Viking Night: The Princess Bride
By Bruce Hall
January 11, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Jack Sparrow, he's coming for you.
Most consumers have no problem loving a huge budget blockbuster. Movies that are meant to appeal to the widest possible audience usually do just that. But some films have a narrower vision, or simply contain more complex meaning than meets the eye. They aren't always art, and they aren't always even very successful. But for a devoted and eccentric few, they're the best entertainment money can buy. Once, beginning with Erik the Viking, a group of dedicated irregulars gathered weekly in a dingy dorm room to watch these films and discuss how what pleases the few might also appeal to the many. Time has separated the others in those discussions so that I alone remain to ponder the wider significance of cult cinema. But while the room is cleaner and I no longer have to skip class to do it, I still think of my far off friends whenever I hold Viking Night.

Food for thought: children’s entertainment is usually created by adults, and since most adults were once children, sometimes the material is meant as much for us as it is for them. Case in point: The Flintstones, a prime time animated series filled with adult situations, contemporary pop culture references and Fred and Barney shilling cigarettes during commercial breaks. A cartoon yes, but not entirely meant for the tots. And then there’s the vintage Looney Tunes series of animated vignettes. Originally shown as theatrical shorts, they often featured graphic physical violence, ethnic stereotypes and social vices, making them somewhat more suitable for grown-up audiences. Looney Tunes shorts were usually just escapist fun, while The Flintstones more often than not contained subtle messages about living up to your responsibilities and getting along with your loved ones.

Without a doubt, mature concepts are often easier to digest when they’re presented in unconventional ways, and many a married couple felt themselves quietly reliving their low points as they nervously enjoyed Fred and Barney’s antics together. But the formula can also be used for more innocent purposes, and hiding messages for the over 30 set in material ostensibly meant for pre-teens has turned many otherwise forgettable things into enduring classics.

Take The Princess Bride, for instance. It is part adventure, part fairy tale, and part lighthearted homage to myopic naiveté. It looks, on paper, like something only a 12-year-old girl could love. But it leaves you with an appreciation for the improbable notion that anything is possible if you just believe in it really hard – or at least it should leave you more tolerant of people who really do think that way. But most of all, this is a film that makes an effort to inspire the adult in us by reminding us or something almost all children believe; that total confidence in something greater than yourself, coupled with youthful curiosity and drive can lead to great things.

To some that sounds like a no brainer, and to others it sounds like a ridiculous pipe dream. But as most of us age, we lose the ability to dream and our lifelong ambitions evaporate along with that. Yet no matter how old you are, a touch of blind faith and an insatiable will to succeed can go a long way. So, let’s take a look at The Princess Bride, shall we? It’s a simple story, really. Boy meets girl, girl loses boy to Pirate Lord, girl becomes a Princess, boy comes back, girl gets engaged to scumbag, girl gets captured by an evil Sicilian mastermind, a Spaniard and a professional wrestler…okay, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the beginning.

It all starts with a sick little boy (Fred Savage, adorable lisp and all) who is paid a visit by his kindly grandfather (Peter Falk, rumpled jacket and all), who reads to the child from a storybook to help pass the time recovering. The boy initially greets the soupy tale of love and adventure with all the cynicism of an adult, but in time he becomes emotionally invested in the yarn the way only a child can. The story tells of the fictional land of Florin, where a beautiful farm girl named Buttercup (Robin Wright) and a handsome peasant named Westley (Cary Elwes) fall in love despite belonging to different social classes.

Wanting to marry but unable to support his future bride, Westley sets off to seek his fortune only to be captured by the infamous Dread Pirate Roberts. Thinking him dead, Buttercup eventually becomes engaged to the evil Prince Humperdinck, future king of all the land. But before she can marry the Prince, Buttercup is kidnapped by a criminal named Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and his two buffoonish henchmen Inigo (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (Andre the Giant). Humperdinck pursues the outlaws, seemingly more concerned with his royal image than with the welfare of his fiancée. But he isn’t the only one seeking the Princess- a mysterious Man in Black tracks down the three outlaws and in an increasingly comical series of events, bests them all and manages to take the Princess for himself.

Poor Buttercup is aghast to discover that her rescuer is none other than the Dread Pirate Roberts, the very same one responsible for Westley’s disappearance. Glib and insolent, Roberts taunts the girl’s heartbreak and soon their relationship settles - for good reason - into the same coquettish banter that Buttercup used to enjoy with her beloved Westley. Thus, the fearsome pirate turns out to be more than he seems, and when Humperdinck catches up with them, Buttercup likewise discovers that the man behind Humperdinck’s smug arrogance is nothing more than a cowardly usurper.

The Prince seeks to be king through any means necessary, and the safety of his bride to be is in reality, little more than an afterthought. The Man in Black is captured and brutally tortured, Buttercup returns (unwillingly) to her wedding preparations, and it looks like our fairy tale is going to come to a tragic and early end. Luckily, Inigo and Fezzik remain free and soon seek to join forces with the mysterious Man in Black to defeat the evil Prince and reunite Buttercup with her lost love.

What follows is a hilarious and endearing adventure that’s so easy to enjoy that you almost wish it was real. Yes, it sort of sounds like a garden variety fantasy that’ll make you want to lose your lunch, and that’s the Grandson’s initial reaction too. But a truly inquisitive mind can’t resist a good story, and as with all good stories, there’s something about these characters that makes the boy - and us - almost want to jump into the story ourselves and help them!

This is one of the few places where the film differs from the book - the original story contains a running narrative, but the particular device of the unnamed Grandfather and Grandson is not present in the book. But the film takes on an entirely different and media appropriate flavor because of the change. Where the book focused more on the story’s wry, satirical nature, the film seeks also to reconnect us all with what it means to believe in something that’s worth giving up everything for.

The Grandson is at that tender age where we first tend to stop believing in things like Santa Claus and Superman and start to see the world for the occasionally ugly place it can be. But the ability to develop strong motivating principles and stick to them is one that benefits anyone of any age and often, a simple story about a simple place like Florin is the best way to express such a fundamental idea. Westley and Buttercup are motivated by True Love, perhaps the most powerful Prime Mover in the universe. And Inigo Montoya and Fezzik are not really bad people - Inigo seeks to avenge the murder of his father, while the gentle giant Fezzik just wants to be loved and accepted. In keeping with another hallmark of great storytelling, all of our protagonists share different motivations that ultimately are satisfied by a single goal they achieve together and in the end, despite knowing that it’s just a story - it just makes you feel good to see how it all turns out.

True Love doesn’t really solve everything. Adoring someone with all your heart is an essential part of life that nobody should have to miss out on, but loving someone is easy - keeping them happy forever is the hard part. Of course, that’s the part that fairy tales never show us - Cinderella and Prince Charming may have ended up going through a bitter divorce and custody battle, for all we know. Maintaining a long term relationship is grueling work. Adhering to your principles in the face of hopeless odds takes grit and determination that not all of us have. And bearing misfortune with dignity and grace is a whole lot easier on paper than it is in practice. But they are elementary concepts that we all have to master to get the most out of life, and the earlier they’re learned the better.

The simplicity of learning should not be limited to our formative years - Peter Falk’s Grandfather serves not only to narrate the story to his young listener but to deliver an important maxim to all of us. And Fred Savage doesn’t just represent a cynical little boy, but every man woman and child who never learned, or grew to forget what it means to be special, and to make someone else feel that way too. At one point in the story the Man in Black advises Buttercup: “Life is pain; anyone who says differently is selling something.” It’s a cynical world view but sadly, there is some truth to it. Pain and sorrow and suffering come to us all at one point or another, but to possess strength of character, conviction and the unconditional love of someone who mirrors all of these things within themselves can go a long way toward pulling you through. Love is a powerful thing, and if you happen to disagree, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.