25 of the most swoon-worthy romance movies of all time
By Amy Kaplan
The Princess Bride
I hate to admit it, but this is my least favorite movie on this list, but all of my friends would probably skin me alive if I didn’t include this on my most romantic movies list. Now I have to defend myself, the reason I’ve never fully clung to The Princess Bride was because it was a little too goofy for me, and I really love believable love stories (with some exceptions of course) but for those of you who love humor, and maybe even poke fun at the sappy romantic movies on the rest of this list — this one is for you.
The Princess Bride is a goofy fairy tale adventure about a beautiful young woman (Robin Wright) and her one true love (Cary Elwes) who must find her — and save her after they are separated. He must battle through the evils of the mythical kingdom of Florin to be reunited with her and he meets some interesting people along the way. The whole movie is a story being read by a grandfather (Peter Falk) to a grandson (Fred Savage) and has narration throughout (kind of like The Neverending Story).
The movie is based on a novel with the same name by William Goldman, both the book and the movie have a loyal following though it didn’t start out that way. Though the film did well in the theaters, its peak fandom didn’t occur until many years later.
Fun Fact: The film made quite a few other important lists like Bravo’s 100 Funniest Movies, American Film Institute’s (AFI) AFI’s 100 Years…100 Passions list of the 100 greatest film love stories, and Channel 4’s 50 Greatest Comedy Films list. In 2016, the film was inducted into the National Film Registry, being deemed as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Release date: September 25, 1987