Film Analysis: The Princess Bride

“Composers appropriate and transform texts to reflect the culture and values of a new audience.” How is this evident in The Princess Bride?

The Princess Bride is a classic film, iconic, as the film broke numerous traditional concepts, in order to create the modernised version of a medieval fairytale. Director Rob Reiner juxtaposes between the idea of the traditional fairytale with modern concepts integrated into the movie.

The setting of The Princess Bride consists of the customary set of characters: a prince, hero, villain and typical ‘damsel in distress’. Although, he toys with our expectations with the presentation of the villains, and moves beyond the mundane character traits that are usually applied with the average fairytale. The first scene in which the villains are introduced, we see a set of three antagonists. However, the commander is set as short, ugly, and his speech is accompanied by a lisp. By contrasting between a small, weak looking character having control over a swordsman and a giant, Reiner incorporates humour in such an unpredicted situation. The contradictory fairytale elements

are placed in almost every character; as we see in Fezzick, the giant, as his large figure is contrasted with a passive, empathetic personality. Empathy is also present in the fight scene between ‘the man in black’ and Inigo, as although the two were opponents, they treat each other in a polite manner.

Buttercup is portrayed as stubborn and dominant, compared to the usual weak damsel. When she is captured by Vizzini, she attempts to escape before waiting for the hero to save her. Buttercup is also unattracted to the ‘Prince Charming’, and it is further revealed that the Prince is the final villain of the film.

Surprisingly, a major form of traditionalist rejection present in The Princess Bride is its lack of explicit ‘heroes’, as the film consists of almost just a damsel and several antagonists. Although ‘the man in black’ is revealed to be Westley halfway through the film, he still holds some of his antagonistic elements, quote: “I kill a lot of people”, with an unusually dry, unemotional delivery by who is considered to be the hero.

Transformation of characters is another modern and common technique used in the play, as we see Westley turn from being a poor farm boy, to a pirate, and then back to the role of a hero in order to save Buttercup. Alongside Westley, Inigo and Fezzick also convert to being heroes by the end of the film.

The idea of characters being able to evolve subverts the customary fairytale ideal of having a single persona for each character, and instead reflects a more modern view on the human psychology. What’s present when we see the characters changing standpoints, for example Fezzick and Inigo, is the reality of change. Reiner understands that rather than the classic view of evil people staying evil, or heroes staying heroes, people are able to change their opinions and perspectives from new experiences.

Humour is firstly introduced in the relationship between Fezzick and Inigo: as the two are the considerable ‘underlings’ of the story, and are able to relate through their hatred to their superior. The two use simple satire to criticise Vizzini, imitating his actions through rhyme, and pointing out that his use of ‘inconceivable’ was inaccurate, deconstructing his pretense of intelligence.

Reiner also adds a realistic view to the ‘villains’ as instead of having conveniently evil characters to abduct the damsel, the villains in this case are working as a form of employment. “Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed? In Greenland?”, as Vizzini himself states. Economic issues are the basic underlying of satire in the film, as Buttercup marries the prince due to a lack of income, and the hero himself works in order to repay the Dread Pirate Robbers. “Nothing but work, work, work all the time. Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

The film is also modernised with consistent reference to war, and juxtaposes in having a medieval society of capitalist principles.

War and economy are portrayed hand in hand in the film, as Vizzini says to Fezzick ‘I’ve hired you to help me start a war’, and later goes on to reference Vietnam: “Don’t get involved in a land war in Asia.”

Alongside war, Reiner also juxtaposes with having a Eurocentric, medieval setting with foreign heroes. By having Vizzini comment: “Unemployed? In Greenland?” he gives way to the interpretation that both Inigo and Fezzick are in fact migrant workers, and appropriates the book to match the current culture as being more multicultural than the traditional fairytale. The film also mentions colonisation, as Australia was referenced in the battle of wits scene, despite Australia not having existed during the time the fairytale was

set.

The use of metafiction is possibly the most obvious unconventional technique used in the film: as instead of beginning the fairytale inside the fictitious world, the movie is first set in the sick boy’s bedroom. The young boy and the grandfather are both used as metaphors to present the different generations, so whilst the grandfather is the older generation, or original version of the book, the young boy is the modern generation, or the new audience. The transformation could actually taking place while the grandfather recounts the story to his grandson, and he adjusts the story to make the young boy more interested. The continuous interruption from the grandfather adds to the humour of the film, and also creates suspense as the audience is further engaged to find out what happens in the fairytale. As well as the characters inside the fairytale, we see a character and relationship development with the grandfather and grandson by the end of the film.

By modernising the film with concepts such as war, the economy, and capitalism, Reiner is able to maintain the fairytale ideal while still making it relatable to the audience. Although Reiner doesn’t completely transform the film- which is what makes it such a classic. He takes advantage of universal concepts in fairytales such as true love, revenge and camaraderie and is able to appropriate them rather than transforming them to reflect the current public’s values. Reiner contrasts between having an equal amount of traditional values to modern values, so that even though the film has been appropriated and changed, we are still able to enjoy the nostalgia of the fairytale.