While it is a common notion that the movie adaptation never lives up to the book, “The Princess Bride” proves this idea wrong. From the depiction of Buttercup and Westley’s love to the thieves, the perfect comedic relief, both the book and movie have shown to be timeless classics.

The movie starts with Buttercup (Robin Wright), a spoiled brat who loves to order around her farm hand, Westley (Cary Elwes); that is, until one day, she finds that she is madly in love with him and soon realizes the feeling is mutual. The two are unfortunately separated when Westley goes off to sea, never to be seen again. After two years she is told that he has been killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts. A few years later, Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon) is riding through the countryside when he lays eyes on Buttercup and decides that she is to be his wife. No sooner has Buttercup been kidnapped by thieves, then she is rescued by Roberts (who is then revealed to be Westley in disguise). She fights to stay by Westley’s side but is torn apart from him when Humperdink does not let go of her.

The movie accomplished the overwhelming task of adapting the book, but there is a part from the book I wish they would have included in the movie. In the book, it is clear that Humperdink is a sadistically cruel man and is even known to have a “zoo of death.” However, in the movie he comes off as a run-of-the-mill bad guy. Instead of only having the underground torture chamber in the tree, they should have refined this more by fully developing Humperdink’s character traits to display his evil side.

Despite Humperdink’s lack of character development, there is one concept that the movie did a terrific job of adapting. The novel is written by William Goldman, who claims that he translated S. Morgenstern’s original novel, which was written in Florin, and he only uses the “good parts” for his novel. S. Morgenstern, however, is completely fictional as the country of Florin was made up by Goldman. Throughout the book Goldman interrupts the story with his own narrative, switching between his father reading it to him as a kid and random tidbits of information he wishes to include, and the movie does the same. 

Not only is “The Princess Bride” a cult classic for its remarkable characters and original storytelling, it also has some of the most memorable quotes ever. Even now, 35 years after the release of the film, memes are being made using the line “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” At weddings, the lines from Buttercup and Humperdink’s wedding scene are used to bring humor to a rather serious occasion. When people are exasperated with others rhyming and shout out, “No more rhymes now I mean it,” one can almost guarantee that another will respond with, “Anybody want a peanut?”

“The Princess Bride” is not only an outstanding novel but an outstanding movie as well. The idea that the movie will never live up to the book is not true with this one. The next time that you can’t decide what to watch, I would recommend pressing play on this cult classic. 

Contact Adeline Gruen at [email protected]