The Straight Story

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The Straight Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Lynch
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyFreddie Francis
Edited byMary Sweeney
Music byAngelo Badalamenti
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 21, 1999 (1999-05-21)
(Cannes)
  • October 15, 1999 (1999-10-15) (United States)
Running time
112 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • United Kingdom
  • France
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[2]
Box office$6.4 million[3]

The Straight Story is a 1999 biographical road drama film directed by David Lynch. It was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and collaborator, who also co-wrote the script with John E. Roach. It 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 kind intellectually disabled daughter. When he hears that his estranged brother has suffered a stroke, Alvin makes up his mind to visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies. Because Alvin's legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a driver's license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty-year-old John Deere 110 Lawn Tractor, having a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour (2.2 m/s; 8.0 km/h), and sets off on the 240-mile (390 km) journey from Laurens, Iowa, to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.

The Straight Story was released by Buena Vista Pictures (under the Walt Disney Pictures banner[4]) in the United States,[1] and was a critical success, though it underperformed at the box office. Reviewers praised the intensity of the character performances, particularly the realistic dialogue which film critic Roger Ebert compared to the works of Ernest Hemingway.[5] 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[edit]

In Laurens, Iowa, 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 walker; Alvin refuses and instead opts to use two canes. Shortly after, Alvin learns that his brother, Lyle, has suffered a stroke. Longing to visit him, but unable to drive, Alvin develops a plan to travel 240 miles to Mount Zion, Wisconsin on his riding lawnmower, 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 does not get far before the machine breaks down. Alvin arranges for his mower to be transported back home on a flatbed truck, where he later shoots it with a shotgun out of frustration. At the John Deere dealership, he purchases a used lawn tractor whose transmission is still intact from 1966.

On the side of the highway, Alvin passes a young female hitchhiker who later approaches his campfire. 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 compared to a single stick. 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 pair of friendly cyclists around the campfire about growing old.

The next day, Alvin encounters a distraught woman who has just hit a deer in front of him. She drives away after a tearful rant, and Alvin cooks and eats the deer, mounting the antlers on his trailer as a tribute to the deer and the sustenance it provided. Alvin's brakes fail as he travels down a steep hill; after an intense speedy descent, he manages to stop. A man named Danny helps Alvin get his mower and trailer off the main road, discovering that the mower has transmission problems.

Now beginning to run low on cash, Alvin calls Rose to ask her to send him his Social Security check. 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. As Alvin does not drink alcohol, he orders a glass of milk, and the two men exchange traumatic stories about their experiences in World War II.

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. 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 responds 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 ask for directions to Lyle's house and to have a beer: his first drink in years. Alvin experiences engine trouble just a few miles from Lyle's house and stops in the middle of the road. A tractor driver stops to help, then leads the way to Lyle's house. When he arrives, Alvin finds the house dilapidated. He calls for his brother, who appears using a walker and invites Alvin to sit down on the porch. Lyle asks if Alvin had ridden the lawnmower all the way just to see him, to which Alvin simply responds, "I did, Lyle." The two men sit together silently and gaze up at the stars.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

In 1994, 73-year-old Alvin Straight rode a lawnmower across 300 miles of the American Midwest to visit his ailing brother.[7] Mary Sweeney, David Lynch's frequent collaborator, read about Straight's story in The New York Times that summer.[8][9] Said Sweeney, "Growing up in Wisconsin, I easily connected with that kind of stoic, non-verbal, stubborn, idiosyncratic American character. I get how hard it is to have quiet pride and dignity when you're old and poor and are living in the middle of nowhere. I understand what these people's dreams and frustrations are. And I loved how much his journey captured the national imagination, so, wearing my producer's hat, I started trying to secure the rights."[7]

Producer Ray Stark had already acquired the rights to Straight's story and envisioned the project as a potential star vehicle for Paul Newman.[7] Straight died in 1996, and the rights to his story became available again. Sweeney co-wrote the script with John Roach, a childhood friend; the two retraced Straight's route in the process of writing.[7] When Lynch saw the finished script he immediately took to it, saying "it became, for me, very real."[7]

Casting[edit]

For the role of Alvin Straight, producers cast their first choice, Richard Farnsworth.[7] Though he was reluctant to commit to the role as he was then terminally ill with metastatic prostate cancer, he took the role out of admiration for Straight.[7] Sissy Spacek, a longtime friend of Lynch's who had helped to finance his earlier film Eraserhead, was cast as Alvin's daughter, Rose.[7] Harry Dean Stanton was cast as Alvin's ailing brother.[7]

Filming[edit]

The Straight Story was independently shot along the actual route taken by Straight, and all scenes were shot in chronological order in the autumn of 1998.[10] Lynch would later call the film "my most experimental movie".[11]

During production, Farnsworth's cancer had spread to his bones, but he astonished his co-workers with his tenacity during production. The paralysis of his legs as shown in the film was real.[12] Farnsworth died by suicide the following year, at the age of 80.[13]

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 (the only Lynch film to receive such a rating).[1][14]

Music[edit]

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.[15] A soundtrack album was released on October 12, 1999, by Windham Hill Records.[16]

The Straight Story
Soundtrack album by
Angelo Badalamenti
ReleasedOctober 12, 1999
RecordedAsymmetrical Studio, Hollywood
Length48:09
LabelWindham Hill
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[17]
Q[18]
Uncut[19]

Soundtrack[edit]

All music composed and conducted by Angelo Badalamenti.

The Straight Story: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.TitleLength
1."Laurens, Iowa"2:45
2."Rose’s Theme"2:55
3."Laurens Walking"4:11
4."Sprinkler"2:56
5."Alvin’s Theme"4:25
6."Final Miles"4:06
7."Country Waltz"2:46
8."Rose’s Theme"3:07
9."Country Theme"3:38
10."Crystal"4:07
11."Nostalgia"6:51
12."Farmland Tour"3:09
13."Montage"7:24
Total length:48:09

Home media[edit]

The Straight Story was released on DVD on November 7, 2000.[20] As with many of Lynch's films, there are no chapter markers on the original North American DVD release, with a note written by Lynch inside the DVD case that reads, "It is my opinion that a film is not a book - it should not be broken up. It is a continuum and should be seen as such."[21]

On September 17, 2021, The Straight Story received a limited edition Blu-ray release from Imprint Films.[22]

Reception[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

The Straight Story was critically acclaimed upon its release, with critics lauding Lynch's uncharacteristic subject matter. Entertainment Weekly described the film as a "celestial piece of Americana".[23] The Chicago Tribune wrote of the film, "we see something American studio movies usually don't give us: the simple, unsentimentalized beauty of the rural American Midwestern landscape."[24]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "the same bellwether quality that left Blue Velvet looking so prescient, and ushered in a whole cinematic wave of taboo-shattering, is at work once again. When a born unnaturalist like Lynch can bring such interest and emotion to one man's simple story, the realm of the ordinary starts looking like a new frontier."[25] Of Farnsworth's performance, Maslin wrote, "he automatically frees the film from any sense of artifice and delivers an amazingly stalwart performance that will not soon be forgotten."[25] Her review concluded, "The Straight Story is...about gazing at the sky, about experiencing each encounter to the fullest, than it is about getting anywhere in a hurry. It's been too long since a great American movie dared to regard life that way."[25]

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."[5]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 106 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. 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."[26] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[27] 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".[28][29]

Awards and honors[edit]

The Straight Story was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.[30] Richard Farnsworth earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Alvin Straight.[31][32] For 20 years he held the record for the oldest person (at 79) to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar until 2021 when Anthony Hopkins was nominated at age 83. Farnsworth also won the 1999 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film.[33]

List of awards and nominations received by The Straight Story
Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Actor Richard Farnsworth Nominated [34]
Bodil Awards Best American Film David Lynch Won [35]
British Independent Film Awards Best International Independent Film - English Language Won [36]
Cahiers du Cinéma Annual Top 10 Lists 8th place [37]
Camerimage Golden Frog Freddie Francis Nominated [38]
1999 Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or David Lynch Nominated [30]
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Picture Nominated [39]
Best Actor Richard Farnsworth Nominated
Best Director David Lynch Nominated
European Film Awards Screen International Award Won [40]
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Jury Award for Best Actor Richard Farnsworth Won [41]
Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated [42]
Best Original Score - Motion Picture Angelo Badalamenti Nominated
Guldbagge Awards Best Foreign Film Nominated [43]
Humanitas Prize Feature Film Category John Roach, Mary Sweeney Nominated [44]
Independent Spirit Awards Best Male Lead Richard Farnsworth Won [45]
Best Feature John Roach, Mary Sweeney Nominated
Best Director David Lynch Nominated
Best First Screenplay John Roach, Mary Sweeney Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Richard Farnsworth 2nd place [46]
National Board of Review Awards 1999 Top Ten Films Won [47]
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Cinematography Freddie Francis Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor Richard Farnsworth Won [33]
Best Cinematographer Freddie Francis Won
Best Director David Lynch Nominated
Best Film Nominated[a]
Online Film & Television Association Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen John Roach, Mary Sweeney Nominated [48]
Best First Screenplay Nominated
Online Film Critics Society Awards Top Ten Films of the Year 7th place [49]
Best Actor Richard Farnsworth Nominated
Best Original Score Angelo Badalamenti Nominated
Best Cinematography Freddie Francis Nominated
Satellite Awards Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama Richard Farnsworth Nominated [50]
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Drama Sissy Spacek Nominated
Village Voice Film Poll Best Film 7th place [51]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Tied with American Beauty and Being John Malkovich

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Petrikin, Chris; Dawtrey, Adam (May 10, 1999). "Disney, Lynch go 'Straight'". Variety. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  2. ^ "The Straight Story (1999) - Financial information". The Numbers. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  3. ^ The Straight Story at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ "The Straight Story (1999)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (October 15, 1999). "The Straight Story (1999)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 15, 2016.
  6. ^ Hughes, David (April 30, 2014). The Complete Lynch. Random House. p. 332. ISBN 9780753550335.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Smith, Patrick (April 14, 2017). "How an old man and his lawnmower made David Lynch weep: the making of The Straight Story". The Telegraph. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
  8. ^ Fagerholm, Matt (August 4, 2022). "You Want People to Enter the Dream: Mary Sweeney on Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr. and The Straight Story". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Olcese, Abby (February 18, 2021). "Getting to the Heart of America in David Lynch's The Straight Story". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  10. ^ DeBack, Chris (October 10, 2018). "Hollywood invades Clermont - Rear recalls filming of 'The Straight Story' 20 years ago". Fayette County Newspapers.
  11. ^ "David Lynch interview Empire November 2001". davidlynch.de. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  12. ^ "Richard Farnsworth dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound". The Independent. October 7, 2000. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  13. ^ "Obituaries". Variety. 380 (9): 131. October 16, 2000.
  14. ^ Nayman, Adam (May 23, 2019). "Remembering David Lynch's 'The Straight Story'". The Ringer. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  15. ^ Wilson, Sean. "Angelo Badalamenti: The Straight Story". mfiles. Music Files Ltd. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
  16. ^ "The Straight Story Soundtrack (1999)". Soundtrack.Net. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
  17. ^ Phares, Heather. "The Straight Story - Angelo Badalamenti". AllMusic. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  18. ^ "The Straight Story". Q. March 2000. p. 109. Neatly complements David Lynch's images of endless highways and patchwork fields...with some suitably open-plained backing....A useful souvenir of the complete movie experience.
  19. ^ "The Straight Story". Uncut. January 2000. p. 104. One of those rare pieces of music which freezes time, warms your will and causes you to perceive everything around you as if it's bathed in shafts of dusty sunlight"
  20. ^ "The Straight Story". Amazon. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  21. ^ Lynch, David (director) (November 7, 2000). The Straight Story. Walt Disney Studios.
  22. ^ "The Straight Story - Imprint Films Limited Edition Blu-ray Disc Details". High-Def Digest. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  23. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (October 15, 1999). "The Straight Story". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  24. ^ Wilmington, Michael (October 15, 1999). "Straight Story Told In Simple, Beautiful Style". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  25. ^ a b c Maslin, Janet (October 15, 1999). "'The Straight Story': An Unlikely Filmmaker Takes on a G-Rated Challenge". The New York Times. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  26. ^ "The Straight Story (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  27. ^ "The Straight Story". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  28. ^ Deming, Mark. "The Straight Story (1999) | Overview". AllMovie. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  29. ^ Phipps, Keith. "The Straight Story (1999) | Review". AllMovie. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  30. ^ a b "The Straight Story". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  31. ^ Galloway, Doug; Higgins, Bill (October 9, 2000). "Best actor nominee Farnsworth, 80, dies". Variety. Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  32. ^ "Richard Farnsworth, 80, Dies". The Washington Post. October 8, 2000. Archived from the original on July 31, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  33. ^ a b "Critics Flip For Topsy-Turvy". CBS News. December 17, 1999. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  34. ^ "2000 Academy Awards". Oscars.org. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  35. ^ "One And Only cleans up at Denmark's Bodils". Screen Daily. March 14, 2000. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  36. ^ "Winners & Nominations 2000". bifa.film. October 24, 2000. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  37. ^ "Cahiers Du Cinéma's Top Ten Films 1999". Mubi. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  38. ^ Ellis, David A. (2012). Conversations with Cinematographers. Scarecrow Press. p. 109. ISBN 9780810881266.
  39. ^ "Awards/Nominations for 1999 Chicago Film Critics". Box Office Prophets. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  40. ^ "The Straight Story". European Film Awards. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  41. ^ "FESTIVALS: Fort Lauderdale Fetes "War Zone," Attenborough, & Solid Shorts". IndieWire. November 17, 1999. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  42. ^ "Winners & Nominees 2000". Golden Globes. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  43. ^ "Guldbagge Awards 2000 (Sweden) - Swedish Film Institute". FilmAffinity. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  44. ^ "Humanitas Prize Nominees". Humanitas Prize. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  45. ^ ""Election," "Limey" Up for Indie Oscars". E! Online. January 13, 2000. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  46. ^ "LA critics name The Insider best film of the year". The Guardian. December 15, 1999. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  47. ^ "1999 Award Winners". National Board of Review. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  48. ^ "4th Annual Film Awards (1999)". Online Film & Television Association. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  49. ^ "1999 Awards (3rd Annual)". Online Film Critics Society. January 3, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  50. ^ "2000 4th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  51. ^ "Film Poll: Top 10 Movies by Year, 1999–2016". The Village Voice. February 13, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2022.

External links[edit]

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