The Princess Bride

Released: September 25, 1987

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: fantasy/action/romance/comedy

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 30.86 Worldwide: --

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 66.03 Worldwide: --

Directing: Rob Reiner

Screenwriting: William Goldman

Starring: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher Guest, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane

Review:

The Princess Bride is “a warm and silly fairy-tale, played with giddy delight by all concerned and directed with a rich vein of humour by Rob Reiner.” ^EM13 William Goldman wrote the original novel as an “affectionate pastiche of romantic fairy-tale stories” ^E18 and then adapted the screenplay as a “sly attack on Hollywood’s tendency to ignore the simple beauty of storytelling.” ^EM13

The story is framed by a grandfather (Falk) reading to his sick grandson (Savage), who feigns disinterest but is eventually captivated by the tale of Buttercup (Wright) who is kidnapped by Prince Humperinck (Sarandon) and her love Westley (Elwes) coming to her rescue.

Throughout the movie, characters deliver excellent parodies of fairy tale tropes: as the “dashing hero” Westley “seems to have dug up Errol Flynn’s swagger” ^E13 and Buttercup serves as a “fair damsel in distress…who seems to have drifted in from a sitcom.” ^E13 Swordsman Inigo (Patinkin) delivers “a bouncy dash…stolen wholesale by Antonio Banderas for his Zorro.” ^E13

We also get a wedding speech from a tongue-tied minister, Billy Crystal and Carol Kane as a comic wizardly duo, André the Giant as a loveable, well, giant, and Wallace Shawn as his brainy sidekick. It all adds up to a beloved story that skewers fairy tales even as it displays great affection for them.