Though some consider this 1987 historical comedy a classic, I’d never seen the attraction. My mistake, director Rob Reiner (just off the very different Stand By Me) and writer William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives, All the President’s Men) did a really good job with a very small budget; Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest and Wallace Shawn star.

The Princess Bride is a semi-fantasy tale of love interrupted. Elwes is a farmboy named Westley on a farm where Buttercup (Wright) lives and they fall in love as they grow up. Westley leaves to make money for them to get married on, only to be captured by the dread pirate Roberts and with Buttercup and everyone else assuming he’s dead since the pirate never leaves anyone alive.

Five years pass and Buttercup has captured the heart of Prince Humperdinck (Sarandon). Just weeks before their nuptials, she’s kidnapped by three men (Shawn, Patinkin and Andre) who plan to kill her at the border of the prince’s rival kingdom. Westley has returned just as they take her away and races to save his true love, disguised as the dread pirate Roberts.

Honestly I expected more of a fantasy but with one small magical exception and a few pseudo-anachronisms this is just sort of medieval. For much of the movie no one (except the viewer) knows that Roberts is Westley but he’s smooth, daring and near enough gallant to win Buttercup’s affection anyway. Sarandon’s Price is obtuse and obnoxious, which is just what the movie needs; Shawn’s Vizzini, who features more early on, is the same character but smaller.

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