Review of The Princess Bride (1987) by Patricia W — 08 Nov 2017

At first glance, The Princess Bride would appear to be a typical fairytale with miracles, monsters, giants, swordplay and true love but it's so much more than that. A grandfather comes to visit his sick grandson and read him The Princess Bride, a story about Buttercup, a princess who falls in love with a farm boy, Westley, and what befalls her after his apparent death at the hands of the Dread Pirate Roberts. This is an incredibly charming film that openly mocks the fantasy genre whilst also playing into it with a nice mixture of comedy, romance and action. It's no wonder The Princess Bride has become a cult classic, it's full of satire, eccentric characters, brilliant one liners and iconic performances across the board. Robin Wright is good as Buttercup, who is usually the straight man in the comedic moments, Cary Elwes has a brilliantly dry wit as Westley, Wallace Shawn is wonderfully neurotic as Vizzini, Billy Crystal is hysterical as Miracle Max and Andre Rene Roussimoff is incredibly loveable and charming as Fezzik the giant. Mandy Patinkin adds a lot of drama and heart to the film as Inigo Montoya, a man in search of revenge for his murdered father, and has perhaps the most quotable line in the whole piece.

The cinematography is also excellent, with great lighting and camera work. The sets are wonderful, with a lot of scenes set in the countryside, real locations and well built sets. The props and costumes are also brilliantly detailed and well made. The soundtrack is excellent, really adding a lot to climactic moments and moment of humour and also encapsulating the feeling of fantasy and romance. The fight scenes are well choreographed and performed, particularly the sword fight between Inigo and Westley and are well integrated into the plot. There are only a few parts of the film that don't hold up so well. First is the scene with the ROUS, which is quite clearly someone in a costume and the rather strange way that Westley, Fezzic and Inigo get into the castle to save Buttercup. The biggest problem I have with this film however, is a scene where Westley threatens to hit Buttercup, even though he's pretending to be someone else, this seems very out of character and far too dark for what's supposed to be a romantic plot.

Overall though, this is a very enjoyable, funny film that stands the test of time. I will happily watch it over and over again as I wish.