The Princess Bride Is One Of The Most Lovable Movies Ever Made. Rob Reiner’s 1987 Classic Has Romance, Adventure, Comedy, Great Characters And An Endless Supply Of Memorable Lines That Have Helped Make It A True Classic.
The Princess Bride is one of those movies that seems almost impossible not to like. It has everything you could want from a great adventure movie, but it also has a sense of humor that keeps the whole thing from taking itself too seriously.
Cary Elwes stars as Westley, the farmhand who falls in love with Buttercup, played by Robin Wright. After leaving to seek his fortune, Westley is believed to be dead, but Buttercup eventually becomes engaged to Prince Humperdinck, played by Chris Sarandon.
Of course, this is where the story really gets started. Buttercup is kidnapped by Vizzini, played by Wallace Shawn, along with the enormous Fezzik, played by Andre the Giant, and the incredibly skilled swordsman Inigo Montoya, played by Mandy Patinkin. Their plan quickly becomes much more complicated when a mysterious masked man begins following them.
That masked man turns out to be Westley, and Cary Elwes is absolutely perfect in the role. He has the charm and confidence needed for the character, but he also understands that Westley is supposed to be funny. His performance gives the movie much of its personality.
Mandy Patinkin is also fantastic as Inigo Montoya. His quest to find the six fingered man who killed his father gives the movie a surprisingly emotional storyline underneath all the comedy. His famous declaration about wanting revenge has become one of the most recognizable movie lines of the 1980s.
Then there is Andre the Giant as Fezzik, who is impossible not to love. Fezzik is physically intimidating but incredibly gentle and kind, and his friendship with Inigo is one of the best relationships in the movie. Wallace Shawn’s Vizzini provides another completely different type of comedy with his constant confidence and increasingly questionable logic.
Peter Falk might be the secret weapon of the entire movie as the Grandfather telling the story to his sick grandson, played by Fred Savage. The framing story allows the movie to constantly play with the idea of a traditional fairy tale while also making fun of the clichés that come with one.
Rob Reiner directed The Princess Bride, and he understood exactly how to balance all of these different elements. The movie can be romantic one minute, an adventure the next and completely ridiculous a few seconds later. Somehow, none of those pieces feel out of place.
The plot follows Buttercup and Westley’s relationship, but it becomes much bigger once the kidnapping, revenge story and political intrigue are introduced. There are sword fights, a giant, a battle of wits, a dangerous forest, an evil prince and even a machine designed to torture people. Somehow, the movie manages to make all of that feel completely natural.
What makes The Princess Bride so special is that it works for almost everyone. If you want romance, it has romance. If you want sword fights, it has sword fights. If you want comedy, it has plenty of it. If you want an adventure story, it has one of the most entertaining adventure plots of the decade.
The dialogue is another huge part of its appeal. Lines like “As you wish,” “Inconceivable!” and “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die” have become part of movie culture. The jokes are memorable because the characters deliver them so naturally.
The movie also never becomes overly cynical. Even though it constantly makes fun of fairy tale conventions, it still genuinely believes in love, friendship, loyalty and adventure. That combination of sincerity and comedy is surprisingly difficult to pull off, and The Princess Bride does it beautifully.
For me, that is why the movie has remained so popular for almost forty years. It is not simply a movie that people remember because they watched it as kids. It is genuinely well made, wonderfully acted and incredibly entertaining, which allows new generations to discover it and understand why everyone keeps quoting it.
The Princess Bride is a true classic because it has something that many movies never manage to find. It has a completely recognizable personality. Rob Reiner, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Wallace Shawn, Peter Falk and the rest of the cast created a movie that is funny, romantic, adventurous and endlessly rewatchable. That is a pretty great combination, and it is easy to see why The Princess Bride has stood the test of time.
