#340: The Princess Bride

Release Date: September 25th, 1987

Format: Streaming (Hulu)

Written by: William Goldman

Directed by: Rob Reiner

4 Stars

It’s difficult to pin down exactly why The Princess Bride has become the most beloved family-fantasy flick since The Wizard of Oz. You could point to the charm of William Goldman’s script, or to the light touch of Rob Reiner’s direction, or to any number of the film’s charismatic performers, who 40 years later must still get approached by thankful, teary-eyed fans.

The Princess Bride’s magical appeal, though, like Oz, transcends writing and direction and performance. There is a cumulative effect to the props, the costumes, the hair and makeup, the setting. It’s terrifically odd and imposing world building, amplified because we are being delivered this story through the perspective of a young child’s imagination.

Like Oz, the movie feels both sublime and artificial. Sure, Dorothy is lost in the magnificent Land of Oz, but we the viewer are never not aware that it’s Judy Garland on an MGM soundstage, under bright lights and surrounded by manmade trees and a creek and a painted Horse of a Different Color. Similarly, watch Princess Bride and you’re thrust into Goldman’s fairytale of true love and miracles and giants, but you can still see all of Reiner’s stitching.  We can tell what was shot on-location around rural England and Ireland, and what was shot on charmingly created sets like the Fire Swamp and the top of the Cliffs of Insanity. 

It’s this mixture of reality, fantasy, and artifice that lends the film its unique appeal. The Princess Bride is not bound to any time or place, to any laws of what is possible or impossible. Its charm is elusive and transcendent, and enduring.