The Straight Story
The Straight Story is a 1999 biographical road drama film directed by David Lynch. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and collaborator. She also co-wrote the script with John E. Roach. The film is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn mower. Alvin is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his daughter Rose, a kind woman with an intellectual disability. When he hears that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a stroke, Alvin makes up his mind to go visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies. Because Alvin's legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a driving license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty-year-old John Deere 110 Lawn Tractor, having a maximum speed of about and sets off on the journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.
The Straight Story was released by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States, and was a critical success, although the overall gross proved less than expected. Reviewers praised the intensity of the character performances, particularly the realistic dialogue which film critic Roger Ebert compared to the works of Ernest Hemingway. It received a nomination for the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and Farnsworth received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Plot
Alvin Straight fails to show up to his regular bar meeting with friends and is eventually found lying on his kitchen floor. His daughter, Rose, takes her reluctant father to see a doctor, who sternly admonishes Alvin to give up tobacco and use a walking frame. Alvin refuses and instead opts to use two canes.Alvin then learns that his brother, Lyle, has suffered a stroke. Longing to visit him, but unable to drive, Alvin gradually develops a plan to travel to Mount Zion, Wisconsin on his riding lawn-mower, towing a small homemade travel-trailer along the way. This stirs doubt and worry in the minds of his family, friends, and neighbors.
Alvin's first attempt fails: after experiencing difficulty starting the old mower's motor, he doesn't get far before the machine breaks down. Alvin arranges for his mower to be transported back home on a flatbed truck, where he takes out his frustrations on the mower with a shotgun blast. At the John Deere dealership, he purchases a used lawn tractor whose transmission is still intact from 1966. The salesman offers Alvin kind words as his journey resumes.
On the side of the highway, Alvin passes a young female hitchhiker who later approaches his campfire and says that she could not get a ride. In conversation, Alvin deduces that she is pregnant and has run away from home. Alvin tells her about the importance of family by describing a bundle of sticks that is hard to break. The next day, Alvin emerges from the trailer to find that she has left him a bundle of sticks tied together. Later, a huge group of RAGBRAI cyclists race past him. He arrives at the cyclists' camp and is greeted with applause. That night, he speaks with a friendly cyclist around a campfire about growing old.
The next day, Alvin is troubled by massive trucks passing him. He then interacts with a distraught woman who has hit a deer, and is being driven insane by the fact she continually hits deer while commuting, no matter how hard she tries to avoid them. She drives away in a tearful huff, and Alvin, who had started to run short on food, cooks and eats the deer. He mounts the antlers above the rear doorway of his trailer as a tribute to the deer and the sustenance it provided. Alvin's brakes fail as he travels down a steep hill; he struggles to maintain control of the speeding tractor and finally manages to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. A man named Danny helps get Alvin's mower and trailer off the road. They later discover that the mower also has transmission problems.
Now beginning to run low on cash, Alvin borrows a cordless phone from Danny – gently refusing an invitation to come indoors – and calls Rose to ask her to send him his Social Security check. He then leaves money on the doorstep to pay for his telephone call. Danny offers Alvin a ride the rest of the way to Lyle's, but Alvin declines, stating that he prefers to travel his own way. Verlyn, an elderly war veteran, takes Alvin into town for a drink. Though Alvin does not drink alcohol, he orders a pint of milk and the two men exchange traumatic stories about their experiences in World War II fighting against the Germans.
Alvin's tractor is fixed and he is presented with an exorbitant bill by the mechanics, who are twins and are constantly bickering. Alvin successfully negotiates the price down, and explains his mission to help his brother. The twins seem to relate to Alvin's struggle. Alvin crosses the Mississippi River and makes camp in a cemetery. He chats with a Catholic priest who recognizes Lyle's name and is aware of his stroke. The priest says that Lyle did not mention he had a brother. Alvin mentions that all he wants is to make peace with Lyle after their falling out ten years prior.
Finally arriving in Mount Zion, Alvin stops at a bar to have a single beer; his first beer in years. He asks the bartender for directions to Lyle's house. Alvin experiences engine trouble just a few miles from Lyle's house, and stops in the middle of the road. A large farm tractor driving by then stops to help, then leads the way on his own tractor to make sure Alvin gets to Lyle's home.
When he arrives, Alvin finds the house dilapidated. He calls for his brother. Using two canes, Alvin makes his way to the door. Lyle invites Alvin to sit down on the porch. Lyle tearfully looks at Alvin's mower-tractor contraption and asks if Alvin had ridden it just to see him. Alvin responds simply, "I did, Lyle." The two men sit together silently and look up at the stars.
Cast
Production
The Straight Story was independently shot along the actual route taken by Alvin Straight, and all scenes were shot in chronological order. Lynch would later call the film "my most experimental movie".The Straight Story was acquired by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States after a successful debut at Cannes and was given a G-rating by the MPAA. It is also the only Lynch film for which Lynch himself did not contribute to the screenplay. As with many of Lynch's films, there are no chapter markers on the original North American DVD release, because Lynch wants the film to be watched as a whole.
During production, Richard Farnsworth was terminally ill with metastatic prostate cancer which had spread to his bones. The paralysis of his legs as shown in the film was, in fact real. He took the role out of admiration for Alvin Straight, and astonished his co-workers with his tenacity during production. Farnsworth committed suicide the following year, at the age of 80.
Music
The musical score for The Straight Story was composed by Angelo Badalamenti, continuing a 13-plus year collaboration with Lynch that began with Blue Velvet. A soundtrack album was released on October 12, 1999, by Windham Hill Records.All music composed and conducted by Angelo Badalamenti.
- "Laurens, Iowa"
- "Rose's Theme"
- "Laurens Walking"
- "Sprinkler"
- "Alvin's Theme"
- "Final Miles"
- "Country Waltz"
- "Rose's Theme "
- "Country Theme"
- "Crystal"
- "Nostalgia"
- "Farmland Tour"
- "Montage"
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 8.16/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "With strong performances and director David Lynch at the helm, The Straight Story steers past sentimental byways on its ambling journey across the American heartland." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". AllMovie wrote, "David Lynch offers an uncharacteristically straightforward and warmly sentimental approach to his material in this film", calling it "one of his best films".
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, the first positive review he had ever given for a film by Lynch. He wrote, "The movie isn't just about the old Alvin Straight's odyssey through the sleepy towns and rural districts of the Midwest, but about the people he finds to listen and care for him."
Awards and honors
The Straight Story was the recipient of 12 awards and 29 nominations.The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Freddie Francis was nominated for the Golden Frog. Richard Farnsworth earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Alvin Straight; the oldest person ever to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar.