When looking for a quote for this next movie, it was going to be damn near impossible without giving it away.

I did my best.

I think this might be the most quotable movie that most people do by accident.

I remember watching this movie for the first time with my family and my older sister skipped on it as she started watching it at a friends house and did not enjoy it.  She was too cool for it.

I’ll have to admit, until they reached “The Cliffs of Insanity” I was on the fence.  When Fezzik put on a saddle and carried three people up a rope to the top of the cliffs, I was hooked and realized I was watching an epic satire.

“The Princess Bride” is easily my favorite Rob Reiner film.  That is saying a lot.  He has an amazing filmography as a director. “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand by Me,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Misery,” “The American President,” “Ghosts of Mississippi,” and “Flipped” just to name a few masterpieces.

A lot of the success has to be shared with William Goldman.  The author of the great novel by the same name and an amazing screenwriter himself of such classics as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Stepford Wives,” “All the President’s Men,” and “Marathon Man,” (also adapted from one of his novels) to name a few.  If you haven’t watched these, try and find them and give them a chance.  You won’t be disappointed.  Some of these will appear on my list later as well.

Back to it.

I remember taking the same journey as the grandson in the picture.  Not impressed at first with the love story (I was 11 years old) and the fact that Westley was killed off screen was annoying to me.  But as soon as Vizzini, Inigo, and Fezzik enter the picture, the film takes off and it is memorable moment after memorable moment.

The shrieking eels, the cliffs of insanity, the fencing, the wrestling, the battle of wits, the fire swamp, the R-O-U-S’s, the pit of despair, Miracle Max, storming the castle….did I miss anything?  Probably.

 

Villains become heroes, heroes are unveiled as masterminds, magicians come out of the woodwork, and revenge is had.  All in less than a 100 minutes. By the end of it, I couldn’t believe that my sister didn’t love it.

I did.

I mentioned how quotable it was, but the visuals in the film are amazing too from the costumes, the externals, the sets, and the props; everything was done with such precision and care.

Years later I ended up reading the novel and enjoyed the film even more after that.  I caught a lot more of the dialogue during the fencing and understood it.  The book equipped me with a lot of back story for the characters that gave them more depth and I got the pleasure of an “extra” ending as well.

What are your favorite quotes from this picture?

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments and have a discussion about them if you’d like to share.

That would make my day.

But please do….As you wish.

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