Have you seen The Bridges of Madison County?
It’s a 1995 romantic movie produced, directed and starred in by Clint Eastwood based on the best-selling novel by Robert James Waller.
Waller’s novel of the same title sold 50 million copies all over the world making it one of the best-selling books of the 20th century while Eastwood’s film did not disappoint critics, audiences and producers alike as it earned more than $182 million at the box office and received critical acclaim upon release. The $22 million film was hailed by film critics as an Eastwood masterpiece reaping multiple nominations and awards for the cast and crew. The film took a different approach as compared to how it was written in the novel by telling the story from Francesca’s point of view as scripted by screenwriter Richard LaGravanese who wrote the critically acclaimed The Fisher King.
The Bridges of Madison County, starred in by award-winning film icons Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, is about the love story of a nomadic National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid and the shy and reserved Italian housewife Francesca Johnson. The couple’s four-day love affair started at the covered bridges of Madison County located not far from the farm residence of Francesca in a sleepy town in Iowa in 1965 for which Kincaid was shooting a photographic essay. Kincaid sought the help of the domesticated Francesca to give him a tour of the bridges. Francesca obliged because she had time to spare from her domestic chores especially since her husband and children were away for a few days to attend a town fair. Since then, the spark of love and passion between the two strangers had been ignited and their connection was sealed forever.
Within the four-day affair, Francesca’s lackluster life was replaced by that of excitement, energy, passion and inner joy. She fell in love with Robert Kincaid as a different woman far from the bored and seemingly unappreciated housewife and mother that she was when her family left for the town fair. She dressed herself better having rediscovered her physical beauty as lovingly appreciated by Robert and she laughed again, harder and much louder than before in the company of the man who adored her. Robert, on the other hand, was suddenly faced by a sense of stability, of permanence, of a burning desire to finally stay put and live with the woman that he could finally spend the rest of his life with.
After four days of frolicking in town with Robert Kincaid wearing updated sleeveless outfits, Francesca slid back from the beer drinking and jolly woman who once uttered side remarks about her linoleum unbecoming of a married housewife to the quiet and reserved and seemingly unappreciated Mrs. Johnson when her unsuspecting family came back from the town fair. Robert tried to persuade the beautiful woman to leave the sleepy town with him for good so they could live with and love each other as they were meant to for the rest of their lives.
On Robert’s last day in town, he drove his jeep and followed his beloved and her husband on their way home from a trip to the grocery store. It was Francesca’s own version of the Twilight Zone with her one foot in the love drunk world of Robert Kincaid’s with all the promises of a happier life and her other foot toiling in her kitchen, unloading her bag of humdrum existence.
Francesca almost succumbed to Robert’s plea until the last minute but a stronger force interfered … her children, her husband of many years and her high regard for the sanctity of her marriage vows. She was in tears when she looked at Robert’s car slowly fading away from a distance as he left her town for good.
In 1965, Robert and Francesca’s situation was deemed sinful, morally wrong and seriously complicated as it would have been today. However, back in the day, people were generally blanketed by values and principles that they upheld as dear and important. Had Robert and Francesca lived today, their situation may have been a little bit simpler and easier to digest. Amidst the influx of cyber communication and social networking venues sprouting one after another, Robert and Francesca may potentially have had a longer affair and gone on a quest for moral direction of forgettable proportions.
Ironically, The Bridges of Madison County seemed to have created a division among its audience’s views regarding the intricate subject of marriage, one that the Catholic Church considers a sacred sacrament and that which the State upholds as a legally binding contract. The story somehow injected some sort of confusion on whether to uphold marriage as a contract or to just grab life by the horns when an interesting opportunity presents itself for the sake of one’s happiness despite moral and legal limitations.
Needless to say, Francesca’s and Robert’s story while inappropriate and illegitimate is beautiful. It was a story of rekindled passion and reckless abandon for the sake of living the kind of life that they had always dreamed of but thought was never possible.
However, many questions remain unanswered.
Was it really the right thing to do?
As Francesca told her children in her letter, “What Robert and I had could not continue if we were together. What Richard and I shared would vanish if we were apart.”
Had Robert and Francesca decided to elope, would they have lived happily for the rest of their lives? Would Francesca have been ridden with insurmountable guilt being the religious woman that she was for leaving her kids and her unsuspecting husband? Would Francesca have been satisfied with Robert’s ways as her new husband? Would she have discovered that Robert was really a pathetic slob and it was not worth being his new domestically unaided wife? Would they both have discovered that it was just a whirlwind romance that became flat and uninteresting when the excitement of doing prohibited things that spiced up their affair was truly gone? Was it an instance of an everlasting connection that was better left off as a short affair so the magic of not knowing what could have further developed is forever sealed with love, romance and good intentions instead of being broken by disappointments and dissatisfaction later on if the affair was prolonged?
Amidst all these questions, one thing is certain.
Your take on the Bridges of Madison County is solely up to you based on your own individual perception and beliefs about love, marriage, family and true happiness.
As Robert Kincaid said, “This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.” You either take it or leave it and forever wonder what could have been.
To Generation X who potentially knows more and is wiser now having been exposed to the realities and complexities of adulthood and life in general than they did when the film first came out in 1995, it would be interesting to know how they would have responded to Kincaid’s plea if they were in Francesca’s shoes.
Robert gave Francesca both the honor of taking the reins and the burden of choosing the fate of their relationship as he pleaded, “If you want me to stop, tell me now.”
If you were Francesca Johnson torn between family and romance, what would you have done?
In light of Waller’s and Eastwood’s probable artistic intentions, may your choice be made in the spirit of love, true happiness, respect and responsibility.
Note: Meryl Streep was recently honored as one of the recipients of the 34th annual Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime achievement in the performing arts. Her recent portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, a formidable and admirable figure during the Gen X era, in the film Iron Lady released on December 26, 2011 garnered rave reviews from film critics.
Comments