A characteristic
of a great story is when the person listening to said story keeps asking: “And
then what happened?” Throughout Rob Reiner’s classic adventure film The Princess Bride (1987) the young boy
(Fred Savage) listening to the story keeps asking the story teller, in this
case his grandfather (Peter Falk), not to just to keep on reading, but also to
skip the gross kissing parts. What makes The
Princess Bride a classic is that you are continuously interested in knowing
what is going to happen next, regardless if you are so young you are disgusted
by the kissing parts, or old enough to not mind at all.
In a post Shrek era the film may seem somewhat
quaint today since at times it almost resembles a parody of fairy tales movies.
Upon first viewing when it was playing on a movie channel a few years ago, I
thought it had a bit of a Mel Brooks vibe given the hero is played by Cary
Elwes, also the star of Robin Hood: Men
in Tights. However there is a lot more than just comedy in this bedtime
story: there is romance, swords fighting, suspense, and a tale of revenge. It
is also immensely quotable, with my favourite lines of dialogue being Inigo
Montoya’s battle cry: “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You have killed my
father. Prepare to die!”
On paper, so to
speak, the story the grandfather is reading sounds like many other fairy tales
that have been read many times before. In the fictional country of Florin, Buttercup
(Robin Wright) is set to marry Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon), who with a
name like that is of course the villain of the story. In order to start a war
with a neighbouring country, the evil prince has three bandits kidnap Buttercup
with orders to later kill her. What the evil prince could not have counted on
is the arrival of Buttercup’s long lost childhood love, Westley (Cary Elwes),
who returns to save her.
Where this story
takes a turn is how entertaining, odd, and fun all of these characters are,
while being pretty blasé about all of the violence taking place around them.
The three bandits who kidnap Buttercup are a Sicilian boss (Wallace Shawn) who
knows a thing or two about poison, the giant Fizzik (André the Giant) who has a
good heart in his huge body, and a Spaniard (Mandy Patinkin) on the hunt for
his father’s killer. The adventure eventually leads the characters to Miracle
Max, a potion maker played by Billy Crystal, who is in top comedic form while
under layers of makeup.
In addition to
the comedy, there is some mature material in this fairy tale with the
occasional sword fighting, torture, and even and attempted suicide à la Romeo
and Juliet. Yet Reiner still manages to keep a playful tone throughout, and
like the sick boy listening to his grandfather you just want to know what is
going to happen on the next page. Unless you were born yesterday you probably
know how all fairy tales end, but it is still fun to see the hero and his
friends charge the castle to save the princess.
Another reason
why this is a movie that has stood the test of time is its appeal to various
audiences. Women who love romantic stories get to enjoy the sparkling romance between
Westley and her Buttercup, guys get to aspire to be the heroic Westley, or even
the revenge-seeking Montoya. I read there a member of the New York City
organized crime once came up to Rob Reiner and quoted him the Montoya speech.
I
guess fairy tales truly are for everyone.
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