When Westley (Cary Elwes) first says “As you wish” to Buttercup (Robin Wright) In The Princess Brideit sounds like nothing more than a servant’s response. He goes to get some water, she barely glances at him and the words don’t actually mean anything. But each repetition carries more weight, and each “As you wish” enters into a rhythm of unspoken affection that builds beneath the film’s fairytale surface. By the time Buttercup realizes that every “As you wish” actually means “I love you,” the audience already knows it, and That’s what makes the reveal so satisfying..
Director Rob Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman I realized that sincerity works best when it’s not forced. The Princess Bride is full of parody and exaggeration, from its monologue-loving villains to its poetry-speaking swordsmen, but this phrase cuts through all the humor and has endured in the decades since it first appeared on screens. It’s honest and simple, and in a film that constantly reminds the audience that it’s “just a story.” “As You Want” becomes the heart of cinema’s greatest love story.
The line turns a parody into a promise
The Princess Bride exists in two worlds: the exaggerated fantasy that Buttercup and Westley inhabit, and the cynical, modern (now dated) world of the grandson (Fred Savage) rolling his eyes at “the kissing parts.” In both cases, “As you wish” becomes a kind of bridge, because it is these three words that transform skepticism into belief. In the context of the fairy tale, the phrase transforms servitude into devotion. Westley’s love is neither loud nor complacent, and every time he says these words, he gives Buttercup freedom by letting her be herself without asking for anything in return. That’s what makes the moment he was taken from her so tragic. When she thinks he’s gone forever, she’s not just mourning a person, but the rare kind of love that never tried to control her.
In the frame story, the same principle plays out again. The grandfather (Pierre Falk) tells this “kissing book” to his skeptical grandson who only wants sword fights and pirates. At first, the grandson resists the sentimentality, but as the story unfolds, even he gives in to the sincerity of it. When his grandfather whispers “As you wish” at the end, the grandson has learned that love stories are not something to outgrow, they are something to perpetuate.
Why three words always have more power than any love monologue
The reason “As You Wish” endures is due to its universality. It is the sound of one person saying to another, “I see you and I choose to stay.” » Most cinematic declarations of love are grand, while The Princess Bride does the opposite and stay modest by allowing three words to do all the work. The magic lies in the unsaid. Westley never tells Buttercup that he will give her the world, because he already does. His love lies in his patience, service, and perseverance, refusing to give up on finding her and later even being able to come back from the dead (okay, “almost dead”) to be with her. Every time he repeats the phrase, whether with humor or reverence, it returns to that original meaning. What makes his power strong decades later is his resistance to cynicism. The line doesn’t need to be smart or modernized. It works because he believes in the purity of his own emotion, something that most modern romances struggle to recapture. Its endurance also speaks volumes about the storytelling itself. Goldman wrote The Princess Bride as both a satire and a love letter to classic adventure tales, but “As You Wish” belongs entirely to the latter.
The power of “As You Wish” is not that it is grandiose or poetic, but that it is real. It says everything that needs to be said about how love should sound: patient, consistent and free of ego. It reminds us that the most lasting romances aren’t built on declarations shouted from mountaintops, but on small promises kept throughout life. Nearly forty years later, The Princess Bride she still stands out because she refuses to treat love as a spectacle, she treats it as a choice. “As you wish” is the expression of this choice, create a phrase that turns parody into truth and reminds the audience that even the most incredible story can contain something completely sincere.
- Release date
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September 25, 1987
- Runtime
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99 minutes
- Writers
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William Goldman
