ephron (“Sleepless in Seattle”) and directed by Rob (“Stand by Me”) Reiner. Starring Billy Crystal as Harry Burns and Meg Ryan as Sally Albright, “When Harry Met Sally…” is a clever, humorous, yet unexpectedly moving look at the relationships between men and women. It covers various aspects of love and gender roles, but its most famous theme is Can men and women really be friends?   “When Harry Met Sally…” follows the course of the titular characters’ relationship over a 12-year period that begins in 1977 and ends roughly in the movie’s Present Day. As Ephron and Reiner set up the scenario, Harry and Sally have jgraduated from the University of Chicago and are headed east to start new lives and careers in New York. They have never met before, but Sally’s a friend of Harry’s girlfriend Amanda (Michelle Nicastro) and has agreed to take Harry along as a co-dri...

One of director Rob Reiner's best films is 1987's “The Princess Bride,” a witty-yet-sweet comedy/fantasy written by two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Goldman, who adapted his own novel about the beautiful maiden Buttercup (Robin Wright) who lives in the faraway land of Florin and whose true love, a young farmboy named Westley (Cary Elwes), goes off to sea to seek his fortune, telling Buttercup that he would come back for her. But when Buttercup learns that Westley's ship has been attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts she swears she will never love anyone again, an oath she keeps even when she accepts a marriage proposal from Florin's Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), a handsome yet shady fellow who probably could give Machiavelli some lessons in, well, Machiavellian diplomacy. Humperdinck’s scheme is simple: take over as King of Florin as soon as his father passes away, get bethroded to a beautiful engaging commoner, then stage her kid...