A triple triumph for Eastwood with no shots fired
This 1995 film, BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, stars Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, and was also produced and directed by the former. If you're used to seeing Clint in his belligerent Dirty Harry or Man With No Name persona, then you're likely to be enormously surprised by his triple triumph in this sensitive film in which nary a shot is fired or punch thrown.
The Streep character, Francesca Johnson, was an Italian war bride brought back to Iowa in 1945 by the soldier whose heart she captured. Twenty years later, she lives on a farm with her middle-aged husband and teenage son and daughter. Long since before, she's had to give up her career as a teacher because her spouse, an otherwise gentle and considerate man, doesn't approve of a working wife. She lives, without dreams or passion, a life of quiet desperation. Then along comes the Eastwood character, Robert Kincaid, during a period when Francesca is home alone, the rest of the family off to the State Fair in neighboring...
Moralists missing the point:
To those reviews centering on the "immorality" of not only the protagonists in this film, but the author of the novel, and the "Hollywood Establishment", I say this - you're missing the entire point. If "romance", "infidelity", and "lost love" are central themes of this film, then I suggest adding "human fallibility" to the list. Francesca and Robert ARE good people, who like all of us, are fallible. If they were not, then Francesca's decision wouldn't have been so difficult, and heart wrenching. Indeed, if she were truly selfish, and "immoral", she would have left her family immediately, and without hesitation.
Much of human behavior (and morality too) cannot be realistically assessed in black and white terms. Francesca and Robert are neither completely "bad", nor "good". They are decent individuals who happened to meet too late in life, in the wrong place, and thus, must suffer the consequences of these tragic, unfortunate circumstances. It's not Francesca and Robert vs...
"THIS KIND OF CERTAINTY COMES BUT ONCE IN A LIFETIME."
This movie is one of my all-time favorite romances. It begins with adult siblings looking through their deceased Mother's things where they discover a secret. They "find their way" to a letter from their Mother (Francesca played by Meryl Streep) which is the content of this movie (along with 3 journals.) Francesca's words in the letter to her children open the story. "I know it sounds awful but I couldn't wait for you all to leave. You were going to be gone until Friday. Four days--just four days." This is where the story begins, in the past.
"THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY" is about these incredible life-changing four days of Francesca and Robert. The Father and children had left to enter a steer into a fair and Francesca stayed home. Not long after Francesca's family leaves, a photographer who is lost (Robert Kincaid played by Clint Eastwood) drives up to ask for directions to a covered bridge. She tries to tell him but they both get...
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