The Princess Bride

           It’s difficult to believe I haven’t written a review of this movie until 2009, but sometimes it takes a little while to get around to it. This movie is one of the alltime greats, and not just for it’s nostalgia factor, many people who have seen it as youngsters, or experience seeing it in a group setting for the first time feel an obvious appeal, but I still contend that this is truly a good movie from it’s direction to it’s acting and choreography.

            We begin in the bedroom of a sick 10 year old boy (Fred Savage, Little Monsters) who’s grandfather (Peter Faulkner, Columbo) wants to read him a book, because when he was a boy, television was called “books”. He reads ‘The Princess Bride’ a story about Wesley (Carry Elwes, The Crush) and Buttercup (Robin Wright, Forest Gump) who are in love, but Wesley is a poor farm boy, and must find his fortune at sea where he is murdered by the dread pirate Roberts.

            5 years later, Buttercup is engaged to the malevolent Prince Humperdink who is aided by the sinister Count Rogan, who had 6 fingers on his right hand. Both men secretly plot to kill her in order to incite a war with their rival country, and have hired A band of rogues to kidnap her and kill her. In the midst of their plot, however, she is intercepted by the dread pirate Roberts, who is soon unmasked to be Wesley. They flee thrugh the fire swamp, only to be cornered by Humperdink. Buttercup is sequestered in the castle, and Wesley is tortured to death. However, one of the rogues has sworn to kill the 6 fingered man, and revives Wesley so that they can storm the castle, save the princess, kill the count, humiliate the prince, and ride off into the sunset.

            This movie has eveyrthing, fencing, fighting, betrayal, true love, some of the wittiest dialogue ever, as well as a creative story-within-a-story engine that really allows for an objective incorporation of the audience. It’s a very good way to engage, and the storytelling is really the powerful element of the story, expecially when the settings and monsters are really ridiculous and fake. The aesthetic of this movie is so hit and miss, but it’s still a 2. For sure.