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The Princess Bride was an amazing movie that has become a cult classic. The same can be said for the book by William Goldman. How true was the screen adaptation to the original story?

Considering the fact that the book is (fictionally) "the good parts" of a longer and quite dull story by S. Morgenstern, the film does very well. It's the best parts of the book. The novel is snarky and funny, filled with logical left turns and bizarre characters. That tone is well preserved and even heightened in the movie version.

Rob Reiner and his screenwriters left out or simplified a few confusing and more graphic portions and added even more humor, which must have been difficult. What was cut turned out to be unnecessary to the plot and sheer flights of creativity on the part of Goldman. The temptation to include the Zoo of Death, though, must have been outweighed by the impossibility of doing it justice on-screen.

The casting for the movie was impeccable. Cary Elwes epitomized Westley and Robin Wright plays the imperious and ever-frustrated Princess Bride herself, Buttercup, beautifully. The addition of Billy Crystal and Carol Kane to do the patter of Miracle Max and his wife was inspired and who would have thought that Mandy Patinkin would have made such a fantastic Inigo Montoya?

The Princess Bride movie was, in some ways, even better than the book. It took the wide-eyed pretense of innocence from the book and flashed it in full color before a broad audience. Yet it managed to keep the wit and quirkiness of the original story.

Learn more about this author, Mel Bergen.
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