What I’m about to say may sound like sacrilege. After all, a movie better than its book?
Sorry, I had to do that. But anyway, yes, it can happen. Firstly, the novel version of The Princess Bride, written by 1973 by William Goldman, is largely unknown. The movie seems so fantastically weird and quirky that it seems original, but nope, this was a book long before the 1987 movie. However, I prefer the movie, and so do many of my peers.
I’m partially biased, though. I saw the movie long before I read the book, and didn’t know there was a book until just a few weeks ago. Every image in my mind was cinematic, especially regarding character appearances. After all, no one could play gentle behemoth Fezzik but Andre the Giant. Cary Ewes stole hearts as the enigmatic Westley, and Robin Wright’s cold elegance made her a perfect Buttercup (she would’ve been a largely forgettable princess played by a more typical actress–this is the woman that plays Claire Underwood after all). The movie uses a plot-within-the-plot device, framing the fairy tale as a bedtime story told from father to son. The book, however, uses a very different framing device, one that’s polarizing to say the least.
William Goldman is the protagonist of his own novel, an employee of a publishing company eager to share his favorite childhood book with his own son. Dismayed that his son didn’t read the novel and that his wife takes little interest, Goldman realizes his father ‘abridged’ the lengthy novel when he was a child. The rest of the subplot consists of him editing and sprinkling his perspective throughout the main story, cutting and sewing where he sees fit. This plot adds a very cynical, grown-up edge to the work, an edge that’s lost through much of the story. Some argue that the Goldman portions give the story its uniqueness, whereas others find it a distraction from the romance and adventure of the main plot. I fall into the latter category. Goldman’s perspective is witty at times, but the underlying tone seems to take away from Westley and Buttercup’s storybook romance. To put it succinctly, it’s a little hard to think about everlasting love and happily ever afters when Goldman breathes passive-aggressive complaints against his wife and child on every other page.
By choosing to simplify the narrative and choosing a framing device that’s still tangentially related to the book (one can imagine the child as a young Goldman himself, and his father, even though it’s a grandfather in the movie, quickly abridging an otherwise boring tale), director Rob Reiner was able to focus the movie on adventure, suspense, and the many famous one-liners.
But if you’re thinking the book isn’t worth reading, think again. After all, any book that comes up with this line is worth reading, right?
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