The CHIEF February 2024

Movie Review

By Tyler Drechsel

The Princess Bride (1987)

What is the perfect movie? In my opinion, there are two types of perfect movies. The first kind is the critically perfect movie, or as I like to call it, a Goldilocks movie. A Goldilocks movie is when everything is done just right. The acting is good, the directing is good, and every other element is good. While the movie might not fit your particular taste, there’s nothing you can really say to put it down. The second kind of perfect movie is based on enjoyment. With these movies, every single second is enjoyable and entertaining. The quality of the acting or story is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the enjoyment of the viewer. While many films try to accomplish too many things at once, it can lead to a mess if everything isn’t balanced correctly. One movie however, manages to undertake a wide variety of elements and perfectly balance all of them: The Princess Bride . For those who don’t know, The Princess Bride is a comedic fantasy film that tells its story in a very unique way. The film begins in the bedroom of a young boy. The young boy is sick, so his mother has his grandfather come to watch him. In order to keep his grandson entertained, the grandfather takes out a book and reads it to him. We are then brought into the fantastical land of Florin, where we are introduced to our main characters, Wesley and Buttercup. Wesley is a farm boy who works for the woman Buttercup, who at first treats him like a slave. They both, however, fall madly in love with each other. In order to afford marriage, Wesley ventures out to seek his fortune and is killed by pirates. Buttercup, absolutely devastated, vows to never love again. Years later, Buttercup is engaged to the prince of Florin, even though she feels no love for him. While on one of her evening rides, she is kidnapped by three “lost circus performers” who plan to kill her and start a war. Wesley, who had actually managed to survive the pirate attack, saves her, and the two are reunited. But after getting caught by the prince, Wesley and Buttercup are separated once more. What follows is Wesley’s adventure to save his one true love from the prince, before they get married. And occasionally, the story is interrupted by the young boy, who inputs commentary. To quote the film itself, this movie contains, “Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escape, true love, miracles…” and it somehow balances all of it. The story never goes off track, and every decision the movie makes is a hit. This film dialogue also has some of the greatest dialogue of all time, worded in such a way that makes every line extremely memorable. This movie is absolutely filled with iconic quotes and one liners that I use every day. The Princess Bride plays with the clichés of fairy tales, and uses absolute absurdity and snappy lines for comedy. The jokes still make me bust up laughing even on my 74th watch. And that’s not a joke. I never get sick of this movie, and it’s honestly insane to me just how perfect it is.