The Bridges of Madison County

 

The Bridges of Madison County is one of the greatest love stories ever told. So I believed. 

I had read the famous love story in a Mumbai local on a Sunday morning, and I remember getting teary eyed in the end. Many years later, I watched the movie, directed by Clint Eastwood. 

The movie tells the story of a beautiful and bored housewife who lives in a remote village in America with her ex-Marine husband and children. Once when they are away for a short trip to the city, she decides to spend 3 nights with a  documentary photographer visiting her village. The photographer offers to marry her, but she refuses to go with him. She instead chooses to stay in touch with him through letters and gifts, which are found by her children in a suitcase after her death. 

Meryl Streep nominated for an Oscar for her role as the bored housewife named Francesca. Clint Eastwood played the photographer, Robert Kincaid. A little known actor called Jim Haines played Meryl Streep’s husband, Richard, an dungree wearing simple bald man, who appears for a few minutes on the screen. He loves his wife, works hard on their farm and his kids love him. 

For years I believed that Francesca was the victim of a bad marriage. I believed that Robert and Francesca had every right to have an affair, since he was single and handsome and she was bored and beautiful. 

Today, I believe that the hero of the story is the unsuspecting husband Richard Johnson, who spent his entire life loving his wife and children.

Cheating, no matter what the circumstances, is fundamentally immoral. While marriages may face challenges and lack passion, it does not justify infidelity. You can part ways if things are not working. The problem is that infidelity is a gutless act where the person doesn't want to leave a dead marriage or tell their partner that they are no more interested in the relationship. 

The Bridges of Madison County romanticizes infidelity, and in doing so, it undermines the integrity of Richard, a man who remains faithful to his wife despite the flaws in their relationship.