Search - The Princess Bride on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Excellent For Children, Adult Language Movie Release: 1987 DVD Release: 07/18/2000 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English, Spanish Subtitles: French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 38 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 29 Genres: Adventure, Children's/Family, Adventure Comedy, Romantic Adventure, Fairy Tales & Legends See Also: The Princess Bride [Special Edition], The Princess Bride [UMD for PSP], The Princess Bride [Buttercup Edition], The Princess Bride [Dread Pirate Edition], The Princess Bride [20th Anniversary Edition], The Princess Bride [20th Anniversary Edition], The Princess Bride [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray]

Based on William Goldman's novel of the same name, The Princess Bride is staged as a book read by grandfather (Peter Falk) to his ill grandson (Fred Savage). Falk's character assures a romance-weary Savage that the book has much more to deliver than a simpering love story, including but not limited to fencing, fighting, torture, death, true love, giants, and pirates. Indeed, The Princess Bride offers a tongue-in-cheek fairy tale depicting stable boy-turned-pirate Westley's journey to rescue Buttercup (Robin Wright), his true love, away from the evil prince (Chris Sarandon), whom she had agreed to marry five years after learning of what she had believed to be news of Westley's death. With help from Prince Humperdinck's disgruntled former employee Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), and a very large man named Fezzik (Andre the Giant), the star-crossed lovers are reunited. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Cary Elwes - Westley
Robin Wright Penn - Buttercup, the Princess Bride
Mandy Patinkin - Inigo Montoya
Chris Sarandon - Prince Humperdinck
Christopher Guest - Count Rugen

A somewhat disappointing DVD release, MGM/UA's =The Princess Bride provides nothing extra beyond a theatrical trailer -- no commentary, no featurettes, not even cast and crew biography pages. The film is presented in both widescreen (1.85:1 letterboxed, non-anamorphic) and full-frame formats. The image is nice and clear, with beautiful, vivid colors and no evidence of artifacts such as shimmering or edge enhancement. There is some slight indication of grain and a touch of softness from time to time, which may be more indicative of the age of the film than the quality of the transfer. The print used for the transfer also has some very infrequent speckles and marks, but overall the transfer is quite watchable. The English audio track is presented as Dolby 5.1, though this seems to be little more than a simple transfer of the original Dolby Surround mix, rather than a remix, and as such it is fairly ordinary. Surrounds are hardly called into play, and most of the directional work in the front is in Mark Knopfler's music. Dialogue ranges from clear to somewhat muddy, depending on scene and actor. There is also a Spanish audio track, in mono. This has a terribly compressed sound to it, with brittle-sounding dialogue recording, a variable voice cast, and highly inadequate matching. Subtitles are available in French and Spanish. The trailer is presented full-screen, and mastered from a very bad print. The main DVD menu is animated, with music. There are rumors of an improved edition of this disc, but for now this will have to do. ~ Steven E. McDonald, All Movie Guide