Princess Bride by Rob Reiner: A popular movie I did not like


The Princess Bride

Year: 1987

Writer: William Goldman

Length: 98

Category: Children’s

Rating: 1 out of 5

I was in a mood for a romantic comedy and chose this highly rated movie from rotten tomatoes. I am not sure if the movie was aimed at children, at any rate it completely failed to convince me. I almost lost some friends when I told them that I did not like it. Two of them almost started rattling off all the dialogues in the movie! Obviously, it seems to be a hit with some people.

I should confess though that I liked parts of it. Some of the dialogues were good, Robin Wright was gorgeous, locations were beautiful and some dialogues were nice. But on the whole the story had a naivety that did not go well with me. The characters were too stereotypical: a hero who is strong, bold, smart, dependable, stylish, rather accomplished and romantic (in one word boring). The heroine beautiful (no complaints from me on this account), in love and waiting for the lover faithfully. For most parts she does nothing in the movie. A dumb giant, a not as intelligent swordsman make the friends of the hero. And of course the son of the King is the villain. All this gives a sense of déjà vu and as a result the movie has to entertain solely on other aspects such as dialogues, style, etc.

As you could see the movie has certainly not gone well with me – but it has been a great hit with some friends. A blog went so far to call it a ‘cult movie’. I’ll leave you here with a clip from you tube.

My detailed reviews of movies can be found here and to see my ratings for various movies and short reviews, click here.

Preview from You Tube

The full script of the movie is available here


About Vivek Srinivasan

I work with the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University. Before this, I worked with the Right to Food Campaign and other rights based campaigns in India. To learn more, click here.

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