2019 Blind Spot Series: The Princess Bride

One of my goals for the 2019 Blind Spot Series was to watch each movie in the actual month for which I picked it. This particular film was picked for March, and here we are in April. However, I really did watch it in March. Unfortunately, this happened right after that viewing, so I'm just getting around to writing about it almost a month after the fact. To see what others are doing for Blind Spot watches, check out the blog of our host, Sofia at Returning Videotapes. To her, I say, "Wow, I'm actually on time this month!" More accurately, I'm late for last month and early for this month...with this post. I still gotta get my real April pick in. Sigh. Anyhoo, today we're talking about...

Why did I pick it? I've gotten more mature. That might sound like a strange reason to finally watch a movie most people fell in love with during their youth, but it's really the best one I have. I was fifteen when The Princess Bride came out. By then, I was already a jaded viewer. My tastes were distilled into two categories: blood and boobs. If a movie didn't have multiple murders then it better have naked ladies running around or I wasn't interested. If it had both, I couldn't get enough. Judging by the trailers I saw, The Princess Bride appeared to be a movie that had neither. It also seemed to focus on a princess living happily ever after. Whenever someone suggested I watch it, my basic response was along the lines of, "The fairy tale? I'm fifteen, not eight!"

Many years passed where "The Princess Bride" just wasn't on my radar. Over that period is when the maturation took place. I came to appreciate and love all sorts of films, including those once-dreaded pictures aimed at the whole family. After becoming a dad, I could say I developed a soft spot for them. I mean, my life would be empty and meaningless if Pixar didn't exist. Still, I'd forgotten about this particular movie until I started bopping around the blogosphere and "Film Twitter." In both places, The Princess Bride is spoken of with glowing reverence. This gave me the itch to see it. I only needed to catch it when it was one streaming service or another. Knowing how difficult that could be at my house, the Movie God, in its infinite wisdom, dropped the movie into my lap. In other words, I happened to find it for a dollar at a pawn shop. So, at my leisure, I pressed play.

Things open in a way I should've expected but didn't. We meet a little boy who isn't feeling well, played by a pre-The Wonder Years Fred Savage. He's also not too happy his grandfather is visiting him. When Grandpa walks in we see that it's Peter Falk. The point of all this is that Grandpa starts to read his grandson a rather thick book the boy rightly assumes is a fairy tale. Grandpa assures him there's plenty of action and off we go to the actual movie.

That story features a girl named Buttercup (Robin Wright) and her family's farmhand Westley (Cary Elwes). She orders him around and he takes whatever she dishes out because he is so smitten with her. She eventually realizes she loves him, too. Instead of marrying her, Westley decides to leave the farm in pursuit of his fortune so he can take care of her properly. Pirates intervene, Westley is presumed dead, and Buttercup reluctantly goes on to get engaged to Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). The prince wants to use his bride as a political pawn in a plot that involves her murder. On the day before the wedding, however, she's kidnapped by three outlaws who are then pursued by the prince on one hand, and by a mysterious, Zorro-esque figure known only as The Man in Black.

I can see why this movie is so beloved by so many. It is filled with tremendous characters trading witty and/or hilarious banter. The chemistry between the entire cast is remarkable, and they all seem to be having a blast. The dialogue they're given for that banter is note-perfect all the way through. It allows us to really get to know these people without stopping the film's momentum. We learn about them in ways that, if they're not funny, are fun to listen to. This is one of those movies where a grin stays affixed to our faces only interrupted by all-out guffaws.

It helps that rather than being a straight up fairy tale, it's a sly subversion of the genre. The film keeps its tongue buried deep in its cheek. Each punchline plays up the ridiculous aspects of fairy tales that we simultaneously love and hate. The cast is clearly in on the joke. They deliver their lines with a knowing twinkle in their eyes. It's like they understand that they're getting away with something and that gives their performances a little boost. As evidence, even pro wrestling legend, but amateur actor, Andre the Giant acquits himself well. Everyone else is just flat out superb. The standouts are Chris Sarandon as the prince and Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya. Sarandon's Humperdinck is not the most menacing bad guy out there, but he's one of the most fun. He's so over this whole kidnapping thing that he just "cannot." The only reason he tries is because it's getting in the way of his plans. The subplot for Patinkin's Montoya, the search for the six-fingered man, is one of cinema's most iconic. That's because Patinkin sells it for all he's worth. He manages the difficult trick of making us feel the emotional weight he's carrying around while still making it clear that he knows this whole movie is more than a bit on the silly side.

Alas, the other issue dogging The Princess Bride is the framing story, a selfish beast. It constantly detracts from the story without offering anything of value in return. We make several visits to this "present day" bedroom where nothing is accomplished besides grinding the entire film to a halt. The only possible thing to be gained from this is giving youngsters a lesson in appreciating their elders and/or the stories they tell. Unfortunately, the movie fails miserably at teaching it. Instead of giving this part of the film any depth whatsoever, the best the filmmakers could do was muster up a lame one-liner as a callback to the part of the story we care about. Losing the framing device wouldn't affect our feelings one iota. Well, it could possibly make us love the film even more since it would make things more succinct. As is, every second the boy and his grandfather show up on screen is a dilution of the concentrate that is this film.

The other problem is comparatively minor. the look of the film isn't nearly as convincing as its cast. It looks like it's all taking place on a movie set. One of the things a movie must do is give the illusion that wherever a story is set is real. This film doesn't quite do this. It feels entirely like a place constructed just for this movie, making it seem like a play. A bit of research reveals the movie was actually filmed various locations around Great Britain and Ireland. That means the filmmakers took several real places and made them feel way too small. However, this is probably nit-picking. I feel comfortable saying this because it never takes us out of the movie to the point we can't enjoy it. We spend so much time delighting in the dialogue and performances that's it's easy to overlook the film's sins. We do it willfully and are rewarded with a load of fun, even without blood or boobs.