The Princess Bride: The Book is Way Better Than the Movie

So you've watched The Princess Bride on AMC and you think you know all there is to know about the story, eh? Inconceivable!

There's an old saying-older than dishwashing detergent, but not quite as old as rope-that goes something like this: The book is better than the movie. I think the phrase was coined by a novelist; I'm pretty certain it wasn't coined by a screenwriter. But who can ever really know these things, right? At any rate, the phrase "the book is better than the movie" certainly applies in the case of The Princess Bride. 

Now, don't go running for the tar and feathers, I'm not saying the movie isn't good. In fact, I believe it to be the best thing that everyone involved in it has ever done; certainly that is the case for Billy Crystal, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright (Penn), Rob Reiner, Andre the Giant, and Mandy Patinkin, who should have won an Oscar. And it certainly ranks in the top three things ever done by the master, Wallace Shawn.

But there is a distinct philosophical difference between the book and movie versions of The Princess Bride. (Philosophy, as you may not know, was discovered almost by accident by Christopher Columbus on his second visit to South America, or as he referred to it New Oldtown.) The philosophy of the movie version of The Princess Bride can be summed up in three words: children's movie. The philosophy of the book version, by William Goldman-the greatest novelist of the 1970s-can be summed up in three words also: Life isn't fair.

Remember the opening of the movie, with that kid from The Wonder Years being visited questioned about a murder by Columbo? Well, that's not in the book. In the novel, the opening section is a modern day-and by modern day I mean post-1850s-recounting of how the author, William Goldman-the greatest novelist of the 1970s-came to translate an edition of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure: The Princess Bride.