Oh, c'mon! A Valentine's Day? I had to do this.
It was either this or Ladyhawke, and I already reviewed that.
So, The Princess Bride...what the hell do I even say about this that hasn't already been said? No, really. I know I do that joke a lot, but The Princess Bride is one the most highly praised romance films in the history of cinema. It boggles the mind that I'd even consider doing this, even for a Valentine's Day theme. Nevertheless, I've made my decision and I'm going to power through!
The Princess Bride is a film based on a book, The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The "Good Parts" Version by William Goldman, though the title usually just gets shortened down to the first three words. The book is supposedly an abridged version of the tale by the very fictional "S. Morgenstern". The way the story is told in the book, Goldman uses footnotes to describe his father having read the book to him as a child and he loved it so much that he sought out a copy and gave it to his own son...who dropped it after the first chapter. When he read it himself, Goldman discovered that his father had taken out all of the political intrigue and all but the "good parts". With this in mind, he decided to write a version as his father had read to him.
. . .this is all fictional, by the way. The book in question doesn't exist beyond Goldman's "abridged" version and Goldman himself has two daughters, but no sons (or at least he didn't when he wrote this book).
I bring this up because this is also the framing device in the movie. Or, rather, a grandfather reading to his grandson. Peter Falk plays the kindly grandfather who brings a book to his grandson, played by a young Fred Savage, who is sick. He reads to his grandson, with inserts and commentary through out that is some of the funniest and most heartwarming parts of the movie.
Peter Falk tells the story of Buttercup (Robin Wright), a young woman living on a farm in the kingdom of Florin. She is rather demanding of the farm boy Westley (Cary Elwes) but, no matter what she asks him, he always responds with the same three words: "As you wish." The two fall deeply in love but, because Westley is a farm boy, he has no money for marriage. He leaves to seek his fortune on the high seas...and is presumed dead when his ship is overtaken by the Dread Pirate Roberts, an infamous rogue known for leaving no survivors.
Buttercup vows to never love again.
Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) has other plans, and five years later Buttercup is being forcibly wed to him. Her only joy being in her daily rides outside Humperdinck's castle. That is until she finds three poor, lost circus performers: Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), and the giant Fezzik (played, fittingly, by the late, great Andre the Giant). They kidnap her as a means to start a war between Florin and its rival nation of Guilder.
This is, apparently, because they were hired by Humperdinck as an excuse to start a war with Guilder. One would think he could just start a war and be done with it, but whatever. Likely that's lost in the politics that Goldman's fictional father found so boring.
However, a wrench is thrown into their plans with the arrival of none other than the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. . .although he isn't quite what the terrible stories about him say that he is...
The Princess Bride is a film that has...everything. Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles. One of the first directorial efforts of director Rob Reiner (This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me), the film has a timeless feel about it all. The setting and the characters use bits of real world history and geography and a little bit of fictional, blurring the lines between our world and theirs. Sure, Florin and Guilder are both fictional countries, but you have Inigo who is a Spaniard, Vizzini who is a proud (and stupid) Sicilian, and Fezzik is heavily implied to have come from Greenland, just to give a few examples.
The emphasis is on the adventure. Yes, the description I gave the film is ripped word for word from Peter Falk explaining to Fred Savage what the book is about, but it's almost completely true. The film really does have a little bit of everything. It's a romance film (Cary Elwes and Robin Wright have electric chemistry), but it's also an adventure film. It's a comedy, but also a serious drama at times. It shows the absolute best in humanity and the absolute worst. It's an utterly beautiful piece of cinema, with every member of the cast being memorable and having a unique charm.
Words utterly fail me in being able to describe it. Breaking it down into its component parts feels almost crass and I fear this is one film I can't really praise without sounding like a hyperbolic jackass. I love it too much to give it anything less, though. It's a timeless, wonderful movie. If it were just about the romance between Westley and Buttercup, that would be one thing, but there's so much more going on. You have Inigo's revenge plot against Count Rugen (Christopher Guest) for the death of his father. You also have the little mini arc in the framing story between the grandfather and grandson.
It's a film that's as perfect as the first time I watched it so many years ago. It really does have a little bit of everything, and in perfect balance as well as interpreted by a fantastic cast. Often imitated, but never replicated, there's just something perfect about it that even I lack the sufficient skills to full interpret. There's nothing like it and it's just perfect.
To misquote the film: "It's perfection. You think this happens every day?".
I know I say this with a lot of films I review but, if you haven't see this movie, go see this movie.
Happy Valentine's Day.
The Princess Bride was brought to us by 20th Century Fox and Act III Communications.
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