1987 / 98 Minutes / PG
Reviewed by Jason Jones

It is a rare moment when one can say that a film has something for everyone. It is even rarer when that film is a fairy tale, but in the case of “The Princess Bride” it is an accurate description on all levels.

The beautiful thing about it is that it is not your typical fairy tale. Sure it’s got the princess, the peasant who loves her, a giant, a tyrannical prince and many of the other things one would expect to find in a film of this nature. What it has that almost all others do not is a zany sense of the humor that is inherent in films of the fairy tale sort. Instead of the typical swamp that one would expect to find, here you get a fire swamp. That’s right! A swamp that shoots bursts of fire into the air! That’s not all though. It also has lightning quick sand and rodents of unusual size for our heroes to contend with. Now, if you think the phrase “rodents of unusual size” sounds funny now, wait until you seem them in action in the movie. There are other fun things to be found here such as a six fingered villain (Christopher Guest) and swordplay, but the real fun results from the great cast that we have the pleasure of spending an hour and a half of our lives with.

Westley (Cary Elwes) is a lowly peasant who loves Buttercup (Robin Wright) very much and one day she realizes that she loves him as well. Problem is that he’s broke, so that puts a wrench in the wedding plans. He decides to go off in search of prosperity, pledging that he will come back for Buttercup when he finds what he is after. Five years pass and in that time Buttercup hears of her true love’s demise. Eventually the prince of the kingdom chooses her to be his bride. In the month before they are to be married, she is kidnapped by a band of three men of differing size. The leader (Wallace Shawn) has his eyes on starting a war by killing the princess. His two cohorts in crime, Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (Andre the Giant) are in it only for the money and want nothing to do with murdering an innocent girl. They are followed to their destination by a mysterious black clad swordsman, who confronts each of the three in situations that quickly lead to a number of laughs. The black clad swordsman eventually takes the princess from the three men and his identity is revealed to her at last.

Inevitably the princess will fall into the hands of the evil prince and will, of course, be in need of rescuing. How the rescuing is done is what makes this film such a wonderful treat to enjoy. Inigo, Fezzik and the swordsman all team up to get the job, but each role has it’s own quirks as the story reaches it’s climax. The swordsman is in a humorous state that requires Fezzik to drag him around like a rag doll, which I must say is quite hilarious. Inigo’s story is a passionate one that provides a great deal of the enjoyment derived from the film. He has been searching for the man who murdered his father twenty years earlier. He knows the man has six fingers on his right hand and he knows exactly what he will say to him when he finally confronts him. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

Believe me. When you hear him say this you want nothing more than for the man to get his wish.

“The Princess Bride” works for many reasons. It is marvelously written by William Goldman, brilliantly acted by one of the best ensemble casts imaginable, and told with an impeccable tone of humor and emotion. At it’s heart it is a story about “true love”, but it is smart enough to know that this is not enough to be high spirited entertainment. To bolster the love story it takes a mostly satirical look at the genre by cracking jokes at every opportunity yet managing not to go to the well too enough. It is rare that a film hits on all cylinders like this one, but it makes me very happy that it does.

One thing that I have yet to touch on is the brilliant contrivance of having the story told to us by a grandfather (Peter Falk) who is reading it to his sick grandson (Fred Savage). Director Rob Reiner uses this concept masterfully to break moments of tension, such as those spent with the shrieking eels, by cutting to the storyteller in order to turn the moment into a laugh. It’s an interesting idea that has been done before, but I don’t know if it has ever been done this well.

Fun rarely comes in such an enchanting package. This is the sort of film that the whole family can enjoy without trepidation. The more I think about it the more I laugh. It’s one of those magical films that gets better and better with each viewing.

It was said on one of the “making of” documentaries I watched, that this film is this generation’s “Wizard of Oz”. I guess the two films are pretty much formed out of similar molds, but with much different results. In my opinion, of the two, one would be much better off going with “The Princess Bride”. It is a smarter film in that it knows enough to have fun with the genre in which it exists, while still remaining true to the natural boundaries of that genre.

Fantasy doesn’t get much better than this. Swordplay, a giant, pirates, rodents of unusual size, revenge, six fingered villains and so much more await you.

So what are you waiting for?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2001 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Jason's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.