• A patient, splendidly acted (by two of the great acting heavyweights: Streep and Eastwood) romance
  • Set in Iowa (shot on location) in the 1960’s. Beautifully weathered covered bridges, perfectly rusty old trucks

Set in Iowa (shot on location) in the 1960’s. Beautifully weathered covered bridges, perfectly rusty old trucks– Eastwood doesn’t linger though, there are only a handful of these shots at most

  • A chance for Streep to add an Italian accent to her resume (she goes a different route here than the heavy New York/Jersey Goodfellas accent)
  • A consistent mood, melodic minimal piano score. As I said it is patient, it is an hour before the two even hold hands.
  • The book (which I have not read) is not supposed to be very good—but Eastwood underplays the melodrama and there is such unspoken chemistry and nuance in the performances
  • Jack Green is the DP and he shot Unforgiven as well a few years earlier for Clint (1992) but there isn’t nearly as much landscape artistry here. The final shot here is great but it doesn’t compare overall with Unforgiven

Jack Green is the DP and he shot Unforgiven as well a few years earlier for Clint (1992) but there isn’t nearly as much landscape artistry here. The final shot here is great but it doesn’t compare overall with Unforgiven

  • It is hard not to see the parallels with the 1985 romance Out of Africa. Eastwood is in the Redford role here as a traveler, who believes in not being tied down. Streep is married, doing accent work, they start an affair
  • I think there’s a nice little subtext about Eastwood the director/artist in the film. Robert Kincaid (his character) is obsessed with “making pictures” (he’s a photographer) but is “not an artist.” He works for the National Geographic and says “they like their pictures in focus” and says he’s “too normal” to be an artist. That’s Eastwood.
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1995