Reviewing Movies

Having visited Madison County, Iowa gives the Clint Eastwood/Meryl Streep movie The Bridges of Madison County an entirely new perspective. For one thing I’ve smelt the rich black loamy soil and witnessed the gently rolling countryside and dusty dirt roads. There really is a place called Winterset, the County Seat but it is interesting that no mention of Marion Morrison’s birthplace a quarter-mile from one of the bridges is made but then Eastwood directed. Farm dogs really do believe they own the roads and although roads are marked these days and signs direct tourists to the area’s second biggest attraction after the new John Wayne Museum the roads remain unpaved, winding, and washboard. The directions seem accurate. One caveat, only one of the remaining bridges is still used for through traffic most having been moved to safer locations and due to vandalism all need video surveillance to prevent pyromania.

The movie proceeds at a leisurely pace the brother and sister who are learning about their Mother’s “Affair” inter-spaced with the main event. The movie would have one believe that this couple’s 4-day tryst marked an urbane world-traveling photographer for life. The other poignancy is that of Francesca a war-bride who gave up a love of the fine arts and teaching to dedicate herself to being a farm wife and raising two children amid a narrow gossiping one-note community. May I confess that in my travels I’ve found a hardcover copy of the Robert Waller book that I need now to read so I can compare. Eastwood starred, directed, and produced this effort.