Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #892 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Arabic
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 129 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Some called it a snooze-fest, while others tearfully clutched their Kleenex. In any case, Clint Eastwood was an unusual and (as it turned out) perceptive choice to direct and costar in this lush adaptation of Robert James Waller's phenomenally bestselling novel. Meryl Streep costars as Francesca, the lonely Iowa farmer's wife who is instantly attracted to Robert (Eastwood), the photographer from National Geographic who is in the area to photograph the bridges along Iowa's rural roadways. The two fall in love while Francesca's husband and children are away at a county fair, but the story's passion and lasting appeal derive from their decision to part forever after just a few brief days of intimate connection. Superbly acted with an emphasis on quiet, graceful moments of tender revelation, the film builds to a crescendo of powerful and conflicting emotions. Like David Lean's Brief Encounter (to which it bears marked similarities), The Bridges of Madison County is destined to become one of the classic film love stories. --Jeff Shannon

Special Features
1.33 Full Screen
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Arabic
English

Synopsis
Based on Robert James Waller's hugely successful novel, this 1965-set drama chronicles the touching romance between a middle-aged, Italian-American housewife and a photographer from 'National Geographic'. Academy Award nominations: Best Actress--Meryl Streep.

Customer Reviews

A film of incredible emotion
Having recently read a feature in Sight & Sound abaout how Clint Eastwood is possibly, going on his track record, America's greatest living director, I felt that, as a self-respecting film fan, I should really delve into a bit of his back catalogue. For some reason, the blurb about 'The Bridges of Madison County' appealed to me more than many of his other films, so I rented it and was in due course blown away.
The film is full of incredibly emotive, and as it moves on, incredibly tense scenes, expertly played by Eastwood and co-star Meryl Streep. It's fundamentally a love story, with Streep, playing an Italian who has moved to live in Iowa simply because it is in America, torn between her husband, who she has apparently grown out of love with, and Eastwood, who she spends only four days with while her family are out of town.
Like Streep's children in the film, who only come to learn of her feelings for Eastwood after her death, you are drawn to both characters, despite the immorality of their actions, perhaps because what we're seeing is true love at work, or perhaps because, unlike a lot of tales of marital infidelity, it is the woman rather than the man who is the perpetrator. I think the fact that both Eastwood's and Streep's characters both clearly feel morally uncomfortable, at least at first, with what they are doing, also helps to render them attractive to the viewer. Indeed, the reason for their discomfort has shifted by the end of the film, when Streep realises the mistake she has made in not following true love and Eastwood, in turning down what Eastwood calls a 'chance which comes but once in a lifetime'.
There is a great shot at the end of the film when Streep's pick-up, driven by her husband and with her in the passenger seat, is sitting behind Eastwood's at a set of traffic lights. The two stationary pictures of the back of Eastwood's truck and Streep's emotionally-wrecked face bring the film to its emotional peak in a way that I have seen no other director do anywhere near as well.
For me, this film is unmissable.

Modern classic
This is one of my all time favourites, a modern classic. The acting by the two main leads is superb; understated but deeply moving. This is not your normal 'chick flick' indeed it surpasses any label due to the quality of the acting and direction, even the rural Iowa scenery has it's own part to play. It's a testimony to the actors invloved that the film stands up despite it's relatively small cast. I read the novel after seeing the film, and unusually the film adaptation came out top. The anguish that Francesca and Robert feel is sweetly balanced by their love story and I recommend anyone who appreciates a gently told tale with great acting to buy this.

agreable big surprise
Sincerely, the bridges at Madison County are horrible constructions, but the USA is a rich country that can afford to waste money in remembering his short History while in Spain and Portugal there's plenty of noble buildings ruined, nor signaled and almost unknown. Apart from that...just entering at the cinema, one hopes impatiently that Clint Eastwood removes the high explosives and blows the bloody maudit bridges after knocking out the bad guys that have kidnapped Meryl Steeep and shot nor less 30 bullets each one of the bandits with his Magnum 44 and have destroyed the locality by complete. Instead of that, we have a sensitive film sentimental and human, with two protagonists which have in common they know some more than his own country, Eastwood for being a professional international photographer and Meryl Streep for being born Italian. It's nonpretentious, the narrowminded ambiance of the county is the same in all the world, and that reveals Eastwood knows much of cinema than it's supossed. A class of love that is believable and in effect, these things doesn't happen every day to everybody.