The Princess Bride

I don't often say this, but...the movie is better.

The Princess Bride has been one of my favorite movies for decades. The book has been languishing on my bookshelf for nearly as long. While what makes the film great is there, numerous extraneous tangents and long expository interludes ruin the book's flow and destroy the experience.

I'll say from the outset that The Princess Bride is one of my favourite films. But I'd never read the book and I admit that I approached it with some trepidation. Would it be as good? Both book and screenplay were, after all, written by the same man.

As it turns out the answer is yes. And no. Let me explain.

The basic story remains the same. Westley, Buttercup, Inigo and Fezzik are all here and they do all the things they do in the film and even say the same things. Large chunks of dialogue were lifted wholesale. This is a good thing. And let's face it, it's a rollicking good tale. Mr Goldman knows how to write.

But there are differences that ultimately have made me knock one star off the rating. The framing story where Goldman tells of his father reading him this book as a child, and of Goldman trying to get his own son interested in the story, which fails, leading to his abridgement of the book, is far more knowing and arch than in the film. No kindly Peter Falk grandfather figure here. The whole abridgement thing gets in the way to be honest and appears tricksy, interrupting the story when he should just tell the tale and let it all flow.

It's a good book. But Goldman showed his skill as a screenwriter when he adapted it for the screen, jettisoning the bits that don't work and streamlining the story without losing the charm of it.

So, it's a bit of a curate's egg. It's a great read, a wonderful tale of adventure, somewhat hamstrung by its framing device. I'm glad I read it, but I think I still prefer the film.