BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, THE

(June 1995, U.S.)

You may have begun to notice that every once in a while I offer some kind of personal confession in some of my blog posts. Well, here we go again, people - my confession for this post is that when it comes to love on the big screen, I prefer to watch a straight-forward, sentimental love story rather than a silly romantic comedy. Come on, think about all the romantic comedies that have come out over the last decade and tell me that they haven't all been following the same damn formula time and time again! The guy's best friend is always some goofball. The girl's best friend is either a female goofball or a flamboyant gay guy. And more often than not, the guy and girl aren't even that interested in each other at the beginning of the film.

So, that having been said, let's discuss THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. If you were of adult-reading age back in 1992, there's no way you could not have heard of Robert James Waller's mega New York Times best seller. It was THE book everyone was talking about! Now here's my second confession for you all - this remains the only love story I have ever read. I read it almost out of professional obligation because in 1992 I was working in a small bookstore and felt required to read it so I would have some sense of what I was talking about when I sold it to customers. The book was small and only took a few hours to read. I'd be lying through my teeth if I didn't tell you that I was captivated and enthralled just like every other person who fell for this simple story of forbidden love between an Italian war bride living in 1960's Iowa and a rugged photographer who has come to Madison County to shoot a photographic essay for National Geographic on the covered bridges in the area. The four days they spend together while her family is away are a turning point in her life. She writes of her experience in a diary which is discovered by her children after her death. Needless to say, they are stunned by her secret confessions.

After completing the book, my first thought was, of course, that it would make a great film. But I went into details and told people that I though it would make a great Robert Redford-directed film starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Well, as things turned out, I got one-third of it right. Both of my speculations for Redford were replaced by Clint Eastwood and it was a great film, nonetheless, during a summer that was dominated by the likes of DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE and BATMAN FOREVER (that movie sucked!). And just when you thought Clint Eastwood's film characters weren't capable of much more than shooting a .44 Magnum or punching somebody's lights out, he turns out to be a gentle, sentimental lover, as well. What a guy!

Now here's a personal story which is only INdirectly related to the film's story. It's a story of my mother. She came to this country from Egypt in the early '60s. She met my dad, they got married and the rest is...well, never mind that. In 1996, six years after my parents (finally) split for good, she took a trip to Los Angeles and made a phone call that would change the rest of her life. She contacted the man she had PREVIOUSLY been engaged to in Egypt before coming to this country and meeting my dad. By chance, he just happened to be divorced and available. Jump ahead two years and they were married. When they were first reunited, it seemed as if my mother and her long-lost sweetheart were living their own version of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. As far as how it all turned out...well, that story resides three thousand miles away in another state.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Francesca Johnson: "Robert, please. You don't understand, no-one does. When a woman makes the choice to marry, to have children; in one way her life begins but in another way it stops. You build a life of details. You become a mother, a wife and you stop and stay steady so that your children can move. And when they leave they take your life of details with them. And then you're expected move again only you don't remember what moves you because no-one has asked in so long. Not even yourself. You never in your life think that love like this can happen to you."
Robert Kincaid: "But now that you have it..."
Francesca: "I want to keep it forever. I want to love you the way I do now the rest of my life. Don't you understand... we'll lose it if we leave. I can't make an entire life disappear to start a new one. All I can do is try to hold onto to both. Help me. Help me not lose loving you."