I don't usually like movies due to the sensory overload and the really bad premises/dialogue/writing, the suspense, the flashing lights, and just the overall cringe. But The Princess Bride is comfort viewing for me (even despite the misogyny). It's quick and punchy and doesn't take itself seriously with the Renaissance Faire-ish costumes and comedic quips. I also really like how the music works with the story, and I'm someone who typically really hates music and soundtracks because they overwhelm scenes or create distraction or are melodramatic. The music here is in time with movements like sword thrusts or nods or the last throes of life of an R.O.U.S. moaning in pain. We have no references to pop culture or sappy lyrics to make us roll our eyes. And even though the story is cornball, we actually never roll our eyes -- the humor is on point, self-aware and silly and okay with it -- actually this is the promise it delivers. Humperdink twirls his skirts, Vizzini collapses mid-guffaw, Buttercup scrunches up her forehead when Wesley describes the genealogy of the Dread Pirate Roberts. I have a few rituals when I watch. I can mouth along with the script, especially when Fezzik and Inigo are rhyming. I'm on the edge of my seat with the glorious fencing scene, thinking about the video of Mandy Patinkin almost in tears at the knowledge that he'll never get to do such a sequence again. I think about the back stories included in the book that don't make it to the movie. I notice some salient points Cary Elwes made in his memoir about the concussion he got when Count Rugen hit him with the butt of his sword or the limp he acquired in an accident with a four-wheeler with Andre the Giant. And every single time, I hold my breathe when Buttercup descends into the lightning sand of the fireswamp and she and Wesley emerge with gigantic gasps for air. I adore the light makeup of the characters, Buttercup with her pleasant flush, Humperdink with his cheeks high with color, Wesley with his golden hair tied back into a ponytail. Everyone looks so young, even Wallace Shawn, even though when I first watched it, everyone looked mature. In my life, often lines from the movie come to me. Got some social anxiety? "Friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless!" rises to the surface in the middle of the night (and I laugh). Worried about my job prospects? "I'll send you back from where you came -- unemployed . . . in GREENLAND!" A product that I've bought for years gets discontinued: "I will never love again." Something once again breaks in my apartment? "We know the secrets of the Fire Swamp. We can live there quite happily for some time." I have few watches like this that bring me pleasure each time, even when I recognize their flaws. If you, too, want to sit back, laugh at the subtle and not-so-subtle gags, are craving a story with villains who are actually heroes with a moral core ("We fight each other like god intended -- skill against skill alone." "Wait until you're ready."), and are tired of overdone, artificial, and over-the-top everything in entertianment, you can watch it here: https://archive.org/details/the-princess-bride_202306 #ThePrincessBride