A heartwarming, uplifting film for the whole family from the man who brought us Eraserhead and Blue Velvet...
The Straight Story is a 1999 film from Walt Disney Pictures and directed by David Lynch, starring Richard Farnsworth (in his final film role) in the eponymous role along with Sissy Spacek and Harry Dean Stanton.
The film is based on the true story of a man named Alvin Straight. Straight, an elderly World War II and Korean War veteran living with his brain-damaged daughter Rose, hears that his estranged brother Lyle has had a stroke. Disappointed that he's never made up for the incident that (he was drunk at the time) led to their split, he decides to reconcile with Lyle before one of them dies.
Unfortunately, Straight is almost blind and half paralyzed, which leaves him unable to walk long distances or get a legal driver's license. Unwilling to let life end this way, he hitches a trailer to his riding lawnmower and proceeds to tackle the 240 mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin so that he may make amends with his sick brother.
David Lynch directs the sweetest, gentlest movie you could imagine.
Not to be confused with Straight Story, a Greek movie about straight couples in a gay world.
This film provides examples of:
- Adaptational Name Change: The name of Alvin Straight's brother was changed from Henry to Lyle, mainly due to Alvin's brother not wanting his real name used in the film.
- Based on a True Story: The film was based on an actual event from 1994
, the biggest difference being some characters added for dramatic purposes and Henry's name change to Lyle. Alvin himself would live two more years after taking the journey, and Alvin in real life would try this again, but was talked out of it that time. - Blatant Lies: The doctor tells Alvin he's dying (not in so many words, but still). When Alvin's daughter asks how it went:Alvin: Doctor said I'll live to be a hundred.
- Cain and Abel: Alvin and Lyle, even suggested by Alvin himself.
- Campfire Character Exploration: Alvin passes a young female hitchhiker who later approaches his campfire and says that she could not get a ride. In conversation, Alvin astutely deduces that she is pregnant and has run away from home. Alvin tells the hitchhiker about the importance of family by using the metaphor of a bundle of sticks that is hard to break. The next day Alvin find that his hitchhiker friend has gone but left him a bundle of sticks tied together, implying that she plans to return home to her own family.
- Child Soldiers: Invoked by Alvin, who mentions having to kill German soldiers during the war who couldn't have been more than seventeen.
- Cool Old Guy: Alvin himself. Not only did he travel all the way to see his dying brother on a lawn mower, he's a nice man who deeply cares about the people he meets.
- Determinator: Alvin Straight's biggest flaw, oddly enough. His life would probably be better if he stopped drinking when his brother wanted him to and listened to his doctor. Still, you have to say something for a man who's blind and barely able to walk who is able to make it across the country to visit his brother.
- Double-Meaning Title: The man's name is Alvin Straight, but calling the movie "The Straight Story" makes joking reference to the fact that David Lynch is "playing it straight" and telling a coherent, mainstream "story" instead of screwing with your head as usual. On top of that, it's just a very simple, straightforward movie.
- Eagleland: Flavor 1. Without irony. All these white-picket fence communities filled with nice neighbors willing to help each other out, even a strange old man riding a lawnmower across the countryside.
- Epunymous Title: The title is a pun on the main character's surname.
- Ghibli Hills: The camera spends a lot of time caressing the landscape as Alvin travels.
- Good Parents: Alvin is a patient and loving father to Rose, and they enjoy a sweet relationship. Complicating this, Alvin's past drinking led to his estrangement from several members of his family.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Not in the movie, but a meta-example. Richard Farnsworth was going to turn down the film because he didn't like the language in Blue Velvet. Only after several personal assurances by Lynch and the other writers that the film would contain no cursing did he agree to do it.
- Informed Flaw: Alvin's alcoholism to an extent. In the film he's been reformed for years, but the movie makes it very clear the toll that hard living has had on him. Also, averted in Real Life - Richard Farnsworth really was half-blind and half-paralyzed. Indeed, the actor committed suicide shortly after the film rather than bear extremely painful and obviously terminal bone cancer.
- Lighter and Softer: Big time compared to the rest of David Lynch's filmography. The worst things that happen in the film is Alvin recounting some war stories, (and even then they aren't graphic.), Alvin shooting his broken lawnmower with a shotgun after it breaks down for the first time, and Alvin falling on the floor due to his age (while his neighbors worry about him, Alvin reassures that he's fine).
- Meta Twist: By the time this film was made, pretty much the only way David Lynch could be strange and weird was by making an unstrange, unweird, flat-out straight and sane film
- Mind Screw: Averted because The Straight Story is as straightforward as its title suggests. It's a notable example because David Lynch is known for creating and directing bizarre, surreal works.
- No Antagonist: Every character who appears in the film is a good person in some sense of the word; the closest we ever get is the fact that there are some people who try to talk Alvin out of the journey, and even then they're just concerned for his safety.
- Recovered Addict: After his experience in World War 2, Alvin drank heavily, and his drinking damaged many of his relationships; with a minister's help, he eventually got sober. The fact that he has a beer (for the first time in years) before driving the final leg to see his brother is implied to reflect how nervous he is about how the reunion will go.
- Rousseau Was Right: There is not a single character in this movie to be actually unpleasant. More or less everyone is a saint.
- Scenery Porn: The natural beauty of the region is on full display.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Alvin. He mentions in one of his stops that he's still haunted by the memories of the time he accidentally shot one of his own men in World War 2. (The soldier was a scout trying to return to camp without being noticed by the Germans, and Alvin, a sniper, mistook him for an enemy) The other soldiers assume that he'd been killed by a German sniper, but Alvin becomes choked up by admitting that he knew the truth, and he'll never forget it.
- Signature Style: If you pay attention during a David Lynch movie to anything other than the abstract weirdness, you'll be amazed how much this actually does resemble his previous work, despite the fact Lynch didn't even write the movie: Small Quirky Town (Laurens, Iowa), quirky characters (Woman who accidentally runs over Deer) and a score by Angelo Badalamenti are just a few to list.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Harry Dean Stanton plays Lyle in the final two minutes of the film.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Strongly Idealistic. The film shows that despite all odds (being half blind and half paralyzed, no drivers license, very little money to travel), determination and love can take you a long way (quite literally).
- The Sons and the Spears: Used as a metaphor for family, with Alvin convincing the pregnant teenage runaway to go back home to her family, who will eventually understand. Within Alvin's own narrative, it reinforces his plot-driving need to reconnect with his estranged brother.
- Verbal Tic: Rose Straight has difficulty speaking and forces her words out in short bursts. This causes people to assume she's mentally challenged, but Alvin assures us she's perfectly intelligent.
- You Answered Your Own Question: Dorothy: "What's the number for 911?"