Princess Bride

The Princess Bride was a quirky, funny fairy tale that has an unusual amount of violence including sword fights, death by poisoning, giant eels and quicksand. Although it was violent, the storybook feeling made the film humorous and very creative.

            Directed by Rob Reiner, this fairy tale was staged as a book read by grandfather (Peter Falk) to his grandson (Fred Savage). The grandson was very weary about reading a ‘love story’ but the grandfather assured him that it was much more, which built up some curiosity and excitement to the beginning of the film. This film was about a beautiful woman, Butttercup (Robin Penn) who got engaged to the cruel Prince Humperdinck (Chris Saradon) after she got terrible news that the Dead Pirate Roberts killed her true love, Westley. Before the wedding, Buttercup was kidnapped by Andre the Giant and an evil genius (Wallace Shawn).  A mysterious masked man (Cary Elwes) came to the rescue and took Buttercup with her where she learned the lesson that “love conquers all.”

As far as the film’s elements are concerned, the director used a variety of different techniques. One was the title of the movie, “Princess” setting the fairy tale theme, and “Bride” hinting that it may be a love story. The lighting helped to tell the story by establishing the mood. It was natural during the outdoor scenes and very dark and scary in the swamp scene to create an eerie felling.

            I could tell this was a low budget film, but the director achieved good humor and positive feedback from the film using auteur theory to create a great storytelling fairy tale that children and adults could both watch.