The Princess Bride Critique

The Princess Bride Critique

            The Princess Bride released in 1987 and directed by Rob Reiner, is a classic fictional fairy tale made into a movie. The film starts out as a grandfather reading his grandson a book that has been passed down through the family for generations. The book’s story is played out on screen as the grandfather reads. The story is filled with monsters, giants, kings, queens, sword fights, adventure, and true love. The princess Buttercup is kidnapped by a giant, a Spaniard, and an over zealous Sicilian in order start a war. The dreaded pirate Roberts who is actually Princess Buttercup’s long lost love Westly in disguise then rescues her. Before they can make off into the sunset for happily ever after, Princess Buttercup is stolen back again by her bride to be, the king. Westly must then go on another quest to defeat king Humperdink and win his lovely lady Buttercup back while making a few friends on the way.

            This is a great movie based on the story and comedic delivery however if you were to judge this film on its technical aspects it would not be very good. The actors are all sub par and do not play their parts very well. The sound design I feel like was over edited. For example during some of the fight scenes there was too much sword noise, as if they were clanking together more then they should have been. Not to mention you can see that the swords are obviously not real and not even close to being a heavy, ridged, dangerous sword. Another example of the over editing of the sound design was when Westly was fighting the “Rodents of Unusual Size.” During the altercation the animal is squealing and making growling noises the entire time. It just didn’t seem necessary. I think the best part of the film was the subtle ironic comedy, which was more or less part of the screenplay writing and not part of the filming process.

            I’m not really sure what to think about Rob Reiner and how he directed this film. In my opinion Reiner made a classic! The Princess Bride is the perfect fairy tale story with lots of comedy peppered in. I feel like it was a precursor to films like Finding Nemo, Shrek, and Ice Age; children’s films that are enjoyable for adults to watch also. The blocking of the characters, how each character played their part, the movement of the story from the book back to real life where the grandfather is reading and then back to the story is genius! However if you judge the Reiner on the other elements of the film I don’t think he did a very good job at all. He could have done much more to make it more of film lovers’ movie and less of a box office hit. Either way I do love this film and it will always be a classic in my opinion.