AmateurMovieReviews.com

This movie is. a. classic. Let's face it; it's a kid's movie - but let's face it; ANYone can enjoy it. And not because it's the Lion King, for example. This is a fairy tale, a true fairy, lock, stock, and barrel. And it doesn't pretend to be anything else. In fact, the movie is a story inside a story, when a sick boy (Fred Savage....he's so young and tiny!) is stuck at home and his grandfather comes over to read him a story - a book called The Princess Bride, a fairy tale of fairy tales. As his grandfather says, it has everything - danger, royalty, heroism, comedy, true love. Although the kid isn't too excited about having a book read to him (as the grandfather says, "when I was a kid, television used to be called books"), what else can he do? He's sick. So in the end, he says okay, and waits for the story to unfold. We find ourselves in the very beginning of the story, when Wesley and the Princess meet. She is a commoner, who lives in the countryside, and Wesley is a farm boy, who is completely under her control. Whenever she finds the smallest task, she asks him to do it for her. He always replies with "As you wish", and does anything she asks. Soon enough (and we're talking about in five minutes of movie, here) they fall in love, "true" love, and they are already making out in the sunset, etc. etc. Then one day Wesley has to go to sea, for some reason I can't remember, but I guess that it is for war. He tells the girl that he will come back for her, and that nothing can stop true love. She receives news soon after that Wesley's ship has been attacked by the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, and that there are no survivors. She doesn't sleep for days, and basically loses all will to live. But of course, she must go on. The next scene we find her five years later, chosen by the prince of the land, Prince Humperdink, to marry him and become the Princess. Although she does not love him, he is allowed to marry anyone he wants from the land that his family rules, so she agrees. We see her presented to the crowd as future princess and queen. She lives in the castle while awaiting her wedding, and goes horseback riding as her only reprieve from the terrible lonely live that is about to surround her. It is on one of these rides that she is kidnapped in the woods by some men claiming to be circus performers. There is a little old man, a giant, and a Spaniard who is an expert in sword fighting. They were actually hired to kidnap the princess and deliver her to the prince's enemies in order to begin a war with them.

They take her on a boat and are well on their way to the other country when they notice a ship following them. The princess insists that they are going to be caught by Humperdink, who is clearly the best hunter who has ever lived (really, since this is true from what he see of him in the film), so they are pretty nervous about the second ship in the water. Anyway, it turns out that they reach the Cliffs of Insanity, their destination, before the other ship can catch up. They climb together up a rope that they had clearly put there before for that purpose, and while they think this "docking" will help them lose their follower, they are wrong. He pulls his ship up right next to theirs and jumps out, climbing up the ripe right behind them. Not wanting to be chased or caught by anyone, the little man leaves behind his Spaniard to kill the man in black who is climbing the rope behind them. When the man in black gets to the top, they have a pleasant conversation while the Spaniard lets him relax for a few minutes after his climb to the top, before they resume fighting. That is one of the great things about this movie; it is overly ridiculous. They discuss the Spaniard's past, and we hear for the first time that his father was killed by a six fingered man and that his entire life has been dedicated to finding the man and taking revenge for his father. We don't learn anything about the man in black, because, of course, he has to remain mysterious.

They finally sword fight, a sport that is a passion for each of them. The moves and stunts during the fight are impressive, but even though the Spaniard has studied swordplay all of his life, it is clear that the man in black is better. They both begin fighting with their left hands and each switches to the right hand as a surprise. It is very funny. In the end, the Spaniard is caught without his sword and the man in black doesn't kill him - after a few words of respect, he simply knocks him out so that he can't follow him either.

Soon, he catches up with the other two kidnappers and the princess, and once again the man leaves the giant behind to contend with (and kill) the man in black. The giant doesn't want to surprise the man in black with a rock and kill him as the little man suggests; so instead he misses with the rock and asks for a "fair" fight, hand to hand, although the odds are clearly not even since he is a giant giant. Somehow, after a few blows that clearly have no effect of the giant, the man in black climbs on his back and chokes him from behind until he passes out, but again not killing him, the naturally honorable thing to do.

He goes on to find the princess and the stupid old man. He finds them resting together. The little man says that he is clearly no match physically, but that he is the smartest man alive, and that it would be impossible for the man in black to compete with his brain. Thus, the man in black challenges the little man to a battle of wits. He pulls out a little vile of poisonous powder, and places powder in one of the wine glasses before the two men. He says that the little man should choose which one he wants, and then they both should drink, and one of them die. This is one of the best parts of the movie. The silly little man makes a ridiculous show trying to figure out which glass has the poison, and after some time he chooses (although he switches the glasses when he thinks the man in black is not looking), and they drink. While laughing about his victory, he falls over dead.

The man in black then takes the princess and they start walking. He asks her why she has betrayed her true love to marry the prince and she realizes that he is the Dread Pirate Roberts himself, come to steal her. He says that he remembers killing her love. When they see Humperdink pursuing them on the horizon, she pushes the man in black over a steep hillside, and as he rolls down it he cries, "as.... you... wish..." and she realizes immediately that it is her Wesley himself, and consequently throws her own self down the hillside after him. They land at the bottom together, kiss and make up, and then are chased into the treacherous fire swamp by Prince Humperdink and his other men.

Through some miracle they make it through the fire swamp (where the three dangers are fire coming out of the ground, lightning quicksand and rodents of unusual size, and no one has ever come out alive). On the other side, though, they get apprehended, and when the princess realizes that they are going to kill Wesley if he doesn't surrender, she begs her Prince to let him go if she will marry him after all. He agrees, takes the princess home, and immediately throws Wesley into prison, where he is tortured by a strange machine that was built by one of Humperdink's henchmen, the six-fingered man.

Now the rest of the story must ensue, filling the time between the princess's "capture" and her wedding to Humperdink. The Spaniard and the giant reappear, and since they now both feel an affinity for the man in black, and they have heard about the wedding of the princess, they know that they must do something to help him. In the end, they try to find him, they go to stop the wedding, and they all become very good friends. Humperdink is killed along with the six-fingered man, and everyone is happy. Wesley even hands along his place as the Dread Pirate Roberts (a role handed him by the real pirate and the pirate before him) to the Spaniard, since he doesn't know what to do with his life after the revenge has been reached.

It is cute to see Fred Savage reacting to the story all the time. He gets nervous when things go wrong, and since he clearly doesn't want his grandfather to notice it, his grandfather makes fun of him anyway. He offers a few times to leave the boy alone and stop reading the story, but of course the boy refuses this. He says it is very gross at the kissing parts, except of course in the end, when the kisses are extremely important because of the clarity of the true love.

This movie is excellent and amusing for kids and adults. I recommend it one hundred percent. It not only tells a good story but also teaches about life, and that even when things are serious, one can joke a little. It also makes fun of ordinary fairy tales, teaching that all those things you hear in stories are too exaggerated to be true, but that they can teach something anyway. Most importantly, this movie emphasizes the fact that true love is more important than anything else we encounter. I think this is the primary point of the story (and that grandfathers aren't always that boring).