The song has been identified as a development of a Cuban folk song entitled "La Canción del Árbol" whose title translates as "the song of the tree", the royal poinciana being a favorite Caribbean flowering plant. However composer Nat Simon would claim the song's tune came to him while he was dining at Manhattan Theater District restaurant Leone's, and that he jotted down a rough draft of the melody on his table's cloth which - with Leone's permission - he took home to work out the completed melody at his piano. Lyrics for the song were completed in about thirty minutes by Buddy Bernier, who cited as his inspiration a postcard of a royal Poinciana tree he'd recently received from Florida.
Reportedly "Poinciana" was largely overlooked for several years being somewhat longer than a typical contemporary song. Orchestra leader Jerry Wald was a rare early aficianado of the song,
https://youtu.be/zQ5vVg3Fqo4
and Wald's showcasing of "Poinciana" during his 1943 gig at the Hotel New Yorker has been credited with boosting its profile, "Poinciana" being recorded in 1943 by Glenn Miller with his Army Air Force Band, with three 1944 recordings of the song afforded hit status, being those by Benny Carter and His Orchestra;
Its popularity reinforced by its appearance in the 1952 film Dreamboat, "Poinciana" has become a standard of Latin jazz: the theme song of pianist Ahmad Jamal
The film is set in 1965, featuring Italian war bride, Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on their Iowa farm. That year she meets National Geographic photojournalist, Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), who comes to Madison County to photograph its historic covered bridges. With Francesca's family away for a short trip, the couple have an intense, four-day love affair. The film earned $182 million worldwide and was well-received by critics. Streep was nominated in 1996 for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Production
Development
"I've been that guy a little bit, going off by myself years ago in a pickup truck into Nevada, scouting locations for High Plains Drifter. But I didn't stop off with any housewives while doing that."
— Clint Eastwood on Robert Kincaid
Amblin Entertainment, a production company founded by Steven Spielberg, bought the film rights to Waller's novel for $25,000 in late 1991, before its publication—by the time of the film's release, the novel sold 9.5 million copies worldwide. Spielberg first asked Sydney Pollack to direct, who got Kurt Luedtke to draft the first version of the adaptation but then bowed out; Ronald Bass was brought in by Kathleen Kennedy and Spielberg to work on the script, but they were unsatisfied with the results. But a third draft by Richard LaGravenese was liked by Eastwood, who quite early had been cast for the male lead, and by Spielberg, who liked LaGravenese's version enough to consider making Bridges his next film after Schindler's List, which was in post-production at the time. Both men liked that LaGravenese's script presented the story from Francesca's point of view; Spielberg then had LaGravenese introduce the framing device of having Francesca's adult children discover and read her diaries. When Spielberg decided not to direct, he then brought in Bruce Beresford, who got Alfred Uhry to draft another version of the script; when Warner Bros., Spielberg, and Eastwood all preferred LaGravenese's draft, Beresford dropped out.
Principal photography took 42 days, ending on November 1, 1994, ten days ahead of Eastwood's 52-day schedule; Eastwood filmed it chronologically from Francesca's point of view, "because it was important to work that way. We were two people getting to know each other, in real time, as actors and as the characters." It was filmed on location in Madison County, Iowa, including the town of Winterset, and in the Dallas County town of Adel.
Post-production
The MPAA ratings board initially gave the film an "R" rating, for the line "Or should we just fuck on the linoleum one last time?", a line of dialogue spoken sarcastically by Francesca; Eastwood appealed, and the rating was reduced to a PG-13.
Release
Box office
The Bridges of Madison County opened theatrically on June 2, 1995, in 1,805 venues. It grossed $10,519,257 in its opening weekend, ranking number two at the US box office, behind Casper (which was in its second weekend and coincidentally features Eastwood in a cameo). It was number one at the Japanese box office for nine consecutive weeks, grossing over $35 million. At the end of its run, the film grossed $71,516,617 in the United States and Canada and $110,500,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $182,016,617.
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 90% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's consensus states: "Sentimental, slow, schmaltzy, and very satisfying, The Bridges of Madison County finds Clint Eastwood adapting a bestseller with heft, wit, and grace." On Metacritic, the film has a 69 out of 100 rating, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A-" on scale of A+ to F.
According to Janet Maslin, "Clint Eastwood, director and alchemist, has transformed The Bridges of Madison County into something bearable—no, something even better. Limited by the vapidity of this material while he trims its excesses with the requisite machete, Mr. Eastwood locates a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller's self-congratulatory overkill. The movie has leanness and surprising decency, and Meryl Streep has her best role in years. Looking sturdy and voluptuous in her plain housedress (the year is 1965), Ms. Streep rises straight out of Christina's World to embody all the loneliness and fierce yearning Andrew Wyeth captured on canvas. And yet, despite the Iowa setting and the emphasis on down-home Americana, Mr. Eastwood's Bridges of Madison County has a European flavor. Its pace is unhurried, which is not the same as slow. It respects long silences and pays attention to small details. It sustains an austere tone and staves off weepiness until the last reel. It voices musings that would definitely sound better in French." Richard Corliss said Eastwood is the "most reticent of directors—where the book ogles, the film discreetly observes—and, here, the courtliest of stars....As scripted by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King), the Madison County movie has a slightly riper theme than the book's. It is about the anticipation and consequences of passion—the slow dance of appraisal, of waiting to make a move that won't be rejected, of debating what to do when the erotic heat matures into love light. What is the effect of an affair on a woman who has been faithful to her husband, and on a rootless man who only now realizes he needs the one woman he can have but not hold?" Corliss concludes "Madison County is Eastwood's gift to women: to Francesca, to all the girls he's loved before—and to Streep, who alchemizes literary mawkishness into intelligent movie passion."
The song has been identified as a development of a Cuban folk song entitled “La Canción del Árbol” whose title translates as “the song of the tree”, the royal poinciana being a favorite Caribbean flowering plant. However composer Nat Simon would claim the song’s tune came to him while he was dining at Manhattan Theater District restaurant Leone’s, and that he jotted down a rough draft of the melody on his table’s cloth which – with Leone’s permission – he took home to work out the completed melody at his piano. Lyrics for the song were completed in about thirty minutes by Buddy Bernier, who cited as his inspiration a postcard of a royal Poinciana tree he’d recently received from Florida.
Reportedly “Poinciana” was largely overlooked for several years being somewhat longer than a typical contemporary song. Orchestra leader Jerry Wald was a rare early aficianado of the song,
Poinciana (feat. Don Elliott, Jerry Wald) (Song of the Tree)
and Wald’s showcasing of “Poinciana” during his 1943 gig at the Hotel New Yorker has been credited with boosting its profile, “Poinciana” being recorded in 1943 by Glenn Miller with his Army Air Force Band, with three 1944 recordings of the song afforded hit status, being those by Benny Carter and His Orchestra;
1944 HITS ARCHIVE: Poinciana (Song Of The Tree) – David Rose (instrumental) (recorded in 1942)
Notable recordings
Its popularity reinforced by its appearance in the 1952 film Dreamboat, “Poinciana” has become a standard of Latin jazz: the theme song of pianist Ahmad Jamal
The film is set in 1965, featuring Italian war bride, Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on their Iowa farm. That year she meets National Geographic photojournalist, Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), who comes to Madison County to photograph its historic covered bridges. With Francesca’s family away for a short trip, the couple have an intense, four-day love affair. The film earned $182 million worldwide and was well-received by critics. Streep was nominated in 1996 for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Production
Development
“I’ve been that guy a little bit, going off by myself years ago in a pickup truck into Nevada, scouting locations for High Plains Drifter. But I didn’t stop off with any housewives while doing that.”
— Clint Eastwood on Robert Kincaid
Amblin Entertainment, a production company founded by Steven Spielberg, bought the film rights to Waller’s novel for $25,000 in late 1991, before its publication—by the time of the film’s release, the novel sold 9.5 million copies worldwide. Spielberg first asked Sydney Pollack to direct, who got Kurt Luedtke to draft the first version of the adaptation but then bowed out; Ronald Bass was brought in by Kathleen Kennedy and Spielberg to work on the script, but they were unsatisfied with the results. But a third draft by Richard LaGravenese was liked by Eastwood, who quite early had been cast for the male lead, and by Spielberg, who liked LaGravenese’s version enough to consider making Bridges his next film after Schindler’s List, which was in post-production at the time. Both men liked that LaGravenese’s script presented the story from Francesca’s point of view; Spielberg then had LaGravenese introduce the framing device of having Francesca’s adult children discover and read her diaries. When Spielberg decided not to direct, he then brought in Bruce Beresford, who got Alfred Uhry to draft another version of the script; when Warner Bros., Spielberg, and Eastwood all preferred LaGravenese’s draft, Beresford dropped out.
Principal photography took 42 days, ending on November 1, 1994, ten days ahead of Eastwood’s 52-day schedule; Eastwood filmed it chronologically from Francesca’s point of view, “because it was important to work that way. We were two people getting to know each other, in real time, as actors and as the characters.” It was filmed on location in Madison County, Iowa, including the town of Winterset, and in the Dallas County town of Adel.
Post-production
The MPAA ratings board initially gave the film an “R” rating, for the line “Or should we just fuck on the linoleum one last time?”, a line of dialogue spoken sarcastically by Francesca; Eastwood appealed, and the rating was reduced to a PG-13.
Release
Box office
The Bridges of Madison County opened theatrically on June 2, 1995, in 1,805 venues. It grossed $10,519,257 in its opening weekend, ranking number two at the US box office, behind Casper (which was in its second weekend and coincidentally features Eastwood in a cameo). It was number one at the Japanese box office for nine consecutive weeks, grossing over $35 million. At the end of its run, the film grossed $71,516,617 in the United States and Canada and $110,500,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $182,016,617.
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 90% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site’s consensus states: “Sentimental, slow, schmaltzy, and very satisfying, The Bridges of Madison County finds Clint Eastwood adapting a bestseller with heft, wit, and grace.” On Metacritic, the film has a 69 out of 100 rating, based on 23 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade “A-” on scale of A+ to F.
According to Janet Maslin, “Clint Eastwood, director and alchemist, has transformed The Bridges of Madison County into something bearable—no, something even better. Limited by the vapidity of this material while he trims its excesses with the requisite machete, Mr. Eastwood locates a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller’s self-congratulatory overkill. The movie has leanness and surprising decency, and Meryl Streep has her best role in years. Looking sturdy and voluptuous in her plain housedress (the year is 1965), Ms. Streep rises straight out of Christina’s World to embody all the loneliness and fierce yearning Andrew Wyeth captured on canvas. And yet, despite the Iowa setting and the emphasis on down-home Americana, Mr. Eastwood’s Bridges of Madison County has a European flavor. Its pace is unhurried, which is not the same as slow. It respects long silences and pays attention to small details. It sustains an austere tone and staves off weepiness until the last reel. It voices musings that would definitely sound better in French.” Richard Corliss said Eastwood is the “most reticent of directors—where the book ogles, the film discreetly observes—and, here, the courtliest of stars….As scripted by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King), the Madison County movie has a slightly riper theme than the book’s. It is about the anticipation and consequences of passion—the slow dance of appraisal, of waiting to make a move that won’t be rejected, of debating what to do when the erotic heat matures into love light. What is the effect of an affair on a woman who has been faithful to her husband, and on a rootless man who only now realizes he needs the one woman he can have but not hold?” Corliss concludes “Madison County is Eastwood’s gift to women: to Francesca, to all the girls he’s loved before—and to Streep, who alchemizes literary mawkishness into intelligent movie passion.”
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible
to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML,
adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Screen-reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with
screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive
a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements,
alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website.
In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels;
descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups),
and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag
for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on
as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Disability profiles supported in our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments
Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
Browser and assistive technology compatibility
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
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