Film Analysis: The Princess Bride

“Composers appropriate and transform texts to reflect the culture and values of a new audience.” How is this evident in The Princess Bride?

The Princess Bride is a classic film, iconic, as the film broke numerous traditional concepts, in order to create the modernised version of a medieval fairytale. Director Rob Reiner juxtaposes between the idea of the traditional fairytale with modern concepts integrated into the movie.

The setting of The Princess Bride consists of the customary set of characters: a prince, hero, villain and typical ‘damsel in distress’. Although, he toys with our expectations with the presentation of the villains, and moves beyond the mundane character traits that are usually applied with the average fairytale. The first scene in which the villains are introduced, we see a set of three antagonists. However, the commander is set as short, ugly, and his speech is accompanied by a lisp. By contrasting between a small, weak looking character having control over a swordsman and a giant, Reiner incorporates humour in such an unpredicted situation. The contradictory fairytale elements

War and economy are portrayed hand in hand in the film, as Vizzini says to Fezzick ‘I’ve hired you to help me start a war’, and later goes on to reference Vietnam: “Don’t get involved in a land war in Asia.”

Alongside war, Reiner also juxtaposes with having a Eurocentric, medieval setting with foreign heroes. By having Vizzini comment: “Unemployed? In Greenland?” he gives way to the interpretation that both Inigo and Fezzick are in fact migrant workers, and appropriates the book to match the current culture as being more multicultural than the traditional fairytale. The film also mentions colonisation, as Australia was referenced in the battle of wits scene, despite Australia not having existed during the time the fairytale was