Tag Archives: cary elwes

Fresh Content Day 28: The Genius of The Princess Bride

I love this movie. I don’t know many people who don’t. It’s so quotable. And it’s fun. It holds up after thirty years.

You’ve probably seen The Princess Bride. I’m sure it’s been on cable. I have the DVD and it’s on Netflix. In fact, I threw it on Netflix tonight while I tried to get my boy to go to sleep.

I didn’t know until well into adulthood that it was actually a book. William Goldman wrote The Princess Bride and it was published by the company later known as Random House in 1973. Later, Goldman would say of the book, “I got lucky with The Princess Bride the first time, and I’d love to get lucky again.”

Fourteen years pass before we get a movie based on the book. It almost doubled its production cost at the box office, raking in $30.8mil on a $16mil budget. I think it’s safe to say that in the years since, it has grown past cult following to a truly iconic piece of cinema history.

I remember this being one of those movies that my [older] sister and I could watch together. Just like Fred Savage’s character, I was a little bit of a butthead and didn’t necessarily want to hear or see the kissy stuff. But it had some great action and amazing dialogue.

But it must be a bit of a generational thing, as my wife had not seen the movie prior to our dating. I mean, she hadn’t seen any of the star Wars movies either. But I quickly fixed that. I just thought it odd that a girl born in the 1980s hadn’t seen The Princess Bride.

I thought the film was incredibly well done. Rob Reiner is a terrific film maker, and assembled a very fitting cast, most if not all of them would find success in movies or TV after this movie.

I would definitely put The Princess Bride on the list of movies that should never be remade.

What’s your favorite quote from this movie?