Alex Moss EditorDavid Lynch’s The Straight Story is aptly named given it is the most un-Lynchian film he ever made. With Lynch’s sad departure last year The Straight Story gets a timely 4K release and reminds you what an incredible storyteller and warm human being Lynch was.
When Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) learns that his estranged brother Lyle is critically ill he makes the decision to travel cross state to see him. But without a driving license his only option is to hop on his lawnmower and take the slow and arduous journey. Strapping a trailer to the back of his mower, Straight sets off on his only little odyssey
In so many ways this does feel like Lynch giving a gentle middle-finger to all those who refused to connect with his more experimental style. Because here is a delicate, warm and beautiful film of a simple road trip, albeit it on a lawnmower. It’s a visual treat, Lynch and regular cinematographer Freddie Francis shooting the American Midwest with a Malick like eye. Golden sunsets fading over sprawling cornfields that evoke a sense of grandeur but never isolation.
For while Alvin is alone in his adventure he’s never lonely. Encountering all folks from all walks of life, each connection reveals a little more about who Alvin is and was. Because The Straight Story is a film about entering your twilight years and looking back at the road taken. From reminiscing about his family to meeting friendly people along the way, Lynch connects us to Alvin in incredibly simple but powerful ways. In one of the film’s most powerful scenes Alvin shares a beer in a bar with a fellow World War II veteran. The two men sharing horror stories as Lynch gently plays sounds of planes strafing stranded soldiers, as they relive the horrors they witnessed emotions come bubbling to the surface and you’re reminded of a shared trauma a generation shared, overcame but can never truly move past.
The theme of family is the one that reverberates throughout. From the way Alvin and his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek) have such a natural and familiar relationship to the way Alvin’s determination to reconcile with his brother Lyle before their time is up will remind you that no matter what happens, there is no stronger bond than family. The final scene, after a long and beautiful journey, will leave you reeling with emotion and desperate to pick-up the phone to a loved one you’ve lost touch with.
In the lead role Richard Farnsworth is captivating. There is a stoicism he brings to Alvin but never allows him to be cantankerous. There are moments when he’s alone with his thoughts that have your heart breaking at the internal struggles he’s going through. He has an ability to have a smile of sadness often etched on his face, and come the final moments you’re left devastated in the most reassuring way. Special mention should also go to Spacek who plays Rose with a sense of innocent naivety only to have more and more revealed about her character and discovering she’s so much more than meets the eye. Like her father, constantly showing a resilience most of us can only aspire to.
The Straight Story might be the antithesis of David Lynch’s film career but it is also his most heartwarmingly beautiful. An affectionate, heartbreaking and warm film, The Straight Story reminds you that action, adventure, horror, or gimmicks don’t invest you in a film, character does, and here is a film brimming with it.
