From the late seventies on into the nineties, the fantasy epic experienced somewhat of a heyday both on the silver screen and on TV. Many of these productions involved medieval settings, mythological beasts, and the storming of castles. Not least among these was The Princess Bride, which happened to be one of the few films to earn a saint’s praise.
An Age of Fantasies
As a lover of fantasy might assume, the classical works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were up for grabs, making popular screen adaptations. Tolkien was being adapted for juvenile audiences in the late 1970s. The Rankin/Bass animated TV film The Hobbit (1977), followed closely by Ralph Bakshi’s animated adventure The Lord of the Rings (1978), introduced young audiences to the magnificent landscapes and touching characters from Tolkien’s imagination.
A decade later, BBC was trying its hand at adapting Lewis’s most famed fiction saga The Chronicles of Narnia for television consumers, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1988). Other films of a similar vein with long-standing fanbases to emerge during this time included Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Dragonheart (1996), and, of course, The Princess Bride (1987).
High quality live-action renditions of stories like LOTR and Narnia wouldn’t be made for a number of years. Meanwhile, audiences of this era were faced with other cinematic gems bustling with glinting armor, royal cavalcades, and castle ramparts.
The Princess Bride: A Tried and Lasting Classic
It’s little wonder Princess Bride has become as big a sensation as it has. The movie has a lot going for it: action, humor, romance, Peter Falk. There are brave-hearted buccaneers, swashbuckling Spaniards, despairing damsels, and genial giants. What’s not to like?
As of May, the film has been available for streaming on-demand via Disney Plus, allowing easy access to a new generation of viewers who use the popular platform.
Here is the picturesque storybook tale that’s unabashedly open about the fact it is being read from a physical storybook. Peter Falk is the perfect grandfather and bedtime reader: warm, energetic, and observant. Cary Elwes, the devout Catholic actor who later played young Karol Wojtyla in the miniseries Pope John Paul II (2005), makes the witty Westley his own. Robin Wright is the charming Buttercup who faces quite a dilemma. And the cast includes a slew of other splendid actors who bring the whimsical and hardened characters of the story to life.
In addition to the cast, The Princess Bride offers a colorful landscape filled with its idiosyncrasies. Instead of dragons, Marsh-wiggles, or Hobbits, the fantastical marshland of Florin is home to its own bizarre creatures – the dreaded ROUSes. These Rodents Of Unusual Size are formidable brutes that give Westley, who does not believe in such mythological beasts, a lesson in irony. They’d definitely give that rabbit from Holy Grail a run for its money. If the ROUSes weren’t bad enough, there are shrieking eels dwelling in the seas.
If an adventurous story brimming with comedy and romantic tension is not enough to sell you on this movie, maybe this is: it was given the thumbs up from none other than St. John Paul II! According to an article from the New York Post, Cary Elwes had the opportunity of meeting the saint in the late 1980s. Elwes recounts that during this encounter John Paul II called Princess Bride a “very good film” and noted its terrific humor. When a saint sings the praises of a movie, you know it’s worthwhile.
Virtues in a Land of Tragedies
Florin is rather forlorn, come to think of it. It probably wouldn’t be a successful tourist destination. Aside from all the dangerous creatures ready to strike passersby, the natives are far from being showered with goodwill. A corrupt government, the thirst for power and satisfaction, and the dangers of marauding pirates and mercenaries – all lead to what might be considered a gloomy patch of countryside, a fantastical vale of tears.
Yet, despite these conditions, the heroes of the story are characters who, amid their flaws, display virtuous traits. These are seen most notably in the romantic protagonists. The later part of the movie entails Buttercup anxiously awaiting the marriage ceremony in which she shall take the hand of the heinous Prince Humperdinck.
Yet, through the whole ordeal, she believes in her heart that Westley will come to her aid. This is a virtuous sense of hope, of expecting salvation and triumph over evil. Ultimately, this is a hope fulfilled. Mingled with this, Buttercup continually proves herself to be both courageous and perseverant.
Westley, the other half of this couple and a man who looks a bit like Zorro, also displays virtue. In the face of Buttercup, his beloved, he frequently shows the humility needed for such a relationship. His mantra, “As you wish,” is a simple denial of self, focusing his energies on realizing the desires of another and not his own.
Humility is one of the highest of virtues as it is close to our Lord’s Heart and the chief antidote to pride, which is the root of all sin. Westley gives himself out of love to one objective: the safety of Buttercup. This is, in a nutshell, the whole point of love – love at any level and in any expression. It’s desiring the good of another.
The Princess Bride is a work of cinematic art like any other good film. But it’s also a rom-com with a difference, if it can be placed in that genre at all. It’s not nearly as shallow as many other comedy films. It’s also a fantasy. It’s practically non-stop adventure. And by the end of it all, it wants to show us the true, the good, and the beautiful. It shows us what love, true love, looks like.
*Dedicated to Veronica Jeronimo, Lexi Vowels, and the Vowels family
John Tuttle
John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist, blogger, and photographer. He has written for Prehistoric Times, Culture Wars Magazine, Those Catholic Men, Catholic Insight, Inside Over, Ancient Origins, Love They Nerd, We Got This Covered, Cultured Vultures, and elsewhere. He can be reached at jptuttleb9@gmail.com.