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| The Princess Bride (1987) |
First off, I'll say that one of the things I love about this movie is how extraordinarily multi-genre it is. Normally, a multi-genre movie is comprised of two, maybe three genres, and in those cases it's usually messy and cluttered. This movie is a romance, comedy, action, fairy-tale, revenge-story, fantasy, road trip, story-within-a-story, and the entire thing feels perfectly natural and not at all forced. I believe this is one of the secrets of this film's popularity. Unless you only watch science fiction, there's something here that will appeal to you. The great part, also, is that despite all of this, it still feels fresh. Because, at the end of the day, I've seen the 'rescue the princess' story done before. Watching this movie, however, I felt like I hadn't. A part of that is how big and unique the world feels. It's clearly a fantasy, medieval setting, but one in which Australia exists. And there are things in here that I honestly haven't seen before. Those giant eels at the beginning were a good example of this. I haven't seen giant eels in a fantasy setting before. I only wished they'd had a better use. That scene with them towards the start really didn't need to exist. Aside from some world-building and a good use of the narrator (which I'll get to later), it wasn't all that necessary to the story.
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| Robin Wright as Buttercup |
In fact, one thing I'll say is that the opening 10 or 15 minutes felt a little slow, but not in a good way. It takes its time with the pacing, which I would appreciate for establishing the world and the characters, except so much happens in that first 10-15 minutes. It's slow paced yet, strangely, it feels like it's over too quickly. I wanted to see the relationship a little more established and, don't get me wrong, what we do see is effective, but I don't feel like I've seen why they're so madly in love. Then she's with the Prince, and then she's kidnapped... it all moves so quickly, which is why it's so weird that I feel it was a little slow. I do like the slow pacing at the start, but that's why they should have taken their time just that little bit more before picking up the pace. As soon as Inigo Montoya arrives on the scene, however, that's when things go from good to great. This is probably the best introductory scene for any character I've ever seen. He's such a unique personality, and I love how playful, charming and, really, well-mannered he is when confronting his opposition. Mandy Patinkin plays him perfectly, and it's very easy to see how that catchphrase of his became so widely quoted. The movie does a great job of getting you on his side, so when his moment comes at the end, it's so satisfying. I believe I physically punched the air twice when it all wrapped up. You get that kind of reaction out of me, you've done something amazing.
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| Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya |
And the sword fighting itself is great to watch on its own. Again, that first scene with Westley and Inigo is choreographed so wonderfully, I had the goofiest smile across my face the entire time. All of the fights are just as great to watch, and a big part of that is down to Cary Elwes' portrayal of Westley. From what I've heard, Elwes was always the first pick to play Westley, and it's not hard at all to see why. He embodies the charming hero to a tee, and he also does a fantastic job of getting you on his side early. Not to mention, his chemistry with Robin Wright is wonderful, in that old-school fairy-tale kind of way, which works very well for this story. Wright herself does a great job as Buttercup, and the fact that this was her introductory performance is something quite impressive indeed. I love how well spoken she is, and she has a way with words to rival that of even Westley, which is saying something, since he's quite the silver-tongue himself. I only wish the movie was just a little longer, I would have loved one more scene of Westley and Buttercup bouncing dialogue off each other the way they were for a bulk of the second act. The dialogue across the board is incredibly well-written, and, again, it's pathetically easy to see how so many of these quotes found their way into common use among geekdom.
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| Cary Elwes as Westley |
I want to briefly touch on the film's use of story-in-a-story. Because, yeah, the actual movie is a grandfather reading his sick grandson the story of the Princess Bride. Normally, this would be something I'd take issue with, as the fact that we know the story's not real tends to destroy any tension the movie would otherwise try to build. Here, it just works so well. Not only are Savage and Falk great in these scenes, and those moments of comedy they squeeze out through these scenes are great, but they strangely help to build the tension rather than diminish it. They'll use these scenes to foreshadow bad stuff that happens later in the plot, which only reels you in further. And, I'll admit it, a couple of times they'd cut back to the two of them and I'd have completely forgotten that's what the movie was doing in the first place. Just shows you how engaging the movie actually is. If I have one more gripe, I'd say it's the villain. He does his job well enough for what he is, and he's a big enough threat for this story, but I feel like he was a little underdeveloped. The movie never really goes into why he wants a war in the first place, and that's a problem since, without that explanation, I feel like it's irrelevant. You could have just had it be that he wanted Buttercup as his bride, get rid of the warring nations angle and it really changes nothing. If the film had been just a little longer, it might have been able to go into this more and I'd be singing a different tune, but therein lies the biggest problem with the movie: it's too short. And there's 'too short' in a good way and 'too short' in a bad way. 'Too short' in a good way is saying 'I really wanted to see more of Inigo and Fezzik'. That's saying I liked something and wanted more of it. 'Too short' in a bad way is saying 'the villain's motivation was underdeveloped and it should have been expanded a little'. That's saying something was missing and the extra time was needed to compensate. And I know I've said a lot of bad things about this movie, but they're really just small gripes here and there. I focused on them so much because otherwise the review would just be: 'Andre the Giant was great, Wallace Shawn was great, the final encounter with Humperdinck was great, this was great, that was great, yadda yadda yadda'. Because, really, this movie is great.
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| Fred Savage as The Grandson and Peter Falk as The Grandfather |
The Princess Bride (1987) is a fantastic movie, and one I'd recommend for just about anyone. If you like movies, you'll like The Princess Bride. It's as simple as that. 9/10.
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