Editorial Review:Description:Based on the true story that captured the hearts of America, THE STRAIGHT STORY is one of those rare films offering powerful, uplifting entertainment for audiences of all ages. Directed by acclaimed director David Lynch (WILD AT HEART, MULHOLLAND DRIVE), this gentle, inspiring film celebrates the human spirit. Richard Farnsworth (MISERY, THE NATURAL) stars as Alvin Straight -- a no-nonsense man who has never been one to lean on others. Now at an age when his eyesight denies him the ability to drive and walking is accomplished only with the help of two canes, Alvin lives a quiet life with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek). But when the call comes that Alvin's estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton, THE GREEN MILE) has suffered a debilitating stroke, Alvin embarks on a dangerous and emotional journey to make amends. With little money, but plenty of patience and tenacity, he climbs aboard his 1966 John Deere lawnmower and plots the 260-mile course from his small Iowa town to Lyle's home in Wisconsin. Filmed along the actual route that the real Alvin Straight traveled in 1994, THE STRAIGHT STORY is a heartwarming and poignant drama chronicling Alvin's six-week odyssey and the many lives he touches along the way.
Amazon.com essential video:Throughout
The Straight Story, 73-year-old Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) gazes calmly at the night sky, as if the stars were reflections of his own memories. Alvin's eyesight is bad and his daughter (Sissy Spacek) is slightly retarded and unable to drive, so he's traveling from Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin on a riding John Deere lawn mower. It's slow going, so there's plenty of time to stop for the night and ponder the cosmos. Alvin's journeying to visit his ailing brother; they haven't spoken in years, and it's time to make peace. Along the way, he befriends a variety of nice folks, and you have to ask yourself... Is this really a David Lynch movie?
It's a miracle that this G-rated Disney film was made by a director whose work is often described as twisted and bizarre. But Lynch is too complex an artist to be labeled, and he brings charm, grace, and kindness to his fact-based telling of
The Straight Story--not to mention a serenity rarely found in movies anymore. It's a film of moments--funny, odd, quietly spiritual--and this simple tale of a man, a lawnmower, and rural hospitality becomes a genuine Lynchian odyssey, unlike any film you've seen but as welcoming as a cup of lemon tea with honey. Best of all, it's a fitting tribute to the career of veteran stuntman-actor Farnsworth who, at age 79, plays Alvin Straight to sheer perfection, his face a subtle roadmap to a broad spectrum of emotional destinations.
--Jeff Shannon
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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I do not understand many of these reviewers
So many people are surprised my this movie. The fact that David Lynch could make a simple, straightforward, sweet story has left many surprised and dumbfounded. Have all of you forgotten about ELEPHANT MAN??? He portrayed John Merrick with a sweet and sensitive disposition. In the end David served up one of the most sad but poignant endings more so than the straight story. I'm only surprised that he never made more of this style. He is equally adept at this style as he is to his bizarre plot provoking mind twisted movies.
If you have the slightest hint of impatience then this movie then this is not for you. If not then you in for a gem. Richard Farnsworth performance as Alvin Straight is nothing short of brilliant. It's a sad shame too many people missed it.
This movie is a beautiful portrait of simple america portraying it's ideals, folkways and convictions. Something we should be reminded of more often.
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My Favorite Film
* In 1999, one of the most unusual pairings in Hollywood history formed to make a film telling the story of Alvin Straight's odyssey: David Lynch and Walt Disney Pictures. Lynch, arguably one of film's more daring storytellers, the mind behind Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, is absolutely the very last filmmaker I would ever have believed to team with Disney, except perhaps David Cronenberg. His films often navigate the darkest waters of the human experience with an unflinching eye for images both disturbing and nightmarish, and so naturally the idea that he'd done a film for Disney, a G-rated film at that, I could scarcely believe it. And I absolutely had to see for myself what could come of this most unexpected collaboration.
The Straight Story opens with Alvin Straight (played to perfection by the late Richard Farnsworth, an actor and former stuntman whose career dated back to the 1930's), who lives in Iowa and has just learned that his estranged brother Lyle, who lives in Wisconsin, has suffered a stroke. Alvin decides that it's time to put their feud behind them and wants to visit his brother and make peace while there's still time. The problem is that Alvin no longer has a driver's license because of his failing eyesight, and his pride is too strong to allow someone to drive him or take a bus. So Alvin attaches a small trailer to his John Deere riding mower and sets off on an epic journey.
As with most road movies, much of the story is told through Alvin's encounters with people he meets along the course of his travels. Upon meeting a hitchhiking young runaway (who has a big secret she's scared to disclose to her parents), Alvin offers these words, remembering a lesson he would often give to children:
\"I'd give each one of 'em a stick, one for each one of 'em, then I'd say, 'You break that.' Course they could real easy. Then I'd say, 'Tie them sticks in a bundle and try to break that.' Course they couldn't. Then I'd say, 'That bundle... that's family.'\"
As the story progresses, it is through these seemingly random encounters that we learn more of Alvin's story, and how he came to be the man who is determined to complete this journey. Alvin Straight appears on the surface to be a fairly simple man, but just beneath the surface lies a different person: a man who has made mistakes and while he accepts responsibility for them, he is still haunted by the things he has done and seen over the course of a lifetime. Little by little, we are allowed to see the person inside and in doing so, we learn perhaps a little about ourselves as well. Alvin is a proud man, and yet he is the first to admit that his pride has cost him dearly over the years. He is not a perfect person, and it is clear that he struggles daily with his demons.
It is rare that a filmmaker has the confidence with actors and the trust in the audience to allow moments of quiet; moments in which the story, the emotions, and the story are told only by the actors, and yet this film is largely comprised of soft, quiet scenes that propel the story far better than any soundtrack or flashy camera tricks ever could. As Alvin grows ever closer to his destination, his encounters with strangers become more complex and in the process we learn of the heartbreak and devastation he has endured over the course of his life. In a way, Alvin's journey is one of redemption, and not only in regard to mending fences with his brother. In one incredible scene, Alvin recounts his experiences of a war many years past and I dare anyone who sees it to not shed a tear for the innocence that was brutally torn from him and the impact those nightmares still have upon him.
The film itself is paradoxical; on one hand, it is a simple film with a simple story and a small cast. On the other hand, however, it is an emotionally rich and complex film that, despite the G-rating, never panders to the audience, instead trusting that Alvin's odyssey is largely a voyage of the soul and that the truths to his humanity are so universal that there is simply no need to explain them.
In a time when so-called \"family\" films rely too heavily on weak stories supplanted by excessive effects work and toilet humor, The Straight Story stands high above all others, offering a story of quiet dignity, the power of perseverance, and in the hands of a truly amazing cast, it works flawlessly. And in the end we learn, as is often the case, that it is the journey and not the destination in which the greater truths are often found.
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a rewarding film
this film is for those who enjoy having time slowed down to a crawl.if you're hyper-active or simply have been intergrated into the Americanized form of cut-a-second entertainment,you will die of boredom if you watch this.story,acting,directing,score,and location are all top-notch;if you allow yourself to get lost in your lack of ritalin or fail to notice the beauty of subtle,small-town life you'll fall asleep or turn it off because "nothing's happening"(the neo-Americanized aspects of small-towns was left out so as not to interfere with the chilled atmosphere).something's happening in this seemingly-small film,and it's big:this is lynch's statement about our continued disconnection with ourselves/environment due to industrialization.it's also his way of telling us that 1950's lifestyles are still alive and are not extinct as they are in the cities.very cool.
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Something different
* David Lynch is an auteur known for such strange and brilliant films as \"Mulholland Drive\" and \"Blue Velvet\". \"The Straight Story\" is warm, tender, and normal. Further proof of the genius that is David Lynch. ...
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POOR AUDIO
We purchased three videos to be given to friends and the sound quality, unless the camera is close to the subject, cannot be heard. I am very sorry I purchased the videos.
Diesel vehicles have nearly a 50-percent market share in Europe, thanks to tax incentives and diesel-friendly legislation across the EU. Diesels are so passé there that you can buy a BMW 730d and no one will think it odd that your luxury car burns oil. Pull up in a diesel 7-Series in America and people would leer at you like you've alighted from an amphibious vehicle reeking of saltwater and dead trout.
