The Princess Bride (1987) is another childhood favorite of mine. Someone recorded it from TV into a VHS tape, so the picture quality was grainy and less than ideal, but I tore through it a million times. If it was raining and there was nothing better to do, I watched it. When I felt gloomy, I watched it. When I was home alone, I watched it and acted scenes from it. I fell in love with Wesley and the charming pirate, marvelled the adorable giant rodents, and each time I was scared for the main couple. When I recently watched it again after many years and read the book, I realized how brilliantly the conventions of traditional swashbuckling adventure stories mixed with zany humor and various genres. It's that odd tone, I think, that allows each person to love different aspects of it. It's original and I don't know if there's anything like it.

Naturally, I was overjoyed to find out that Elwes had written a book about the making of the movie. The tone of the book is unabashedly positive and warm, and although I'd normally consider it annoying, I feel so extremely nostalgic about the movie itself that it just doesn't matter. The quotes from the actors are kind of awkwardly positioned, disrupting the narrative at strange places, and there's an entire chapter dedicated to how awesome Robin Wright is, but the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones. I don't feel the need to read this again, but it was nice to dive into my memories for a couple of nights and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Rob Reiner
I have had many encounters with many people from all walks of life who love the movie. But the strangest had to be this one: One night Nora Ephron and her husband, Nick Pileggi, who wrote the screenplay to the movie Goodfellas, wanted to take me to a restaurant in New York where the mobster John Gotti liked to eat. So we went, and sure enough, at the end of dinner in walks Gotti with six wiseguys. After we finished the meal I walk outside and there’s one of these goodfellas standing in front of a huge limo who looked just like Luca Brasi from The Godfather. He looks down at me and he goes, “Hey! You killed my father. Prepare to die!” And I just froze. Then he starts laughing and says: “The Princess Bride! I love that movie!” I almost fell over right in the street!