THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995)

MORGAN'S RATING

World-travelling National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid and Iowa housewife Francesca Johnson aren't looking to turn their lives upside down. Each is at a point in life where expectations are behind them. Yet four days after meeting, they won't want to lose the love they've found. With luck, a love like that happens to some of us sooner or later. For Robert and Francesca, it was later. And it was glorious.

Clint Eastwood (Robert Kincaid), Meryl Streep (Francesca Johnson), Annie Corley (Caroline), Victor Slezak (Michael Johnson), Jim Haynie (Richard Johnson), Sarah Kathryn Schmitt (Young Carolyn), Christopher Kroon (Young Michael), Phyllis Lyons (Betty), Debra Monk (Madge), Richard Lage (Lawyer), Michelle Benes (Lucy Redfield), Alison Wiegert, Brandon Bobst (Children), Pearl Faessler (Wife), R.E. 'Stick' Faessler (Husband), Tania Mishler, Billie McNabb (Waitresses), Art Breese (Cashier), Lana Schwab (Saleswoman), Larry Loury (UPS Driver), James Rivers, Mark A. Brooks, Peter Cho, Eddie Dejean Sr., James C. Brewer, Kyle Eastwood (James River Band Members), George Orrison, Ken Billeter, Judy Trask, David Trask, Edna Dolson, Dennis McCool, Michael C. Pommier, Jana Corkrean, M. Jane Seymour, Karla Jo Soper (Cafe Patrons).

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven). WRITERS: Richard LaGravenese, and based on the novel by Robert James Waller. PRODUCERS: Clint Eastwood and Kathleen Kennedy. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Michael Maurer and Tom Rooker. ORIGINAL MUSIC: Lennie Niehaus and Clint Eastwood. DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.

QUOTES

Francesca: And in that moment, everything I knew to be true about myself up until then was gone. I was acting like another woman, yet I was more myself than ever before.

FACTS

RELEASE DATE: June 5th, 1995 (USA) BOX OFFICE OPENING: $10.5 million (USA) BOX OFFICE RESULT: $71.5 million (USA) WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $176.0 million BUDGET: $24 million (USA) - In 1993, Sydney Pollack was the frontrunner for the director's chair for this film and it was expected that Robert Redford would star. At the time, other contenders for the female lead included Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Barbara Hershey and Anjelica Huston. - The Cedar Bridge, where Francesca met Robert, was destroyed in a fire on September 3, 2002. - Francesca's House was burned in an arson fire on October 6, 2003, almost a year after the Cedar Bridge was destroyed. - The farmhouse used in the film had been abandoned for over thirty years and was completely restored by production designer Jeannie Claudia Oppewall and her art directors Charles Breen and William Arnold. - Nominated for one Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Meryl Streep).

Robert Kincaid: This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.

Francesca: I was just going to have some iced tea and split the atom.

Robert: If you want me to stop, tell me now. Francesca: No one's asking you to.

Robert: The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but I'm glad I had them.

Robert: I don't want to need you, 'cause I can't have you.

Robert: Don't kid yourself, Francesca: you are anything but a simple woman.

Caroline: Who knew that, in between bake sales, my mother was Anais Nin?

Robert: When I think of why I make pictures, the reason that I can come up with just seems that I've been making my way here. It seems right now that all I've ever done in my life is making my way here to you.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

"The gap between touchy-feely and touching isn't easy to span, so credit judicious pruning in the one hand and a beefed-up script on the other for getting perhaps the best possible movie out of Robert James Waller's book." -- Mike Clark, USA Today

"Streep and Eastwood are so visually and spiritually right they seem to have walked right off the page." -- Entertainment Weekly