The Bridges of Madison County

Closeup on a mailbox: Mr. and Mrs. Richard Johnson. Behind it, a dusty road leading through green fields, a minivan coming towards the camera and a pan over towards an isolated farmhouse. It's the present, and Michael and Carolyn have come to settle some issues regarding their mother's estate. It seems that their mother wanted her ashes scattered from a nearby covered bridge, which startles her two grown kids, particularly the seemingly very conservative and religious Michael. Turns out that Francesca had her reasons, as they find out when they open her cedar chest and turn to the diaries contained within... Late summer 1965, and Francesca, an Iowa housewife in her mid-40s is seeing her husband and kids off to the Illinois State Fair. They'll be gone for 5 days and she'll have little to do but be bored in a different way than she usually is, until the arrival the next morning of a lost National Geographic photographer, Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood). Kincaid is on assignment to photograph the covered bridges that the county is famed for, and Francesca tries to tell him the way to the Roseman bridge but quickly decides to show him the way personally instead. As they drive towards the bridge and make small talk, they seem uneasy at first - but when Robert mentions Francesca's accent, and she finds that he has visited the town where she grew up in Italy, something starts to click. He reaches for a cigarette from the glove compartment and brushes her leg...later he picks flowers for her....they have the same favorite radio station, playing blues and jazz. Francesca starts to see something special, exotic....Robert sees someone warm and real, centered but more than the simple housewife that she's let herself become. So begins four days of falling in love, four days of uncertainty, secretive glances, shyness turning to boldness, feelings long-buried in both reawakened and examined by two people smart enough to know right away how problematic an affair can be, yet willing to cast aside the doubts and damn the consequences. For now. The brilliance of The Bridges of Madison County isn't in any kind of originality, and it isn't in the bits of Waller's strained prose that occasionally leech through LaGravenese's generally excellent screenplay; it isn't in Streep's accent, which I know some have problems with but which I barely even notice at this point; and it isn't in the framing story, which again has grown on me over time but is certainly not all that interesting itself. What makes the film magical is the chemistry, the feeling of absolute rightness between the two leads, and the slow building towards an inevitable yet still heartbreaking decision. Clint Eastwood certainly must have seemed an odd choice to take on this film, which he co-produced and co-wrote the elegiac "Doe Eyes" theme for in addition to directing and starring - even to me, a big fan already at the time, it seemed odd. Robert Redford seemed to be everybody's idea of Kincaid, and Steven Spielberg got mentioned often as a possible director, but I doubt many people will have problems after they see the film. Eastwood's Robert is a sensitive guy, but he's not schmaltzy, a poetic man but not pretentious about it, and a man clearly as unsure about the concept of love and the kind of risk he puts himself into as the married Francesca. He's a traveler and a loner, but deep down there's something missing, something we can feel almost from the beginning, something seen in the long gaze out the window near the end, and as he stands in the rain, waiting and hoping, at the film's emotional climax. And Eastwood the director keeps things from getting out of hand sentimentally until the last half hour, when both he and the audience know it's time for the tears to flow. But as good as Clint is - and this is surely one of his two or three best performances - Meryl Streep is just a marvel here. Overlook the accent - whether you like it or not, it really isn't terribly important here - and you see a less mannered, more natural performance than she's given anywhere else. She mentions a couple of times in the making-of piece that accompanies the film on DVD that she was uncertain at first of Eastwood's quick shooting style, but it does wonders for her, giving a spontaneity that she really needed for the role. So much of the film relies on us believing that these are two hesitant, uncertain people with a yearning that at first has no direction - it can't seem studied, and it doesn't. And for a film that is set mostly in a kitchen and around barn-like red covered bridges, there's an excitement and intensity that can't be matched in most romances shot under the Eiffel Tower or in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. The technical aspects - Jack N. Green's lovely September-October photography and the wonderful Eastwood-chosen musical mixture of Johnny Hartman and Dinah Washington, among others - are just about perfect as well. What the film ultimately builds to - and much of it is on Streep's shoulders - is a powerful examination of regret and loss and a determination that there are no perfect choices in life, only choices that involve different kinds of sacrifices. The film doesn't comment on the rightness or wrongness of her adultery, but Francesca lets her kids know that whatever she's done, she's not going to beat herself up over it - and neither should they. At the end, we know that whatever choice she made would have been difficult, would have involved hurting herself and others; there's no easy answer, only a bit of hope for the next generation, as they at least have come to accept and understand, and Francesca's ashes scatter on the wind.... NOTE ON THE DVD: The transfer on this 2008 "special edition" DVD is very nice and the aspect ratio correct - really essential to this tightly-shot film. Good if a little over-effusive commentary by cinematographer Jack Green and editor Joel Cox and a nice little making-of featurette.

Truly unexpected!!! I love it, to see Clint Eastwood so emotional was Brilliantly Done......WELL DONE!

Well cast. Beautifully presented. Love this movie.

Best book I ever read. Better than the movie.

While watching this movie, I felt that I must write a review of it. All the while being able to relate to the characters in this movie. I could understand the emotions of the children finding out about their seemingly morally pristine mother. I had my illusions of my own father destroyed similarly. My father was no saint such as Francesca (Merryl Streep) , but still as a son, especially the youngest of four, I had a sense of believing my father was fantastic, and finding out later he was not, can be devastating. At the same time, I could feel for Francesca's dilemma, I too once had a choice of going down the path of infidelity. Again not to the romantic cause of Francesca, but having been their I understand. My ex-wife to this day could not believe I had done it, and it was only the words from my own mouth that made her believe I had cheated on her. I also understood the role of Clint Eastwood's character. Long before any marriages of my own, I had a brief affair with a woman when I was a young U.S. Marine, and she was a Marine's wife. I wanted so much to take what the other Marine had, but I could not bring myself to stomp on another Marine's life, while he was in the desert fighting for his country, and all the while I was home, in the rear with the gear, and his beautiful wife. I loved her, but when her husband came home, the hero he deserved to be, I let her go back to his life with her kids as she should have. When I first viewed this movie, I was not as experienced in life as I am now. Now, having seen it for the first time in twenty years, and with a lot more water under the bridge, I see this movie in a whole new perspective. Not to say that in 1995, I thought ill of this movie. The movie was greatly thought provoking then, but being young and up to that point with pure ideals. I can't say I approved of their actions back in 1995, just like their children before didn't before reading the diaries of their mother. In 1995, I felt what they did would not have been right in the eyes of God, and even when she redeemed herself in the end, it was still a shameful situation. Despite that, it was still a good movie to me in 1995. It was a fine remarkable performance by Clint Eastwood, the bad ass of tough guys, and a glimpse of a true artist in Meryl Streep. She would play a similar role later called "Mamma Mia". Now for me, over twenty years later, it really hits closer to the gut. I still don't condone the actions of the characters in this film, nor my own in my now morally challenged life. I am simply now saying, that I can understand and to a degree, empathize with the author and characters of this book. In today's time and age, I would hate to imagine how many women would not have made the choice Francesca did in the end. To many viewers of this film, I imagine, what happened in this film was nothing, and do not even realize the implications of it. So what a house wife has an affair, they might think. In rural Iowa in the age this movie was set in, it was a really big deal. Just look at the character in the film that was caught having an affair. The entire community ostracized her. If Francesca would have been caught it would have killed her husband and driven her children to hate their mother. Overall, I think this is a film many people watching will not fully grasp, even if they bother to finish watching it. However, this was an amazing film, for mature adults especially.

Love the movie

A movie for anyone who enjoys a story of unexpected romance! Major movie stars share a beautiful story.

What of my all time favorite movies that I can watch again and again! Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep are brilliant, in my opinion, in their roles. So believable, and so relatable.

emballage en espagnol...

「マディソン郡の橋」は、原文（英文）でも、翻訳でも読みました。映画も１回見た記憶があります。 年寄りにとっては、超感動の物語です。 今回は、英語の勉強のため、購入しました。 何度でも見直してクリント・イーストウッドのセリフをしゃべれるようになりたいと思います！

This is a lovely and very emotional movie. A very different role for Clint Eastwood in which he performed very well. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a true love story.

Rien à redire, film culte à ajouter à ma collection

One of the best movies ever made in my opinion. Brilliant acting, both Clint and Meryl 'are' their parts. Haunting from start til end and brilliantly directed by Clint. This Blu-Ray release looks fantastic, way better than the previous DVD.