As I was watching this film, Eastwood made me smile, touched me in this movie, as so did Meryl Streep.
Remembering first seeing Eastwood in the classic 1959 Western Television show, "Rawhide." Other films, and one of my favorites portraying Detective Callahan, "Dirty Harry," "Go ahead, make my day." ;}
To my surprise he pulled this one off phenomenally! A sensitive lover, yet strong. A man with true convictions, with "The Old Fashion Bleeding Heart." Chivalrous, gallant & honorable. "True love," if only for one brief shinning moment. He loved her. And he died loving her.
As for Meryl Streep, a four star actress and winning her 10th Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a mundane Iowa housewife. "Stellar performance," I must admit.
The story: Francesca Johnson is left alone as her husband and children leave for the State Fair in Illinois for four days.
Robert Kincaid a photographer traveling on assignment to Madison County, Iowa, to shoot covered bridges for the National Geographic. He meets Francesca "coincidentally" as he has lost his way looking for one of the bridges and ends up at the Johnson Farm. He asks her for directions, she agrees to show him... reluctantly.
Eventually the two fall in love, share a rare and sentiment romance lasting only four days.
Perhaps it was her heart's desire to quench her "first love." Something she, for a lack of better words, "bargained," sold long ago, for a chance to be in America.
Marrying Richard Johnson, a Iowa farmer for that opportunity, as he was an American Solider in the US Army, stationed in Italy.
The four brief and magic days are a turning point for Francesca, and Robert thought such a love could not be found, much less that it existed.
From the moment Robert & Francesca encountered one another, something awaken, aroused the deep emotions that lay dormant long ago within their subconscious.
Maybe, they were a couple who remembered they once shared a true love. A love blessed so strong that it would last for many lifetimes.
A love that could reach across eternity, weaving through the karmic pattern of the Great Universe. With luck & chance, two souls woven into the cosmic dance of destine partnership, "Heaven on Earth."
Finally the end had to come. Robert & Francesca had to part. They argue because he has to leave but he gives her the option to "go with him..."
She starts to pack, but sadly realizing leaving with him would only take from the love they shared. So she stays. Sacrificing for her children and her bittersweet marriage to Richard.
(No one never knew of Francesca's clandestine love affair until her death which was discovered by her adult children. They were "stunned" as they went through their mother's belongings. Finding pictures that "someone" had taken of her; along with last wishes and finally her journals of the four days, when they had gone to the State Fair with their father, as children).
Robert is crushed and broken. They both are as he leaves never to return until his death. His ashes are sent to her to be thrown over that fateful bridge that connected them in this life.
Robert said it best as he was getting ready to walk out the door and I quote: "I'll only say this one time...I've never said it before. This kind of certainty comes but just once in a lifetime."
Yes it does. Just "one brief shinning moment", written in the ancient heavens forever.
And like the heavens, "True love, has no boundaries............................................"
A strong and powerful message about unexpected forks in the road: Do what you have to do to be happy in this life.
A lesson well learned about the mystery and beauty of LOVE.
"I asked GOD for all things that I might enjoy life....I was given LIFE that I might enjoy all things."
~AMV El Gato Negro.
No comments:
Post a Comment