Compare And Contrast The Princess Bride

The princess bride

Differences

The biggest difference between the book and the movie, in my opinion, would be the frame story. Goldman start the Novel talking about how he had pneumonia when he was younger and almost died. His father read him the princess bride who was actually written by s, morgensten and it changed his life forever. He talks about how he tried to make his son read it because of how much he loved it but his son disliked the book. He later realized when he read the book himself that only the good parts were read to him by his father. Then he goes on saying how this made him make an abridged version of the original “The princess bride” which consisted of only the good and interesting parts read to him. He finishes his talk

saying that the book that we will be reading now written by him is only an abridgement by the original book of mr Morgenstern.
But in the movie the frame story was limited to the grandfather reading a book to his sick grandson who eventually comes to love it.

Effects – I think that this doesn’t effect the book drastically since the original story was about how the book changed Goldman's life and extra little bits about the struggles to finally make it a movie. It does talk about why the book was so important to Goldman but it really wasn't related to they plot of the princess bride in any way so changing it would have no effect.

I think that the director chose to not include the full frame story in the movie because it would have been confusing for the audience and also because it might take away from the original story of the princess bride. Not to mention the extra time and money to account for the extra scenes.

I personally loved how Goldman made up a whole story about his fake family and him being sick and loving the original book by Morgenstern because it made the whole story more unique and got the readers interested. It was a bit confusing in the beginning because I actually thought that the story was in fact not written by Goldman later realizing that it was just a frame for the story.

Zoo of

Death

In the book Westely is taken to the zoo of death and tortured for over a month because of Count Rugen's obsession with pain and then is killed by the machine.

When in the movie Westely is directly hooked to the machine and killed within 2 days. There are 5 levels of the Zoo of death which are all filled with dangerous animals that the prince kills everyday. After catching Westley and Buttercup he sends Westley to the fifth level and tortures him. In the book igno and fezzik have to fight many animals through the 5 levels of the zoo and then finally rescue the dead Westely. In the movie Westley is thrown in the Pit of despair which makes it much easier for Inigo and Fezzik to go and retrieve him.

This makes the process of rescuing westley very easy and it takes away from the adventure of the zoo of death . It also doesn’t show us more abut Humperdinck's character as he was described as a hunter and this was his playground. This change was very effective because I feel like the zoo of death and the cliffs of insanity were the two most important parts of the novel and the thrill that readers had when reading the chapter was completely gone in the movie. I feel like it was a part the readers were desperately waiting for and later realizing that it wasn't

there.
I feel like the filmmakers chose to make this change was because of how much money it would have cost them to show all the levels and the animals in the zoo.

Back Stories

Another major part that was cut of in the movie were the back stories of Fezzik and Ingo. The back story of Fezzik was about how he was too big and but had a very gentle heart. People would pick on him because of how big he was and he wouldn’t hit back because he hated fighting. His parents made him wrestle and provide some money for them because they were poor and wanted their son to be able to stand up for him self. When his parents died he went through his worst nightmare which was him being all alone. Thats when vizzini came to him and asked for his help and ever since then, him and vizini have been together. Ignos back story is about how his father was an amazing swordscrafter and one day a rich man came to ask him to make a sword suitable for his six fingered hand. His father worked hard night and day to make the sword and the noble had insulted his work and refused to pay the money promised. After refusing to give the man the sword Inigo's father was brutally murdered by him. Ever since then ingo has been looking for the six fingered man and trying to kill him with his newly mastered sword skills. This had caused him to team up with vizzini thinking that he might eventually find him. The novel also included Buttercup and Westley's back story and how they were not always so kind to each other. In the novel both of them had thought the other really stupid before actually falling in love. However in the movie they fell in love really quick.
This change doesnt have much of an effect in the overall story because it is enough for us to know that Inigo wants to avenge the man who murdered his father however it does lack the emotional attachment to the characters and their hardships. In the novel we are much more involved in the character's lives and have more information about why they are doing what they are. This change isn't really effective in the story.
The film makers probably did this because including their back story would have not made any difference in the story as long as you know inigo has to avenge his father. This also would have lengthened the movie by a lot. They believed it was enough to know that he wanted revenge.
I personally would have liked it much better if inigos back story was present because I really liked how it was described in the book and I really liked the character.

THE END

The ending between the book and the movie was also very different. In the novel Goldman leave the book of as cliff hanger not telling us exactly what happens in the end. All we know is that prince Humperdinck is following Buttercup and westley as they escape but we aren’t told if they get by or get caught. And the main reason for this is because Goldman wants us to know that life isnt always fair. He describes the end as buttercup, Westely, Inigo and Fezzik leaving on the prince's white horses telling us that they might get caught or escape. “I'm not trying to make this a downer, understand. I mean, I really do think that love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. But I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all".  He also mentions how Morgenstern ends with a cliffhanger and he agrees with him... LOL . I like this because its diff rent from the cliche fairytale ending. In the movie its a happy ending and they end of with the part that was in the beginning of the book where Westely is leaving to America and they have a kiss which is described as one of the five greatest kisses in the world and that line is used in the end of the movie. And the grandfather leaves saying “as you wish” which was a great ending.