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The Straight Story

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Average rating
(75%)
 
Starring: Richard Farnsworth | Sissy Spacek | Harry Dean Stanton | Everett McGill | John Lordan | John Farley | Jennifer Edwards-Hughes | Jane Heitz | Barbara E. Robertson
Director: David Lynch
Studio: FILM 4
Run time: 107 mins
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Released: May 12, 2008
Also available on:

David Lynch's first foray into the land of Disney and G-ratings is a surprisingly gentle, hopeful, and irony-free crowd pleaser. The film tells the true story of Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), a 73-year-old man who journeys from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, on a John Deere lawn mower in order to visit his dying older brother, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton). The estranged brothers haven't spoken in years because of their stubborn pride, but Lyle's recent stroke convinces Alvin that now is the time to make amends. Along the way he meets a host of interesting characters--including a pregnant runaway teenager, a sad World War II veteran, and a sympathetic priest--affecting them deeply with his unflinching spirit and belief in the power of familial love. As Straight, Farnsworth slips into the role he was born to play with an effortless grace. Sissy Spacek gives a heartbreaking turn as his afflicted daughter, Rose, who looks after her father and mourns for her children, who were cruelly taken away from her after a freak fire threatened their well-being. Angelo Badalamenti's acoustic, string-heavy score, coupled with 81-year-old Freddie Francis's golden cinematography, adds an even deeper grace to Lynch's touching family drama.

Rating of 5 stars out of 5
Radio Times

Following the excesses of Lost Highway, David Lynch is in mellower mood with this whimsical road movie that, nevertheless, slyly dissects middle-American mores with disarming precision. Exhibiting dignified self-assurance, Richard Farnsworth gives an Oscar-nominated performance as the Iowa farmer travelling by lawnmower to visit his dying brother in Wisconsin. There's selfless support from Sissy Spacek, as his traumatised daughter, and fine perfomances from the various eccentrics he meets en route. It's hard to imagine a gentler film, yet Lynch fully exploits the stately pace to gaze fondly upon life's rich pageant. He also slips in a crane shot of such monumental inconsequence that it borders on the brilliant.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

A gentle, folksy road movie that takes its time but establishes a mood of quiet enjoyment for simple pleasures, mixed with a little regret for some past events; Farnsworth epitomises a man who knows his own worth and that of the others he meets on his jou

Highest rated reviews

16 out of 16 people found the following review helpful:


The Fish is still in the Percolator

Nimrod from London, 9th February, 2005

This is far from being as simple as many people assume. OK, the man is called Straight, this is his story, and it's told "straight" rather than in the Moebius strip style of "Lost Highway", but it's still a David Lynch film and that means the word "straight" is used in an deeply ironic sense also. Watch this film with the same eye as you would bring to "Eraserhead" or "Mulholland Drive" and a different story may emerge.

For a start, Alvin's journey is a metaphor for a man's whole life - the first person we see is a fat woman on a sunbed, there is a thump and we meet Alvin helpless on the floor. As his journey progresses the people he meets represent advancing stages of life, until near the end we find him in a cemetary.

Then there are the typically Lynchian motifs - a house on fire, a distressed woman by the road who has run over 14 deer (the same number as Alvin had kids), a mother separated from her children. If the film is being told to us from Alvin's point of view, just what is he keeping hidden from us (and perhaps from himself)?

Lynch has fun with the slow pace of the movie and with the quietness of midwestern life, but don't be fooled, there is surrealism and subtext at work here too, just much less overtly than in his other films.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review helpful:


Walt Disney Pictures Presents A David Lynch Picture ??

James Dryburgh from Fife Scotland, 17th August, 2004

Surely not ..Disney & Lynch ??? How does that work ? In this case absolutely fine. This is the wonderful story of 73 year old Alvin Lynch who hears his estranged brother is ill so decides to see him while they both still have time. Only snag is Alvin is broke & can't afford to use trains,planes or buses (he has no automobile either) so sets out on all he has - a sit-on lawn mower. Beautiful scenery,pacing as befits the mode of transport, Alvin meets people along the way in a film that really restores your faith in human nature. There's also a couple of Lynch's weird bits thrown in but they make sense (to me anyway) for a change.

Excellent

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6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:


Life at a great pace

Eight from Shropshire, 16th September, 2004

How refreshing to see a film about old age and the wisdom gained through life.
Beautifully filmed at a pace that reflects the theme of the story and gradually hypnotises you deeper into the characters.
Wonderful performances and fantastic cinematography make this a gem of a film.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:


A true Lynch classic

flickpicks from Suffolk, 14th May, 2004

That genius David Lynch has done it again. This time round though, he's managed to find a whole new way of doing it.

Many of his fans were surprised that he could ever put together any movie with a 'U' rating, but here it is - a laidback, peaceful and surprisingly wholesome film about an elderly man travelling to meet his estranged brother on the back of a lawn-mower.

'The Straight Story' is certainly a unique experience like no other, unconventional, uplifting and enjoyable, yet at the same time one can't help but sense the same subtle insecurities that make Lynch's movies so intriguing.

Not everything in the sunny world he has created here is quite as kosher as it seems...and the overall impression that this picture leaves you with is one of both awe and uncertainty.

This is a stunningly simple fable, and one with a great deal of depth and meaning.

Strongly recommended to everyone.

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Most recent reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:


Beautiful Soundtrack!

A Customer from Skipton, 28th June, 2008

Warming, touching and with a simply beautiful soundtrack. Kick off your shoes, sit back and enjoy the journey. NOT a plastic film with plastic people which is very refreshing. Watch it and be touched.!

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Customer Review

A Customer from UK, 23rd June, 2008

I love unusual films, and was really excited about this one arriving, but I struggled to keep awake. There is some great acting, but, let's face it, on a lawnmower drive, pretty much nothing happens. I finished the film wishing he'd found a way to pay his bus fare.

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A Masterpiece of Understatement

A Customer from Edinburgh, 9th March, 2008

How can a film in which so little happens be so enjoyable? That is the triumph of this gem of a film, that reveals something of the 'real' USA, that is rarely visited by Hollywood these days. This could also have been called 'The Slow Story' for the fastest moving objects are bicycles. It is on the surface a simple story, beautifully shot and economicaly told. But what is told thereby takes on greater meaning and poignancy.

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Not like any other David Lynch project

A Customer from West Midlands, 20th February, 2008

It's a very, very gentle tail. No hidden surprises, no sinister twists, showing human-KIND for a change. very easy watching although not for young children as i feel they would be quite bored. An adult Disney movie. You will smile not laugh. Feel sad but not cry. No strong emotions are evoked here but a nice movie to watch never-the-less. A lovely story, telling of just a small chapter in a man's life.

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