Mark Knopfler

When you're crafting a fantasy and going for a movie with a dreamlike quality, you can't exactly bring in Garth Brooks to provide a country-themed soundtrack, or Kanye to do, well, whatever Kanye does. You need music that transports you to the same place that the visuals do.

As it turned out, Mark Knopfler was the right man for the job. Most famously the frontman and lead guitarist for the group Dire Straits, Knopfler was also no stranger to composing for film, having already put together the scores for Cal and Local Hero (and would go on to compose for several more, including the Dustin Hoffman/Robert DeNiro flick Wag the Dog). It took a guy with that kind of musical knowledge, experience, and versatility to bring to The Princess Bride the unique, magical touch it needed.

If you pay attention to the score, it's just background music, but you could almost swear there's a small band of traveling musicians on lutes and harpsichords providing ambience as we make our way through Florin. And it fits in so naturally that we don't even stop to think about how difficult it is to travel with a harpsichord.

From the spooky, spine-tingling tune played during the climbing of the Cliffs of Insanity, to the frenetic, anxiety-inducing music that scores the swordfight, to the sweet and perfect notes used to enhance the moments of tenderness between Westley and Buttercup, all of it hits the right mark. The song Storybook Love was so well received that it even grabbed an Oscar nod. In the end, the film's score lives on as much in its audience's memory as much as any other aspect of the modern classic.