(This post is about The Princess Bride movie, not the book)
If you are in your late thirties or early forties and were raised in a Western country, if you hear me saying: “Hello, my name is Iñigo Montoya…” I bet you´d complete the sentence, and with a dramatic tone (if I am wrong and you wouldn´t, you cannot die without knowing it, so click here).
But, hey, let´s look at all the other forms of love that are featured in this story but are not called “true love.” In fact, they are not even mentioned as love at all …
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The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies ever, which makes no sense because of my feminist and single-minded mindset. According to it, Westley and Buttercup make a revolting couple with their true love, which involves that Westley leaves her behind in order to marry her (yeah, that makes a lot of sense), and then takes five years off before coming back home, time that Buttercup spends being sorry for herself and letting another man control her fate. Honestly, I cannot see any true love around here. Submission, possession, victimisation; I can see a fair bit of that, though. But, nonetheless, I still hold this movie dear in my heart, even when it´s been undoubtedly one of the greatest contributions to my misunderstandings about love, relationship screwing up and romantic bullshitting in general. Why?
Last night I was watching the movie (my eleventh time?) with my son and a friend of his, and I found no reason whatsoever to not liking it as much as always, not even the obnoxiousness of the overly redundant true love theme would bring me to my senses. I was so disappointed with myself because I was enjoying it, again! But, hey, let´s look at all the other forms of love that are featured in this story but are not called “true love.” In fact, they are not even mentioned as love at all, as they would not be in real life, because what we tend to call “true love” it is not truer than any other kind, it simply has a pompous marketing campaign behind.
So these are some examples of the love I found in The Princess Bride, which is not like the so cloyingly annoying between Westley and Buttercup and thus not considered “true love”:
- Iñigo and Fezzik: from the very start we can see that Iñigo and Fezzik are friends. I particularly like the scene when they kidnap the Princess Buttercup and Vizzini, the Sicilian smart-ass, verbally abuses Fezzik fiercely. Fezzik is obviously intimidated and scared. Then, Iñigo comes close to him and starts a rhyming game to make him feel better. That is love.
- Fezzik and Buttercup: the giant Fezzik is worried during the whole movie for the princess´s wellbeing and shows the greatest of care for her. In return, Buttercup, who is more than able to love beyond her beloved Westley, thank goodness, shows her appreciation to the giant.
- Buttercup and the old king: I also love this little contribution to love expressions in the movie, when Buttercup leans to kiss the senile king, and he asks with a smile “why?”, to which Buttercup answers “because you’ve been good to me.”
- Iñigo and his deceased father: I do not approve revenge because I find it a waste of time and energy and of no use at all for whoever is carrying it out. But it is undeniable Iñigo loves his father.
- Iñigo, Fezzik, and Westley: friendship, friendship, and friendship. I can never emphasise enough how much love we find in friendship, even though the media insists on putting it behind the so-called “true love”, its rightful place, if we are to set a hierarchy, would be at the top (although I don’t think setting a hierarchy is always fair due the subjectivity of love).
- Westley and Buttercup: Ok, I admit it, beyond all the over sweetened story of these two they are really committed to each other, so I won´t downplay their love. I just don’t agree with its uniqueness and exclusivity as “true love.”
I will probably watch this movie a few more times in my lifetime. Somehow, for a couple of hours, The Princess Bride can numb my ideals of love, fairness, and equality to a level of tolerance that allows me to enjoy it. But sure as hell, once the credits appear on the screen, I’ll be ranting about it.
Originally Published on Single, Own It
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Photo: emonsther/YouTube
You missed another example of True Love in the Princess Bride movie. That of Miracle Max and his long -suffering wife. True, they bicker and nag each other ceaselessly, but despite all their respective vitriol it is obvious that they still love each other.
Wow I haven’t watched the movie yet since it is way out of my time a little bit. But I read the book back in college (recently graduated) after reading this I am quite curious if there are some difference between the book and movie, like in today’s book turned movie adaptations. Will find time to watch this, thanks for sharing.