‘Masterpiece’ fantasy film better than the book – 93% on Rotten Tomatoes | Films | Entertainment

A beloved fantasy film that is considered better than the book that inspired it has a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Princess Bride is a 1987 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner. 

The film stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, André the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Billy Crystal, and Carol Kane. Adapted by William Goldman from his novel of the same name, it tells the story of a swashbuckling farmhand named Westley, accompanied by companions befriended along the way, who must rescue his true love, Princess Buttercup, from the odious Prince Humperdinck. The film preserves the novel’s metafictional narrative style by presenting the story as a book being read by a grandfather to his sick grandson. After modest initial box-office success, it has become a cult film and is recognised as one of the greatest films of the 1980s as well as one of Reiner’s best works, alongside Stand By Me, This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men.

It is now a cult classic, regarded as eminently quotable, with a devoted fanbase. 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.

One fan on Reddit said it is the best film adaptation and a “masterpiece”. Another said it is “perfect” in their eyes, saying they weren’t bored “for a moment” and it “stole (their) heart”.

In 2016, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

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. 

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 for the American Film Institute’s “100 Years… 100 Passions”, listing the 100 greatest film love stories of all time. It is also on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies”, and Channel 4’s 50 Greatest Comedy Films list.

The Princess Bride was critically acclaimed upon release. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Princess Bride holds a 93% approval rating based on 147 reviews. 

The site’s consensus states, “A delightfully postmodern fairytale, The Princess Bride is a deft, intelligent mix of swashbuckling, romance, and comedy that takes an age-old damsel-in-distress story and makes it fresh.” 

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 78 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, indicating “generally favourable reviews”. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a rare grade of “A+” on scale of A to F. 

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film a “two thumbs up” rating on their television program. Ebert also wrote a very favourable print review in his column for the Chicago Sun-Times.