| The Bridges of Madison County | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byBill Gold | |
| Directed by | Clint Eastwood |
| Screenplay by | Richard LaGravenese Clint Eastwood (uncredited) Steven Spielberg (uncredited) |
| Based on | The Bridges of Madison County byRobert James Waller |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
| Edited by | Joel Cox |
| Music by | Lennie Niehaus |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 134 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $22 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $182 million[4] |
The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 Americanromantic drama film based on the 1992bestselling novel of the same name byRobert James Waller.[5] It was produced and directed byClint Eastwood, who also starred in the film alongsideMeryl Streep. The screenplay was adapted byRichard LaGravenese with rewrites by Eastwood andSteven Spielberg.Kathleen Kennedy was co-producer. It was produced byAmblin Entertainment andMalpaso Productions, and distributed byWarner Bros. Entertainment.
The Bridges of Madison County is set in 1965 and features Italianwar bride Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on theirIowa farm. That year she meetsNational Geographic photojournalist Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood), who comes toMadison County, Iowa to photograph its historiccovered bridges. With Francesca's family away for a short trip, the couple have an intense, four-day love affair. The film was released on 2 June 1995 and earned $182 million worldwide.[4] It received generally positive reviews upon release, with high praise directed towards Streep's performance, earning her a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Actress at the68th Academy Awards.
In the present, adult siblings Michael and Carolyn Johnson arrive at theIowa farmhouse of their recently deceased mother, Francesca, to settle her estate. They are shocked upon learning that she had requested to be cremated and her ashes scattered fromRoseman Covered Bridge, rather than be buried next to her late husband, Richard.
Michael initially refuses, but while he and Carolyn look through the safe deposit box, they discover an envelope containing photographs, letters, and a key. The photos are of Francesca taken at theHolliwell Covered Bridge and the letters are from a man named Robert Kincaid.
The key is to Francesca's locked hope chest. In it are three hardbound notebooks. There are also severalNational Geographic magazines, including one featuringMadison County'scovered wooden bridges,[6] old cameras, a book, and other mementos. The magazine includes a photo of Kincaid, who photographed the bridges; he is wearing Francesca's crucifix pendant.
As Michael and Carolyn begin reading Francesca's notebooks, the film flashes back to 1965. Francesca, aWWIIwar bride originally fromBari, Italy, stays home while her husband and teenage son and daughter attend the state fair for the next four days.
Robert Kincaid, aNational Geographic photojournalist on assignment to photograph the county's historic bridges, arrives at the Johnson farm, asking for directions to Roseman Bridge. Francesca rides along to show him the way. Their subsequent affair occurs over four days.
Francesca details the intense affair and its lasting influence on her and Robert, hoping Michael and Carolyn will understand and honor her final request. She and Robert fell deeply in love and nearly ran away together. Francesca, confined to a passionless marriage, was unable to abandon her teenage children and loyal husband.
Though Francesca loved Robert, she questioned whether their spontaneous relationship could survive over time. He, moved by their brief encounter, found renewed meaning in life and his true calling as an artist. Robert's memories helped sustain her through the remaining years on the farm.
After her husband's death, Francesca attempted to contact Robert, but he had leftNational Geographic and his whereabouts were unknown. She later learned that he died about three years after her husband, and left his belongings to her. Robert's ashes were scattered from Roseman Bridge.
In the present, Michael and Carolyn, struggling with their own marriages, are deeply moved by their mother's story. They find new directions to their individual lives and finally carry out their mother's wishes to scatter her ashes from Roseman Bridge.
"I've been that guy a little bit, going off by myself years ago in a pickup truck into Nevada, scouting locations forHigh Plains Drifter. But I didn't stop off with any housewives while doing that."
Amblin Entertainment, a production company founded bySteven Spielberg, bought the film rights to Waller's novel for $25,000 in late 1991, before its publication—by the time of the film's release, the novel sold 9.5 million copies worldwide.[3] Spielberg first askedSydney Pollack to direct, who gotKurt Luedtke to draft the first version of the adaptation but then bowed out;Ronald Bass was brought in byKathleen Kennedy and Spielberg to work on the script, but they were unsatisfied with the results.[3] But a third draft byRichard LaGravenese was liked by Eastwood, who quite early had been cast for the male lead, and by Spielberg, both saw potential in the draft but decided to rewrite it together to adjust imperfections that they perceived and find the perfect voice for the project, Spielberg enjoyed so much working with Eastwood and LaGravenese writing the script with them that he considered makingBridges his next film afterSchindler's List (1993), which was in post-production at the time.[3] Both men liked that LaGravenese's script presented the story from Francesca's point of view; but Eastwood and Spielberg introduce the framing device of having Francesca's adult children discover and read her diaries.[3] When Spielberg decided not to direct, he then brought inBruce Beresford, who gotAlfred Uhry to draft another version of the script; whenWarner Bros., Spielberg, and Eastwood all preferred their draft with LaGravenese, Beresford dropped out and Eastwood asked to direct the film and co-produce it with his production companyMalpaso Productions to have more control over the movie and make the project move forward.[3]
Catherine Deneuve andIsabella Rossellini didscreen tests to play Francesca,[7] but despite Spielberg's initial reluctance, Eastwood had advocatedMeryl Streep for the role from the beginning.[3]
Principal photography took 42 days, ending on November 1, 1994, ten days ahead of Eastwood's 52-day schedule; Eastwood filmed it chronologically from Francesca's point of view, "because it was important to work that way. We were two people getting to know each other, in real-time, as actors and as the characters."[3] It was filmed on location inMadison County,Iowa, including the town ofWinterset, and in theDallas County town ofAdel.[2]
TheMPAA ratings board initially gave the film an "R" rating, for the line "Or should we just fuck on the linoleum one last time?", a line of dialogue spoken sarcastically by Francesca; Eastwood appealed, and the rating was reduced to a PG-13.[3]
The Bridges of Madison County opened theatrically on June 2, 1995, in 1,805 venues. It grossed $10,519,257 in its opening weekend, ranking number two at the US box office, behindCasper (which was in its second weekend and coincidentally features Eastwood in a cameo).[8] It wasnumber one at the Japanese box office for nine consecutive weeks, grossing over $35 million.[9][10] At the end of its run, the film grossed $71,516,617 in the United States and Canada and $110,500,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $182,016,617.[4]
OnRotten Tomatoes,The Bridges of Madison County has a score of 90% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's consensus states: "Sentimental, slow, schmaltzy, and very satisfying,The Bridges of Madison County finds Clint Eastwood adapting a bestseller with heft, wit, and grace."[11] OnMetacritic, the film has a 69 out of 100 rating, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A+ to F.[13]
According toJanet Maslin fromThe New York Times, "Clint Eastwood, director and alchemist, has transformedThe Bridges of Madison County into something bearable—no, something even better. Limited by the vapidity of this material while he trims its excesses with the requisite machete, Eastwood locates a moving, elegiac love story at the heart ofMr. Waller's self-congratulatory overkill. The film has leanness and surprising decency, and Streep has her best role in years. Looking sturdy and voluptuous in her plain housedress (the year is 1965), she rises straight out ofChristina's World to embody all the loneliness and fierce yearningAndrew Wyeth captured on canvas. And yet, despite the Iowa setting and the emphasis on down-home Americana, Eastwood'sBridges of Madison County has a European flavor. Its pace is unhurried, which is not the same as slow. It respects long silences and pays attention to small details. It sustains an austere tone and staves off weepiness until the last reel. It voices musings that would definitely sound better in French."[14]
Richard Corliss fromTime stated that Eastwood is the "most reticent of directors—where the book ogles, the film discreetly observes—and, here, the courtliest of stars...As scripted byRichard LaGravenese (The Fisher King),The Bridges of Madison County has a slightly riper theme than the book. It is about the anticipation and consequences of passion—the slow dance of appraisal, of waiting to make a move that won't be rejected, of debating what to do when the erotic heat matures into love light. What is the effect of an affair on a woman who has been faithful to her husband, and on a rootless man who only now realizes he needs the one woman he can have but not hold?" Corliss concludes "The Bridges of Madison County is Eastwood's gift to women: to Francesca, to all the girls he's loved before—and to Streep, who alchemizes literary mawkishness into intelligent movie passion."[15]
The Bridges of Madison County tied withGoodbye South, Goodbye (1996) andCarlito's Way (1993) as the best film of the 1990s in a poll byCahiers du Cinéma.[16]
The film is recognized byAmerican Film Institute in these lists:
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