The Princess Bride

Submission 23,632

About

The Princess Bride is a 1987 romantic comedy film based on the 1973 fantasy adventure novel of the same name by William Goldman. Upon its theatrical release, the film received critical acclaims for its genre-bending elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy and romance, as well as an abundance of quotable lines, and it has been often cited as a cult classic film of the 1980s.

Premise

The film opens with a grandfather (Peter Falk) reading his sick grandson (Fred Savage) the story of The Princess Bride. The story opens with a young girl, Buttercup (Robin Wright) falling in love with her farm worker Wesley (Cary Elwes). Wesley becomes a sailor to save money for their wedding, but soon after he is captured by pirates and presumed dead. Five years later Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon) chooses Buttercup as his bride, though she does not love him. Before the wedding Buttercup is kidnapped by three outlaws Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), Fezzik (André the Giant) and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin). She is then kidnapped from them by a masked man who turns out to be Wesley, who was captured by pirates but trained to be one instead of being killed. Reunited, the two are found by Prince Humperdink, who promises Buttercup he will not harm Wesley if she returns with him. Instead, he is taken into a torture chamber run by Humperdink's friend, Count Tyrone Rugen (Christopher Guest), where he is eventually killed. Rugen is also the man who killed Inigo Montoya's father, and who he has vowed to kill. Teaming up with Fezzik, he brings Wesley to Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), who revives him so they can storm the castle together. Montoya kills Count Rugen, Wesley saves Buttercup and the two ride into the sunset.

History

The Princess Bride was released on October 9th, 1987. The film was based on a novel of the same name which was released on in 1973. On October 14th, 2014, Cary Elwes, who starred as Wesley in the film, released a book on his experience making the movie titled As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride.

Reception

The film earned a 8.2 on IMDB^[1] and a rating of 77 on Metacritic.^[2] It was nominated for one Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song. It won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and a People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Princess Bride has been widely cited in numerous lists of honor published by various cinematic institutions and publications, including Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and The American Film Institute's (AFI) list of the "100 greatest film love stories."

Fandom

As of October 2014, DeviantArt^[3] has over 10,000 fan art submissions tagged The Princess Bride. The film's Facebook page^[4] has gained over 2.6 million views. Fanfiction.net has over 100 fan fiction submissions about The Princess Bride. Fan run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the movie include effyeahprincessbride^[6] and princessbridequotes.^[7]

"You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die"

You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die is a phrase from The Princess Bride. Because the line is repeated so often and has such a strong meaning to one of the characters, it became common for fans to repeat it, especially mockingly before moments of conflict.

"You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means"

You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means is a phrase used to call out someone else's incorrect use of a word or phrase during online conversations. It is typically iterated as an image macro series featuring the fictional character Inigo Montoya from the The Princess Bride.

Inconceivable!

"Inconceivable!" is a word often said by Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) in the film in situations that prove to be true. The phrase is often used by fans online in situations which are actually conceivable.