Princess Bride

Mom and Dad gave me a love for old movies. I love black and white films. I love Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers. Of course, not everything from the "golden age" of Hollywood was golden. There were plenty of clunkers, too. Today also, a huge number of clunkers come out. Every so often, however, there is gold. The Princess Bride is a sample of the gold that still shows up occasionally. To my surprise, I found out recently that my parents had never seen the movie. We rectified that quickly and they both loved it.

The movie is framed by the story of a grandson (Fred Savage) who is sick in bed. Much to his chagrin, his grandfather (Peter Falk) comes to visit him. Grandpa begins to read him a story that he also read to the little boy's father and that the great grandfather had read to him. As the story begins, we see the action taking place.

The main story is of a young girl named Buttercup (Robin Wright) and the true love of her life, Wesley(Cary Elwes). Buttercup gets word that Wesley has been killed by the dread pirate, Roberts. After mourning for several years, she agrees to the royal command that she marry Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). The prince is scheming to have Buttercup killed and make it look like the agents of a nearby country did it in order to incite a war with them.

Humperdinck's men; Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), Indigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (Andre the Giant); kidnap Buttercup but find themselves being pursued before they can do her in by a mysterious man in black. He challenges them to contests of mind, agility and strength.

Among my favorite scenes is the visit to Miracle Max (Billy Crystal) and his wife (Carol Kane). Miracle Max has a grudge against Prince Humperdinck and can't bear to hear his name. Here is a truly hysterical performance. Crystal manages to make Max a combination of a beaten down Merlin with a side of Jewish mother. It's a great performance.

This is an edgy fairytale. For children, it's a terrific adventure story with lots of swashbuckling. There's magic and swordfighting enough to keep even an eight-year old boy glued to the screen.

For adults, however, this is more. They'll still appreciate all the same qualities the kiddies see, but they'll also appreciate the sly humor and wit, the parody of other swashbuckling forms. Rob Reiner, who directed, does here what Mel Brooks used to do with films like Young Frankenstein. He pokes fun at the genre while simultaneously creating a film that works even if you don't recognize it as a parody.

The only problem with this movie is that I cannot use it in a classroom for a break on a rainy day. The whole movie is acceptable up to the end when one character refers to another as "You son of a b****." The word is appropriate in context and is not offensive, but is not okay in a classroom setting .

I really enjoy the movie and can highly recommend it. It is, for me, one of the funniest movies of all time.