The Princess Bride (1987)
Retro Review #72: The Classic Movie of True Love and High Adventure.
The Princess Bride (1987)
+ Feature film, 1h 38m🎖️
+ Based on literature (novel) The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The "Good Parts" Version (1973)❗by William Goldman ⭐
+ 2️⃣/3 works in Princess Bride multiverse ⭐
A+^
Grade: A+^ (20.0) / HOF: 90
EQ 👍A+ | 📖A+ 👥A+ 📽️A 🎼A+
DW 😎😎11.8 | 🌚11 🌝12
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬆️0️⃣ 👀⬆️1️⃣ 🛐⬇️0️⃣
You haven’t seen The Princess Bride?!? Inconceivable!
This film has been named among the funniest movies of all time and the greatest love stories of all time. On the whole, critics grade the movie favorably, but audiences have true love for The Princess Bride. CinemaScore has polled audience reactions to movies for about 46 years, and only 128 have received the coveted “A+”. In 1987 The Princess Bride was the only one to achieve that honor.
A story within a story, The Princess Bride is ostensibly a book being read to a sick grandson by his grandfather. Set in a fictional kingdom of the 15th century, a young couple in love are separated when the young man goes off to seek his fortune. Five years later, with her beau presumed dead, the young woman Buttercup is fated to marry the evil prince of the kingdom, whom she does not love. Meanwhile, her true love, Westley, is, in fact, alive, and will surmount every obstacle to find her again. Those obstacles are many—Buttercup is kidnapped by a criminal and his henchmen, and pursued by Prince Humperdinck and his soldiers.
“Meh,” you think? Not so fast. The romance is passionate and the adventure is real, with deadly duels of swordplay, strength and wits, dangerous terrain and devious villains. But it’s the comedy that makes The Princess Bride worth your time. It’s really a parody of fairy tale fantasy adventures, making fun of all the conventions while, strangely, revering them at the same time. And while some of the humor is laugh-out-loud slapstick that no one could miss, there are also subtle funny moments, where you will feel proud that you caught the joke and wonder how many people miss it.
Rob Reiner does a fantastic job directing a large ensemble cast and every performance borders on perfection. Mandy Patinkin as the Spaniard bent on revenge, Inigo Montoya, gives a memorable performance with, not just one, but two unforgettable and epic swordfight scenes.
The film score is not especially memorable, but the sound effects are as good and goofy as in a Looney Tunes cartoon! The scenery, sets and costumes are very good, but perhaps not quite up to today’s high visual standards. These are only slight blemishes on one of the very best movies of the 1980s.
The Princess Bride gets extra points for being very family friendly. There are three uses of language in the film: a “dear G*d”, “J***s” as a swear word, and “son of a b****”. That’s not much, but you can still filter it out with VidAngel dot com if not right for your family. There’s nothing really objectionable in the story, but some intense scenes make the film better for teenagers than younger children.
I don’t really agree with some Christian reviewers I’ve read who view Westley as representing a Christlike savior-figure—this film was clearly meant only to entertain, not to deliver messages. Nevertheless, positive messages of committed love and redemption in the film can be found, included not to teach, but to make sure that you, the audience will love the movie. And it works!
If you haven’t seen The Princess Bride, by all means, move it up high on your list. It’s always high on mine.
But it’s not as good as the book.
There. I said it.
I know there is a lot of debate on that issue. I suspect it depends a lot on which you experienced first.
In the mid-80s, an older cousin, whom I respected, told me that The Princess Bride by William Goldman was his favorite novel ever. Then one day in a bookstore, I discovered it, re-released in a new paperback edition because the movie was about to be released. I bought it and read it, and I agreed. It is my favorite novel ever.
So when I saw the movie, it had no real chance of measuring up. To be fair, it is very faithful to the book, since the original author is the screenwriter who adapted it into the movie script. But it can’t be completely faithful, because the book is a satirical representation of literature, presented as the abridgement of another author’s work.
Like the film, the novel is considered “metafiction”, but in the novel, the inner story is presented with a different outer shell, including asides from the fictional “editor” of the supposed original story by the fictional author S. Morgenstern. Confused yet? The literary version has even more subtle humor than the cinematic version, and overall would appeal to a more mature and intellectual audience, I would guess. But there’s so much to be said for a great family movie with True Love and High Adventure. I dunno, I can see an argument either way.
Since it has been decades since I experienced the book or the movie, I decided to visit the movie first this time around, so that I could gain a fresh look on the film. It helped. Without having read the novel recently, I enjoyed the movie for its own greatness. Now I can hardly wait to read the book again and write a review of it for you! If you have missed either or both, well, obviously I highly recommend you rectify that situation!
Onwards!
+ last viewed (3) 2025-06-09, HDX7, 1.85v, 2M
+ first viewed 1987, ThX, 1.85, 2
+ ⏳👨👩👧👦⚔️🦄🧚🛡️🥰💘🥸🤪😛
+ ✅1️⃣ OK for teens and adults. | PGa
+ 😡+1 😵💫+1 🤬-0^^ 🤭+1 🫣+0^
+ 👀⬆️1️⃣ ➖(😍)
+ ✝️ +1 ➕😇❤️❤️💜🩷 ➖🤬🔥
+ ✡️ +1 ➕😠😠🤍🤍 ➖(🤬🚨)
+ 🗽 +1 ➕📜📜
Last updated 2025-06-11
Please do not include spoilers in the comments.
Spoilers are permitted in the Chat for this work.
Loved both! On first watching, i didn’t love the movie as much as i already loved the book, which i fondly remember reading aloud all night long with a friend once… but the movie is so funny and quotable, and as you say, had the benefit of the author’s own hand in the screenplay, that i love it more on every re-watching, even when i could turn the sound down and say each line. Wonderful acting, as well. Both great!!!