The Princess Bride (1987)

The Princess Bride is about the generational tradition of storytelling and how, with each retelling, our stories are compressed and tailored to a new audience.

As a story concerning itself with stories, it is fitting that the film largely remains in keeping with its source material. There are necessary omissions for brevity, but the many sequences that remain are captured page-perfectly. And there's something wonderfully meta about that: the book, which is about being disloyal to fictional source material, is given a film adaptation that is unusually loyal in its depiction of the actual source material.

Younger generations are often skeptical of aged stories. This is encapsulated in an exchange between the grandfather and grandson, with the former declaring, "When I was your age television was called books! And this is a special book." He assures his grandson the story has everything from sports to revenge, monsters and miracles, and even true love. The grandson maintains his youthful posture in response: "I'll try and stay awake."

The actual story of The Princess Bride functions so well because it is a finely sharpened double-edged sword, delivering legitimate fantasy alongside satirical comedy. Any child watching may become enthralled with the action and adventure, whereas their parents may be deriving joy from the self-aware humor and digs at fantasy storytelling. The film speaks to all ages and on their terms; this is an impressive achievement that goes beyond simple accessibility. It penetrates to the core of generational stories: they can be meaningful to the young and old alike, but not necessarily in the same way.

The characters act as gentle reprimands to certain fantasy tropes. Fezzik, mountain of a man that he is, harbors a poet's soul and a love for rhyme. The gentle Westley does not go on to be a great hero or turn out to be someone of noble birth; he becomes the Dread Pirate Roberts. Inigo gravitates toward revenge, but this costs him neither his life nor his morals; he remains loyal to the group and his vengeance is measured with exactitude as he cries out, "Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!"

Fezzik should be a dummy, Westley a knight, and Inigo should pay an insurmountable cost for his obsession with vengeance, according to many fantasy conventions. Thankfully, none of these conventions are observed. And this is why it is not inherently a bad thing when stories change; generational storytelling allows room for iteration and commentary which wasn't present before. Stories are passed through many hands before arriving at a new audience. In this way, the film makes an interesting case for adaptation over recitation.

Both honoring and satirizing all that makes fantasy great, the film is likely to hold a special place in the hearts of those who see it. If someone dear to you asks to watch The Princess Bride together, you have only one available response: "As you wish."