Princess Bride Film Analysis

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 third act resolves it. 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 story of the Princess Bride takes place in a fantasy world replete with fire swamps, fencers, and magic potions.
The little boy initially does not want to hear about romance and kissing, a sly reference to the ways modern audiences no longer want a typical heterosexual romantic comedy. Audience members relate to the little boy’s aversion to traditional love stories because of their implications for gender politics, too. Films like The Princess Bride satirize and reinvent the romantic comedy genre because they “seek to reconcile traditional ideas and ideals of romantic love with the much transformed contexts and expectations of contemporary life and society, contemporary gender politics and contemporary sexual culture,” (Krutnik, 2002, p. 130). Buttercup’s name, her mannerisms, and her dresses are all satirical exaggerations of the archetypal princess who needs to be rescued. The fact that she does actually need to be rescued reveals the normative tension between chivalric love on the one hand, and egalitarian social norms on the other. As Payne (2017) points out, “satire and black comedy can be quite subversive, reflecting critical and potentially transformative notions,” (Payne, 2017, p. 130). While costumes and comical characters comprise the bulk of the artistic choices made that enhance the success of the film, Rob Reiner does use special effects judiciously in order to capture some of the more outlandish aspects of the fantasy/adventure genre. For example, the fire swamp scene requires special effects.
Social and Personal Impact
The Princess Bride “has become part of the cultural landscape,” (King, 2017, p. 1). More than thirty years after it was made, the film continues to reverberate. The skillful storytelling, acting, and mise-en-scene do account for the film’s enduring popularity, but the film’s underlying political and social commentary are equally as meaningful. Gender politics is a major theme in The Princess Bride, a film that provides ““interesting alternative narratives that coincide with the emancipatory objectives,” (Payne, 2017, p. 130). Ironically, Buttercup does need to be rescued by strong men, and the outlandish ways in which her story unfolds shows that Goldman and Reiner deliberately wrote the film to delicately satirize the trope of the fairy tale romance. When viewed as a satire, The Princess Bride does offer “a distinctively self-conscious deployment of generic and romantic conventions while at the same time revealing a passionate conformism to traditional protocols of sexuality and gender,” (Krutnik, 2002, p. 130). The audience wants Buttercup and Wesley to be with one another because audiences do not want postmodern cynicism to completely obliterate feelings of love, hope, and genuine friendship. The Princess Bride allows audience members to joke about gender norms and stereotypes at the same time. When Billy Crystal’s character Miracle Max utters the phrase, “True love is the greatest thing in the world, except for a nice MLT — mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomatoes are ripe,” the audience knows once and for all that The Princess Bride is designed to be funny.
Reflecting on the film, actor Mandy Patinkin, who played Inigi Montoya, claims that The Princess Bride also sends a deeper political message about the futility of revenge. Patinkin’s character is driven by the desire to kill the six-fingered man who killed his father. When he finally does find and kill the six-fingered man, he states, “You know, it’s very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.” According to Patinkin, this line is often overlooked for its importance and its relevance to modern politics. American politics has been and continues to have overarching themes of violence: “Violence only perpetrates more violence, and it becomes a vicious cycle,” (Patinkin, 2015, p. 1). Montoya’s sub-plot does provide an underlying ethical standard that easily accompanies the main love story. The film also touches upon themes of deceit and deception, and about the meaning of true friendship as well as true love. The Princess Bride allows the theme of true love to remain alive and well in the public consciousness without sacrificing social progress and social justice.
Conclusion
The wonderfully playful film The Princess Bride combines elements from fantasy, adventure, and romantic comedy genres using humor and satire. Even if it is taken at face value as a fantasy-adventure, romantic-comedy blend, The Princess Bride leaves an indelible mark on the viewer. When it is read as a satire too, the film comes alive with subtleties that have contributed to making it a classic. Reiner, who worked on other satires with Christopher Guest like This is Spinal Tap, understands the importance of dark humor and satire to convey important themes without getting bogged down. The Princess Bride makes fun of rom-coms as being little more than saccharine, all while celebrating the ability of the genre to capture the best in the human spirit.

Reflection
Film analysis transforms the viewer from a passive to an active member of the audience. When applying the tools of film criticism and analysis, the audience can better appreciate the technical elements of filmmaking such as the use of special effects and editing techniques, the use of setting, costume, and set design, acting, mise-en-scene, and other aesthetic elements. Similarly, film analysis encourages appreciation of the art of screenwriting. Analyzing films like The Princess Bride also shows why some films endure and are classics, while others are simply formulaic. Knowing how to discuss films using the language of film analysis also makes one a more educated critic who is able to engage others in discussions about why a film is or is not successful.
I have personally appreciated learning about the jargon used to discuss films, as I am now empowered to go beyond simply reflexive reactions of like or dislike. Instead of simply claiming that I like or dislike a film, I can now analyze exactly why. The tools of film analysis also encourage me to revisit some films that I did not appreciate when I watched them at first, because now I can see there are multiple layers of meaning or I missed some of the political messages or allusions the filmmakers were trying to convey. I also appreciate that some films are more about the art of the medium itself and less about plot, story, or characterization, such as Fellini’s films. This course has also encouraged me to do research before passing judgments on a film, seeking to understand the filmmaker’s background and purpose.
The skills I have acquired in this course include the ability to think critically and creatively. I am also better able to express my thoughts using scholarly language and back up my opinions with reputable sources. These are certainly skills that will apply to my career, while my personal life is enhanced by greater film literacy.




References
Alfonso, E. & Frago, M. (2014). The adventure screenplay in William Goldman: the playful and the ironic in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride. Comunicación y Sociedad 27(4): 1-15.
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
Henderson, B. (1978). Romantic comedy today. Film Quarterly 31(4): 11-23.
King, S. (2017). The Princess Bride turns 30. Variety. http://variety.com/2017/film/features/the-princess-bride-turns-30-1202565060/
Krutnik, F. (2002). Conforming passions: contemporary romantic comedy. In: Neale, S (ed.) Genre and contemporary Hollywood. British Film Institute, London, pp. 130-147. ISBN 9780851708874
Patinkin, M. (2015). Mandy Patinkin: The real politics in The Princess Bride. Time. 18 Dec, 2015. http://time.com/4155058/mandy-patinkin-ted-cruz-princess-bride/
Payne, R.A. (2017). Laughing off a zombie apocalypse. International Studies Perspectives 18(2): 211-224.
Ward, E. (2016). Feminism and political satire. Senior thesis: http://commons.colgate.edu/theses/10/