The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
89%RT Audience Score: 87%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
7 wins & 18 nominations total
Sentimental, slow, schmaltzy, and very satisfying, The Bridges of Madison County finds Clint Eastwood adapting a bestseller with heft, wit, and grace
If you’re looking for a movie that will make you feel all the feels, The Bridges of Madison County is the one for you. Sure, it’s a bit slow to start, but once you get past the first 15 minutes, you’ll be hooked. Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood have amazing chemistry and their love story is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Plus, the scenery is absolutely stunning. It’s the perfect movie to watch on a rainy day with a box of tissues.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Roseman Bridge, Winterset, Iowa, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 on appeal for some sexuality and brief strong language
Year of Release
1995
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 15m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 2, 1995 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 22, 1997
Genre(s)
Romance/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Annie Corley, Victor Slezak, Jim Haynie, Sarah Kathryn Schmitt, directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Richard LaGravenese, produced by Clint Eastwood, Kathleen Kennedy, romance, drama, PG-13, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Noel Murray, Jeff Shannon, Carrie Rickey, Jay Boyar, Anthony Lane, Gene Siskel, Clint Eastwood as Robert Kincaid, Meryl Streep as Francesca Johnson, Annie Corley as Carolyn Johnson, Victor Slezak as Michael Johnson, Jim Haynie as Richard Johnson, Sarah Kathryn Schmitt as Carolyn, love story, affair, photographer, housewife, bridges, soul mates, Warner Bros Pictures, Surround, Stereo
Worldwide gross: $182,016,617
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $357,910,168
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 429
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 39,030,553
US/Canada gross: $71,516,617
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $140,627,404
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 548
US/Canada opening weekend: $10,519,257
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $20,684,645
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 638
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $24,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $47,192,636
Production budget ranking: 837
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $25,413,235
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $285,304,297
ROI to date (est.): 393%
ROI ranking: 346
- "Johnson (child)")
Meryl Streep – Francesca Johnson
Annie Corley – Carolyn Johnson
Victor Slezak – Michael Johnson
Jim Haynie – Richard Johnson
Sarah Kathryn Schmitt – Carolyn
Director(s)
Clint Eastwood
Writer(s)
NA
Producer(s)
Clint Eastwood, Kathleen Kennedy
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
7 wins & 18 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (60) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (6)
The strength of Eastwood’s Bridges is in its patience, and how it lets the love story develop from start to finish, even though the audience knows from the beginning the broad strokes of what’s going to happen.
May 5, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
Noel Murray
The Dissolve
TOP CRITIC
With Eastwood as Kincaid and Meryl Streep as Francesca, this carefully observant love story turns Waller’s pop-lit passion into screen art.
July 31, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times
TOP CRITIC
Bridges is an admirable achievement, one that probably does more to reposition its maker as someone who can carry a movie without carrying a gun than as the director/star of a Love Story for the Loving Care set.
July 31, 2013 | Rating: 3/4
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
The result, if rather thin and certainly far from a masterpiece, is nevertheless quite lovely. This affecting little film is easily one of Eastwood’s best efforts as a director.
July 31, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
TOP CRITIC
The two leads’ sly comic rhythm is miles removed from the book’s failing solemnity.
July 31, 2013
Anthony Lane
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
Eastwood’s Bridges has the energy and spontaneity of a picture that was shot quickly. And that serves the material well, because it removes the solemnity that could stiffle a modern classic.
July 31, 2013 | Rating: 4/4
Gene Siskel
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
This film starts as a yawnfest, but if you can tough it out through the first 15 minutes it turns into quite a little gem of a movie.
May 13, 2022
Sheila Reid
Women in the Life
Their story might be small, unglamorous, and generally unexciting, but there’s no denying its pleasantness and significance.
September 11, 2020 | Rating: 6/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
Book-based romantic drama about a married woman’s affair.
October 17, 2018 | Rating: 3/5
Barbara Shulgasser
Common Sense Media
Those who found Waller’s book an outrageously bad read may be gratefully surprised to find less mush in the movie.
July 31, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/4
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News
Beautifully photographed and directed with an intimate maturity, the film reveals its characters in an unhurried way, thus making the audience accomplices in the unfolding liaison.
July 31, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
Tom Hutchinson
Radio Times
The movie, thank goodness, is better than the book. What’s more surprising is that The Bridges of Madison County is an accomplished piece of moviemaking.
July 31, 2013
Leah Rozen
People Magazine…
Plot
The path of Francesca Johnson’s (Meryl Streep’s) future seems destined when an unexpected fork in the road causes her to question everything she had come to expect from life. While her husband and children are away at the Illinois State Fair in the summer of 1965, Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) happens to turn into the Johnson farm and asks Francesca for directions to Roseman Bridge. Francesca later learns that he was in Iowa on assignment from National Geographic Magazine. She is reluctant seeing that he’s a complete stranger, and then she agrees to show him to the bridges and gradually she talks about her life from being a war-bride from Italy which sets the pace for this bittersweet and all-too-brief romance of her life. Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the facts of her life consume her, she writes her thoughts of the four-day love affair which took up three journals. The journals are found by her children after the lawyer was going over Francesca’s will and all of the contents which produces a key to her hope chest in the bedroom which contained some of hers and Robert’s things. The message they take from the diaries is to what you what you have to do to be happy in life. After learning that Robert Kincaid’s cremated remains were scattered off Roseman Bridge and that their mother requested that she too be cremated and her ashes to be scattered off Roseman Bridge, the children must decide whether to honor their mother’s final wishes or bury her alongside their father as the family had planned. Adapted from the novel by Robert James Waller, this is the story of a special love that happens just once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Nothing to add here about The Bridges of Madison County.
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