Our family watched The Princess Bride tonight. It was the first time any of our boys had seen it, the first time I’d seen it in probably twelve years. We’d purchased the Blu-Ray disc from a bargain bin, and the quality was fantastic. I loved seeing how much my boys enjoyed it. The Fred Savage & grandpa dynamic was perfect for them.

As I watched, I was struck by all the elements that were so successfully packed into this story. I confess, I haven’t read the book, but using the movie as a source, I jotted down a list of The Princess Bride‘s assets, just as Westley would have liked. Character types. Plot devices. Props. Motivations. Defining qualities. Here’s my brain dump. I’d love to hear any additions I missed.

Romance, right off the bat
Thrown within minutes into huge problems: Westley dead, Buttercup betrothed to froglike prince, and wham, she’s kidnapped.
Pastoral beauty, magnificent geologic variety, creating evocative settings
– opening farmland
– festive city settings
– eel-infested waters
– Cliffs of Insanity
– mountains, ravine
– Fire Swamp
– Thieves Forest
– Royal castle w/ chapel, dining hall, kitchens, honeymoon chamber, corridors

Impossible or improbable settings: fire traps, sand pits, sheer cliffs
Florin & Gilder, rival kingdoms
An artificial plot to start a war
Kidnapping
Attempted murder
Chases, rescues
Swordfights
Rescues
Impossible feats of strength
Poisons
A flaming holocaust cloak
Contest of wits, daring
Play-acting
Long-brewing revenge
An evil prince
A sinister advisor
A pirate with a pen-name
A giant
An alcoholic swordsman
An egotistical mercenary
A mutant with a recognizable mark: the six-fingered man
A beautiful princess (least interesting part, oddly, titular character and focus of exciting male activity)
A senile king
An underworld descent where hero must die: The Pit of Despair
Hidden entries (into the pit)
A resentful miracle worker and his nagging crone wife
Other hideous crone: the “Boo” lady who castigates Buttercup
An albino stooge
Mad science: Count Rogin doubles as evil advisor and evil Faustian/Nazi sicko scientist/inventor
Freak monsters (Rodents of Unusual Size, Shrieking Eels)
Storming a castle
Blocking a wedding
Reviving a dead man
Miraculously locating “the man in black”
Miracle cure via chocolate coated pill
Dead, and yet …

For each character, a defining attribute

Buttercup: brainless beauty
Westley: indestructible confidence
Inigo Montoya: passionate sense of honor
Vezzini: unscrupulous greed, ego
Fezzik: unflappable, benign
Humperdinck: arrogance
Rogin: perverse sadism, sycophant
Miracle Max: wisecracking
Wife: calls it like she sees it