A grandfather (Peter Falk) reads a story to his grandson (Fred Savage) who is recovering from an illness. The name of the story is “The Princess Bride”.
In the land of Florin lived a young girl named Buttercup (Robin Wright). Buttercup lived on a farm. Also on the farm was a young farm hand named Westley (Cary Elwes). Buttercup would call the young man “Farm Boy” and order him around. Westley did whatever Buttercup wanted with a courteous “As you wish”. Eventually Buttercup came to realize that Westley was in love with her and that she was also in love with him. Westley left to find his fortune so that he could return and marry Buttercup. Buttercup learns that Westley was killed on the high seas by the Dread Pirate Roberts. Buttercup was devastated.
Five years later Buttercup is chosen by Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) to be his bride. Still mourning the loss of her true love, Buttercup goes for a horse ride in the country. While riding she gets kidnapped by three men, Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), the brains of the operation, Fezzik (Andre the Giant), the brawn and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) a fabulous swordsman. As they sail away, they realize that someone, a man in black, is following their boat. Vizzini leaves Montoya behind to deal with the man in black.
The man in black turns out to be the Dread Pirate Roberts. The pirate manages to best Montoya and leave him unconscious. Vizzini then instructs Fezzik to deal with the pirate. The pirate defeats Fezzik and continues on, once again leaving the man unconscious. Vizzini decides that he must handle the pirate himself but is also defeated and killed. The pirate reveals himself to be, in reality, Buttercup’s love, Westley. Their reunion is short once they realize that Prince Humperdinck and his henchman Count Tyrone Rugen (Christopher Guest) is also on their trail and intends on killing Westley and returning Buttercup to the castle.
Westley is captured and sent to the pit of despair to die. Buttercup is returned to the castle to marry the prince. Aid comes in the form of Montoya and Fezzik who have come to respect Westley and his abilities to defeat them in a sportsman like manner, but they may be too late to help.
“The Princess Bride” was released in 1987 and was directed by Rob Reiner. It is a fantasy comedy and adventure film. The movie was based on the 1973 novel by William Goldman. In 2016, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
It is a charming and funny story with some underlying satire with probably one of the best swords fight I’ve ever seen, other than Douglas Fairbanks. André René Roussimoff AKA Andre the Giant, who plays Fezzik, had a condition called acromegaly. Andre was a wrestler. He died in 1993 at the age of 46 due to congestive heart failure. The Cliffs of Insanity in the film are actually the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland.
There was actually a real "Dread Pirate Roberts". His real name was Bartholomew Roberts and was also known as Black Bart. He was a Welshman who lived and operated in the Caribbean sometime in the 1700’s.