The Princess Bride: Book vs. Movie
Rob Reiner’s 1987 film The Princess Bride adapts William Goldman’s 1973 novel, with a screenplay by Goldman. Buttercup and Westley’s romance becomes an adventure involving a kidnapping, a prince, and a determined rescue.
From Books Adapted
What changed from the book
The book's imaginary editor becomes a grandfather
Goldman's novel pretends to be an abridgment of a much older book by S. Morgenstern. Morgenstern is invented. So is the account of Goldman cutting that author's long book down to the adventure his father read to him as a child.
The movie adapts the central adventure as a complete story, but replaces Goldman's commentary with a grandfather reading to his grandson. Their interruptions preserve the act of telling and questioning the story. Director Rob Reiner said their growing closeness was central to his adaptation, even though their scenes occupy only a small part of it.
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The rescue loses the Zoo of Death, and the ending loses its uncertainty
The book puts a series of dangerous animals between Inigo and Fezzik and the imprisoned Westley. The movie removes the Zoo of Death and uses the Pit of Despair instead. Cary Elwes said the animals were beyond the movie's budget.
The escape also changes in tone. The novel questions whether its apparent happy ending will last. The movie gives Westley and Buttercup their final kiss, then returns to the grandfather and grandson. Reiner described that closing exchange as the completion of their own story: the boy who resisted being read to now wants his grandfather to return.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- William Goldman
- Year
- 1973
- Pages
- 399Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 2 hr 32 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Rob Reiner
Presenting himself as the editor of a longer tale by the fictional S. Morgenstern, William Goldman recounts the adventures of Buttercup and her beloved Westley. A royal engagement, a kidnapping, and a pursuit through dangerous territory bring swordsmen, a giant, and a scheming prince into their path, with the narrator repeatedly interrupting to argue with the story he is telling.
- Director
- Rob Reiner
- Writer
- William Goldman
- Year
- 1987
- Runtime
- 1 hr 34 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant, Robin Wright, Fred Savage, Peter Falk
- Genre
- cinematic fairy tale, Fantasy, pirate, romantic comedy, swashbuckler, sword and sorcery
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
A grandfather reads an adventure to his sick grandson, beginning with a farm boy’s devotion to Buttercup and her later engagement to a prince. When kidnappers carry her away, a masked pursuer follows through duels and the Fire Swamp, while the boy listening keeps interrupting to question the story’s rules and romantic developments.
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