The Princess Bride is a perfect film. Not a single scene, character, or line of dialogue is out of place. Within it though is a moment so perfect the word doesn’t fully capture its brilliance. It’s one of my—and many others— favorite movie scenes ever. The moment when Inigo Montoya finally gets vengeance against the six-fingered man who murdered his father. It’s truly iconic in every sense of the word. Powerful, touching, and raw. More raw than I ever realized it turns out. Mandy Patinkin recently responded to a question from a grieving daughter about his own inspiration in that moment. In an emotional, honest, and touching video.
@mandypatinktok@alaska_webb thank you for finding us and sharing this! ✨ Sending big love and light to you and yours. More in comments. ##grieving ##cancer ##dads ♬ original sound – Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn G
In a TikTok video (that we first heard about at The Wrap), Patakin and his wife Kathryn Grody watched an emotional message from Amanda Webb. Webb lost her father to cancer in March. Recently she heard a story about The Princess Bride, one she wanted to know the veracity of for a very personal reason. The film was one of her dad’s favorites, as it is hers. And Inigo Montoya was his favorite character. A fact that took on greater significance when she heard that when the character answers the six-fingered man’s question about what he wants (“I want my father back, you son of a bitch.”) Patinkin was thinking about his own father who also died of cancer.
You don’t have to know anything about the movie to understand why this story would mean so much to Webb. Nor do you have to have seen it to appreciate Patinkin’s response. After being tagged countless times by other users, he did see it. And he did more than answer her question.
It’s true, he was thinking about his dad when he filmed that scene. He thought of the six-fingered man as the cancer that took his father from him. The raw power of that moment came from his own pain and love, channeled into his character. But Patinkin also shared the story behind his preparation. He said he prepped for the scene by speaking to his father before. Then spoke to him again when he was done. And he told this loving daughter with the same kind of hole in her heart that she can always do the same with hers. All before adding he would now keep Webb and her father in his daily prayers.
20th Century
An “overwhelmed” Webb got the message. In followup videos she talked about what this would mean for her dad Dan. As well as what it has meant to her.
@alaska_webbIs this real life?! ##mandypatinktok ##princessbride ##lgbtq ##grief ##millenial ##imissmydad ♬ original sound – Amanda Webb
@alaska_webbJust a small town girl getting recognized in public before 9am ??♀️ ##princessbride ##eldermillenial ##surreal ♬ original sound – Amanda Webb
I didn’t think it was possible for any movie scene to be better than that moment in The Princess Bride. But something tells me the next time I watch it it’s going to be even more perfect than it already was.