The Princess Bride
1987 · 98 min
Directed by Rob Reiner. Written by William Goldman. Starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon.
In this enchantingly cracked fairy tale, the beautiful Princess Buttercup and the dashing Westley must overcome staggering odds to find happiness amid six-fingered swordsmen, murderous princes, Sicilians and rodents of unusual size. But even death can't stop these true lovebirds from triumphing.
Critics 93% · audiences 94% · streaming on Disney+, Hulu, Peacock
What they said about The Princess Bride
- 1987
The chemistry between the two leads is palpable and is clear from the first moment they're on screen together.
— The American
How it got made
Rob Reiner was gifted a copy of The Princess Bride by his father. The 1973 fantasy romance novel is a fairy tale metafictionally presented as an abridgment of a longer work by the fictional S. Morgenstern, and Goldman's commentary asides are constant throughout. He decided he wanted to make the film adaptation after successfully demonstrating his filmmaking skill with the release of This Is Spinal Tap in 1984. During production of Stand by Me, released in 1986, Reiner had spoken to an executive at Paramount Pictures regarding what his next film would be, and suggested the adaptation of The Princess Bride. He was told they could not, leading Reiner to discover that several studios had previously attempted to bring Goldman's book to the big screen without success.
Those previous attempts included 20th Century Fox, which paid Goldman $500,000 for the film rights and to do a screenplay in 1973. Richard Lester was signed to direct and the movie was almost made, but the head of production at Fox was fired and the project was put on hiatus. Goldman subsequently bought back the film rights to the novel. Other directors had also attempted to adapt the book, including François Truffaut, Robert Redford and Norman Jewison, and at one point, Christopher Reeve was interested in playing Westley in one planned adaptation. Reiner found success by gaining financial support from Norman Lear, whom Reiner knew from All in the Family and who had funded production of This Is Spinal Tap, with the production to be distributed by 20th Century Fox. Reiner worked closely with Goldman to adapt the book for the screenplay.
In a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reiner acknowledged that then-20th Century Fox head Barry Diller also had a prominent role in the film's production, instructing him to make it a film which, like The Wizard of Oz, could instead find greater success over time rather than immediately after its initial release.
At the box office
Unsure how to describe the film's postmodern narrative, Fox promoted it to theaters as a zany comedy and released it without an audience trailer. The film was initially a modest success, grossing $30.8 million in the United States and Canada box office, on a $16 million production budget. Fox head Barry Diller, who wanted the film to be a success over the course of time rather than in its initial release, reassured a frustrated Reiner that the film could find a broader audience in time.
Afterwards
The Princess Bride was not a major box-office success, but it became a cult classic after its release to the home video market. The film is widely regarded as eminently quotable. Elwes noted in 2017, on the film's 30th anniversary, that fans still frequently come up to him and quote lines from the movie, usually opening with "As you wish". According to him, Wallace Shawn had it worse because any time he made a small error, like dropping his keys, people would shout "Inconceivable!" at him.
In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted The Princess Bride the 38th greatest comedy film of all time. In 2005 The Princess Bride was voted 40th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Family Films poll ahead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Beetlejuice and just behind Bugsy Malone and Bedknobs & Broomsticks. In 2006, William Goldman's screenplay was selected by the Writers Guild of America West as the 84th best screenplay of all time; it earned the same ranking in the Guild's 2013 update. The film was selected number 88 on the American Film Institute's (AFI) "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions" listing the 100 greatest film love stories of all time. BBC Radio 5's resident film critic, Mark Kermode, is a fan of the film, frequently considering it a model to which similar films aspire.
In December 2011, director Jason Reitman staged a live dramatic reading of The Princess Bride script at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), with Paul Rudd as Westley; Mindy Kaling as Buttercup; Patton Oswalt as Vizzini; Kevin Pollak as Miracle Max; Goran Visnjic as Inigo Montoya; Cary Elwes (switching roles) as Humperdinck; director Rob Reiner as the grandfather; and Fred Savage reprising his role as the grandson. In 2013, director Ari Folman released a live-action animated film titled The Congress, which directly referenced The Princess Bride. Folman's film starred Robin Wright, playing both a live and animated version of herself, as a digitally cloned actress.