The Princess Bride is a comic adventure novel, with a touch of romance, by William Goldman.
The book was made into a movie in 1987, directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Goldman. The incidental music was composed by Mark Knopfler. In the movie, the story is presented as a fairy tale being read by a grandfather (Peter Falk) to his sick grandson (Fred Savage), thus echoing the book's narrative style. The film stars Robin Wright and Cary Elwes. Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Christopher Guest, Chris Sarandon and André the Giant play supporting roles. Billy Crystal, Carol Kane, Peter Cook, and Mel Smith have memorable cameo roles.
The movie was initially a modest success, though not a huge blockbuster, grossing twice its 15,000,000 USD production costs at the US box office. However, over the years it has gained a cult-like following, with occasional big-screen showings quite popular.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was originally offered the role of Fezzik, the giant, but turned it down.
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The book affects to be an abridgement of an older version by "S. Morgenstern", which was originally a satire of the excesses of European royalty. Goldman "remembered" the book as it was narrated to him by his father as an exciting adventure tale, without the complex political overtones. His work is a recreation of the abridgement of his father. In fact, the book is entirely Goldman's original work, and Morgenstern and his "original version" never existed. Nor is Goldman's family accurately described in the book. He has two daughters, not a son, and his wife is not a psychologist. The countries Florin and Guilder do not exist and never have, although, prior to the advent of the euro, both were units of currency -- the same unit of currency, in fact -- from The Netherlands and a common term for a 2 shilling piece in pre-decimal U.K. British_coin_Florin. Goldman carried the joke further by publishing another book called The Silent Gondoliers (about why the gondoliers of Venice no longer sing to their passengers) under S. Morgenstern's byline. The Vizzini family from The Princess Bride also makes an appearance in this book.
The device of claiming that a book is a pre-existing work that the author merely discovered and edited is an old one, which continues to be used by authors as widely separated as Spanish writer Cervantes, Italian literary novelist Umberto Eco and American detective fiction author Laurie R. King. (See also false document, frame tale.)
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
This plot summary is about the movie only. The book has several more scenes than the movie, and a less optimistic ending.
The heroine of The Princess Bride is the beautiful Buttercup (played by Robin Wright in the movie), who falls in love with her lowly stable boy Westley (Cary Elwes). Westley leaves to make his fortune, promising to return, but his ship is attacked at sea by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who is notorious for taking no prisoners. Fearing him dead, Buttercup eventually agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), heir to the throne of Florin.
Buttercup is kidnapped by a bizarre trio of outlaws--the stunted genius Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), the expert swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), and the enormous and mighty Fezzik (André the Giant)--who have been hired to murder her and frame Florin's enemy Guilder for it so that Humperdinck can start a war. A masked man in black clothing follows them across the sea to the Cliffs of Insanity, where he faces Inigo Montoya in a fencing match. The mysterious man wins, but leaves the Spaniard alive. Vizzini, realizing that Inigo Montoya has failed to stop the man in black, leaves Fezzik behind to kill him. Fezzik is also defeated but not killed. Finally, the masked man catches up with Vizzini, who is holding Buttercup hostage, and proposes a "battle of the wits to the death."
Vizzini loses the battle of wits and dies, and the masked man takes Buttercup with him as he flees from Prince Humperdinck, who is now in pursuit of his fiancee's kidnappers. Buttercup deduces that the man in black is the Dread Pirate Roberts, but it is only after she shoves him down a steep hill and hears him shout "As you wish!" (Westley's way of saying "I love you") that she realizes he is her long-lost love. It turns out that the former Dread Pirate Roberts had indeed attacked Westley's ship, but had made an exception and kept Westley alive. Eventually, Roberts retired, passing the name and the ship on to Westley. After surviving the three horrors of the Fire Swamp, the two are captured by Prince Humperdinck and the menacing Count Rugen (Christopher Guest). Buttercup is returned to the palace to await her wedding - which, now that she knows Westley is alive, is a fate worse than death - and Westley is taken by Count Rugen to be tortured in the Pit of Despair, where he is tended to by an albino (Mel Smith).
Inigo Montoya and Fezzik meet up again, and decide to go on a quest to avenge Montoya's father's death and prevent the marriage of Buttercup and Humperdinck. Finding that Westley has been tortured to death by the Prince, they turn to Miracle Max (Billy Crystal), a washed up wizard who was fired by Prince Humperdinck, and his wife Valerie (Carol Kane), who pronounce Westley to be merely "mostly dead" and resurrect him. Westley comes up with a plan to invade the castle, which succeeds, putting the three of them inside. They are split up, Montoya meets and defeats his father's killer, and Westley bluffs his way out of a swordfight with Prince Humperdink, despite hardly having the strength to stand. In classic fairy tale style, the party rides off into the sunset on convieniently-provided white horses.
The soundtrack was originally released by Warner Brothers in 1987. It was written and recorded by Mark Knopfler, the only person Rob Reiner felt could create a soundtrack to capture the film's quirky yet romantic nature. Reiner was an admirer of Knopfler's previous work but didn't know him before working on the film - he sent the script to him hoping he would agree to score the movie. He agreed on one condition: that somewhere in the film Rob Reiner include the baseball cap he wore as Marty DiBergi in This is Spinal Tap. Reiner was unable to produce the original cap, but did include a similar cap in the grandson's room. Later Knopfler said he was joking.
Soundtrack listing:
The film was shot in various places around England and Ireland: