The Princess Bride (1987) : The Ultimate Fairy Tale Send-Up Movie

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great story great director fine actors = superb movie.

Cons: Those who don't know their fairy tales may be unamused.

The Bottom Line: 
Here is a classic comic film everyone should see.

Author's Review
The Princess Bride was released some 20 years ago, and it is esteemed by many as one of the best films of all time. It is in essence a comic parody of many of the stereotypes found in the “classic” fairy tales of English literature, and when one is versed in those fairy tales the comedy has a richness that makes your sides hurt from laughing so hard. Given that many of the values and themes from fairy tales are often transitioned into themes and values for our culture today, that makes the movie all that much more compelling. The Princess Bride has for a number of people become a favorite cult movie, and it is watched again and again, audience members faithfully reciting many of the memorable lines from the script.

William Goldman, the American novelist and playwright, who won an academy award for his screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), wrote “The Princess Bride” as a novel, published in 1973 and made into the film in 1987. He also wrote the screenplay for a memorable Paul Newman movie, Harper, in 1967.

The story begins as a grandfather (Peter Falk) reads a bedtime story titled The Princess Bride to his young grandson (Fred Savage), who is initially bored with the thought of hearing a story out of a book, because he is more interested in video games than in books, which are to him presumably something in which adults indulge, but which he himself accounts as bo-ring. This in itself is a subtle jibe by Goldman at the swaying effect digital media entertainment has on the young as over against the pleasures of reading literature.

The film then shifts to show us a movie-within-a-movie. While the “outer” story is about the grandfather and the boy, the “main” story is that of the fairy tale in the grandfather’s book, and from time to time when the grandfather stops reading, the movie shifts back to the “real” outer story to show the reactions of the grandfather and boy to illustrate a change in attitude growing within the boy which denotes a new appreciation for the written word.

The fairy tale of The Princess Bride concerns a farm hand named Westley (Cary Elwes) who works for and is romantically enthralled by a lovely young girl named Buttercup (Robin Wright Penn). Buttercup is confused by her feelings toward the “farm boy” as she condescendingly calls him, but when she eventually sees that she loves him in return, Westley leaves the farm and goes to seek a fortune so he can marry Buttercup.

In time, she hears that her beloved “farm boy” has been killed by pirates, and in her heartbroken grief Buttercup offers no quarrel when the sovereign of her land, Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarondon) decides that the fair Buttercup should be married to him. (It’s GOOD to be the king! Or the prince, anyway.)

Actually, Prince Humperdinck- in a turnabout on the idea that fairy tale princes are “Prince Charming”- types, is actually a villainous scoundrel. His real aim is to marry Buttercup, kill her, and then frame someone else for the murder, an act which will incite a war from which he can expand his power and ambitions. All in a day’s work for a heartless, ambitious noble.

Alas, in the nick of time, a mysterious masked stranger appears on the scene, and his aim is to rescue fair Buttercup from her fate at the hands of the dark prince. We learn, when his mask is removed, that the mysterious stranger is in truth the now seasoned and mature- “farm boy”/Westley, now all grown up, heroic, great at swordplay, and ready to do battle with anything the dark prince has up his sleeve.

We are then introduced to scenes of derring-do filled with a number of characters whose antics and words will have the moviegoer rolling in the aisles. There is Fezzik (Andre the Giant), a huge man who is stronger than an ox, with a brain as smart as a field mouse. There is Vinnizi (Wallace Shawn), a Machiavellian manipulator whose evil intelligence succeeds in tying himself in inconceivable knots. There is Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), whose one-liner brilliance was never better. And standing slightly above them all, in my opinion, is the expert swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), whose words cut to the core of things even deeper than his rapier-sharp blade. Mandy may steal the show for you.

At the conclusion of the film journey, there is a happy ending, but not before convention after convention one might find in many classic fairy tales are turned on their ears. Cary Elwes and Robin Penn Wright perform magically under the direction of that most excellent director of comic dramas, Rob Reiner, as do the other members of the cast. Rob Reiner, who also directed When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Sleepless In Seattle (1993) , is a bona-fide genius as a director of comedy which mixes timing, subtlety, and a flawless understanding of human nature. Goldman’s script, from a book which was obviously a labor of love, give Reiner and the players a fantastic canvas upon which to paint their story. And, of course, the same may be said for the “outer” story involving the grandfather and the boy, Falk and Savage. Peter Falk, ever the smooth, subtle, seasoned actor, delivers.

While I suspect that this movie may be best appreciated by adults, it also has a story which will be readily understood in its own right and appreciated by children, who will enjoy not only the film’s energy and drama, but also will delight in seeing the adults who watch the movie double over in laughter. Few people will watch this movie and leave it without a big smile on their faces. Those same children will also have been given a subliminal message about the stories on the written pages of books: maybe they’re not all that bad.

Is The Princess Bride timeless? I, for one, think so. I suspect that The Princess Bride will be around for a long, long time. And that’s not such a bad thing. The send-up of many of the things we see in our literary archetypes as so often hallowed is refreshing and in a way, very reaffirming. It is easy to see why this is a cult movie for so many, and one film that will be recommended from generation to generation across the years to come.

Five Stars/ *****