The Straight Story (1999)

Once you see it you will NEVER forget it!

I can't add to other comments, except to say that not only is this movie in my top FIVE, EVER... I'll add that I would be willing to bet that anyone who ever met Alvin Straight NEVER, EVER forgot him!

Thoroughly enjoyable!

And NO it's not slow, it takes patience to watch this amazing true story unfold.

It's worth your time, and you should have your kids watch it too. December 28, 2008

In love, what it really counts is the effort and not the reward !

From Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, along three hundred and sixteen miles of distance, there are delirious landscapes plenty of showy vegetation and fiery thunders, Alvin Straight(Richard Fansworth,73) will undertake a particular last epic journey just to meet with his brother, after ten years of mutual absence.

Along this poetic road movie, this old man will live a very pleasant experience exchanging points of view about multiple livings, like opening a hidden diary showing the deepest of his soul and heart to everyone.

Since the times of "The elephant man" David Lynch had not focused with such ceaseless devotion and profound affection about the power of the human feelings.

A film that exudes visual freshness, unforgettable sunsets and mesmerizing landscapes, without forgetting those little and unsaid details of the human behavior.

A full rounded masterwork and formidable actings.!
December 20, 2008

The Straight Story

I purchased The Straight Story VHS tape and am very satisfied. Have always liked the film and was glad to find the VHS tape for sale. December 12, 2008

I do not understand many of these reviewers

So many people are surprised by 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. November 25, 2008

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.


August 9, 2008

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