Not Exactly Inconceivable

After six rounds of voting, and thousands of votes cast, the people have chosen their winner: The Princess Bride, which prevailed over The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with 60% of the vote.

Probably we should have known all along: the closest Rob Reiner’s satirical fantasy classic ever got to being knocked out in the course of this bracket was when it beat fellow one-seed The Silence of the Lambs, 65% to 35%. (Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.) And why not? The Princess Bride is more than anything else a joyous film, and it’s safe to say that we all could use a little more joy in our lives. Now more than ever, and so on.

This has been our most fun—and most difficult—bracket yet. Thanks for playing with us, and keep an eye out (and send us your nominations!) for our pre-1976 film adaptation bracket, and our television adaptation bracket, both coming soon to a literary website near you.

Based on William Goldman’s The Princess Bride (1973)

Sub-genres: Your Bisexual Awakening • Cult Movies of Unusual Resonance(s) • Endlessly Quotable • Peak Patinkin

There are few films with a higher delight-to-runtime ratio than The Princess Bride. Its particular alchemy of postmodern irreverence and slapstick buffoonery has made it an enduring cult classic despite its initially underwhelming box office returns. Of course, it benefits from being adapted by Goldman himself—not so often is the author of the source text also an Academy Award-winning screenwriter—and from the fact that it was a particular passion project for Reiner, whose father had given him the book, and who was determined to adapt it despite the fact that Hollywood considered it unadaptable.

“When I first met Bill Goldman to talk about this,” Reiner remembered, “he said, ‘This is my favorite thing I’ve ever written, and I want this on my tombstone. And what are you going to do with it?’” Well, we all know the answer to that. –Emily Temple, Managing Editor

See also:

What Makes The Princess Bride Such a Great Movie • How Loving The Princess Bride Led Me to Buddhism