A timeless fable

One of those rare silly movies that still manages to keep me laughing, even after not seeing it for two decades—the Princess Bride endears. The whole film has a Mel Brooks charm to it, despite him not being involved in any way, but the key characters in the story have knowing look about them. They know this is a silly movie and the cast has a lot of fun with it—and what an eclectic cast it is. Andre the Giant, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes, Christopher Guest, even Peter Falk—Colombo himself—shows up to narrate the film, reading the story to his sick grandson, Fred Savage.

“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

But behind all of the silliness are very serious stories of lost love and revenge. Inigo Montoya is on a twenty year quest to avenge his father from the six-fingered man. Westley (Elwes) must save his love, Buttercup, from marrying a rotten Prince Humperdinck, but does she still love him? And at what cost? For his nearly endless pain, Westley seeks true love. Buttercup, blinded by pain, gave up on love too soon. Inigo, noble and just, seeks a fair duel with a liar and a cheat. Will this fulfill the emptiness left by the death of his father? In the end, Prince Humperdinck lives. The scum is allowed to walk with the living. Because maybe we aren’t all so perfect, in the end.

9/10