If someone offered to tell you a story with fencing, fighting, revenge, and true love would you want to hear it? The Princess Bride makes that promise to the audience, and truly delivers on it. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t seen this film.
The Princess Bride is the story of a princess, Buttercup, being forced to marry Prince Humperdinck even though she doesn’t love him. Her true love, Westley the farm boy, died years ago and she has never loved since. That is until Westley shows up again to rescue Buttercup from a loveless marriage. As Inigo Montoya says, “True love. Is there a more noble cause?”
The film is delightfully aware of its genre. We’re treated to locations such as The Cliffs of Insanity and the Pit of Despair. Who can forget Westley’s battle against the Rodents of Unusual Size? Westley’s valor is matched by none. Count Rugen’s pure evil offers an interesting balance to Westley. An interesting piece of trivia, Christopher Guest, who is most famous for his role in This Is Spinal Tap, plays Count Rugen. Perhaps one of Spinal Tap’s most famous gags is speakers that turn it up to eleven. Count Rugen has eleven fingers. Much of the film is over-acted to perfection as well. Vezzini’s “Never Trust A Sicilian” speech comes to mind.
I think that The Princess Bride would be one of my “desert island” movies. It’s a tale that will be appealing for a very long time. It provides a hilarious spoof of the fairy tale genre while still being one of the best fairy tales. So do yourself a favor and the next time says that he or she wants to watch this movie with you simply grin and say, “As you wish.”