Introduction: Contextual Information Released in 1987 and based on a 1973 book by William Goldman, Rob Reiner’s film The Princess Bride has been aptly called a “cult classic,” because of the way its mediocre box office performance belies its perennial popularity and the ways the film has infiltrated the public consciousness. As with other cult classics of the 1980s, The Princess Bride has offered popular culture in America several catch phrases including the phrase continually uttered by the character Inigo Montoya, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” and the use of the euphemism “As you wish” to symbolize true love. Starring Robin Wright as Buttercup, the titular Princess Bride, Cary Elwes as her one true love, Wesley, Mandy Patankin as Inigo Montoya, as well as André the Giant, Chris Sarandon, and Chistopher Guest, The Princess Bride has left an indelible mark on filmmaking. According to Reiner, Goldman is his favorite author, which is what initially inspired him to work with Goldman to transform his novel into the classic film (King, 2017). By blending elements of fantasy and the classic hero’s journey, the film The Princess Bride transforms the formulaic romantic comedy into something that is at cleverly satirical without being cynical or nihilistic.

Genre Theory and The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride both supports and subverts traditional genre theory. On the one hand, the film does present clear elements from several genres, including fantasy, adventure, and romantic comedy. The film has also been described as a “charmingly funny fractured fairy tale,” (King, 2017, p. 1). On the other hand, the film overtly or subtly challenges or critiques each of these genres and in the process helps to reinvent these genres for future filmmakers. The Princess Bride marries several genres without becoming formulaic, something that “assumes knowledge on the part of the audience,” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, Chapter 4). As a fantasy, The Princess Bride is a film “with obviously unreal, magical, or impossible situations, characters, or settings, often overlapping with various other genres,” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, Chapter 4). As a romantic comedy, The Princess Bride is a “light-hearted, humorous story involving people in love, sometimes overlapping with subgenres,” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, Chapter 4). The story of The Princess Bride is also based on the hero’s journey, in which the main character must endure trials and tribulations in order to grow, learn, or return to a place of spiritual, social, and psychological equilibrium.

Story/Plot

The story of the film describes what happens, whereas the plot refers to how the story unfolds (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, Chapter 3). The Princess Bride is the story of a young princess named Buttercup (Robin Wright) who falls in love with a farm boy named Wesley (Cary Elwis). Wesley disappears and is feared dead, and Buttercup becomes engaged to Prince Humperdink, a man who the Princess Bride loathes. In fact, Prince Humperdink actually reveals his true intent to kill Buttercup. When Buttercup and Wesley are reunited, they attempt to elope before the Prince and his sinister sidekick can catch up with them. The plot uses a frame narrative to enhance the storybook quality of the tale. Moreover, the film is constructed along the lines of a three-act structure in which the first act establishes the conflicts, the second act builds the dramatic tension, and the...

Buttercup is the protagonist of the film, but the other characters often eclipse her with their antics.
Sub-plots are one of the reasons why The Princess Bride has an enduring quality. The audience not only roots for a reunion between Buttercup and Wesley, but also for Inigo Montoya. Montoya is driven by one goal in life: to find the six-fingered man who killed his father. A skilled fencer, Montoya is an honorable man who relishes the art of classical fighting and who also helps Buttercup along with his friend and sidekick, Fezzik (André the Giant). Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) plays an easy-to-hate conniving conman who Wesley summarily kills on his journey to reunite with his true love against the evil Prince Humperdink. In one bizarre scene, Humperdink and the Count capture Wesley and torture him using a medieval machine, while Billy Crystal and Carol Kane play a bickering married couple that can revive the nearly dead Wesley. Weaving together multiple sub-plots deftly, the film still follows a straightforward linear narrative, in keeping with the simple structures of traditional fairy tales. Screenwriter Goldman and director Reiner cut back and forth between the different sub-plots, which often occur simultaneously in the film’s interior time.

Aesthetic Choices

By using a frame narrative, the filmmaker not only pays tribute to William Goldman’s original novel but also positions the story as a fairy tale. A grandfather reads to his grandson about the Princess Bride, which makes the boy squeamish because of the kissing. Anchoring the story in the modern world is a key aesthetic choice, adding contrast between the frame narrative and the fantasy world inhabited by the main characters. The main story takes place in a medieval fantasy setting, replete with archetypes like a mythical pirate and a princess who falls in love with a boy outside of her social class. The mise-en-scene used throughout the film clearly differentiates between the world of the frame narrative and that of the fairy tale. Moreover, the frame narrative instigates a sense of wonder in the audience, by encouraging viewers of all ages to appreciate the cross-generational connection to the tales grandparents tell to their grandchildren. Using a frame narrative that is decisively humorous in its own right also prepares the audience to read the story of Wesley and Buttercup with a pair of fresh eyes and ears, just like the little boy. Reiner also opted for the frame narrative for personal reasons, as he first encountered Goldman’s novel of the same name because his own father gave him the book (King, 2017). In fact, Reiner was not the first filmmaker to attempt the adaptation of Goldman’s book, but he was certainly the only successful one because he captured something beyond the straightforward story.

Because there are multiple layers in The Princess Bride, editing is crucial to the success of the film overall. The director cuts between the frame narrative and the meat of the fairy tale, particularly in the opening act of the film. Editing also permits Reiner to tell the stories of multiple groups of characters, and to describe the cat-and-mouse game played between Humperdink and those who support him, and Buttercup and those who support her. As the film progresses, the audience (and presumably the little boy) become increasingly engrossed in the fairy tale and invested in the outcome. Setting is also critical to The Princess Bride. Whereas the frame narrative takes place in the mundane and ordinary world that audiences are well familiar with, the…