# Straight Story, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Bob Bloom

The Straight Story (1999) 4 stars out of 4. Starring William Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Everett McGill and Harry Dean Stanton. Directed by David Lynch.

The simplicity and sincerity of "The Straight Story" will put a stranglehold on your soul.

It's a movie that celebrates determination, love and life. It is one of those events that will cradle you in its warmth and caress you with its generosity of spirit.

"The Straight Story" is a feature that overwhelms you with its lack of pretense. It's unassuming art like a Grandma Moses painting or a Norman Rockwell drawing.

And it's protagonist, Alvin Straight, is a man who could have stepped out of one of those Rockwell works.

As portrayed by Richard Farnsworth, Straight is as leathery as an old saddle and as intransigent as Mount Rushmore. His character befits his name. He is a frank, honest man, quiet-spoken with an economy of words. He says little, but speaks volumes.

"The Straight Story," which is based on a true incident, follows Alvin as the 73-year-old decides to travel from his home in Laurens, Iowa, to Mount Zion, Wis., to visit his estranged brother, Lyle, who has been felled by a stroke.

Alvin and Lyle had a falling out about 10 years earlier and Alvin feels he must make things right.

However, Alvin is not in the best of health himself. He walks with the support of two canes and can't see well enough to drive.

So Alvin, fueled only by his determination, sets out on his 1966 John Deere riding lawnmower to cover the approximate 350 miles to Lyle's.

Alvin refuses help from those around him, including his beloved daughter, Rose (Sissy Spacek). This is a trip he feels he must make on his own terms. It is a kind of penance, he believes.

Along the way, Alvin meets various people, among them a runaway, pregnant teen-ager whom he teaches the value of family, and a good Samaritan former John Deere dealer who helps him out when his mower runs into problems.

"The Straight Story" is directed by David Lynch, the man who has given us such dark and perverse movies as "Eraserhead," "The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet" and "Lost Highway."

It turns out Lynch is as talented at showing the heart of the heartland as he is the dark underbelly of society.

And "The Straight Story" is a movie with heart, lots of it. Alvin is a good man as are the people he knows and the people he meets along his journey. This is a movie that leisurely celebrates family in the all-encompassing sense of the word.

Lynch has us ambling along with Alvin as he travels at 5 mph on the highway berm drinking in the beauty of the land and the stars. This is a reflective movie and Lynch offers us plenty of time to think about the ties that bind people.

In one of the film's loveliest sequences, Alvin offers a meal and shelter to a runaway girl. He doesn't pry into her life. He simply tells her a story. When his children were young, he says, he would have them pick up a stick and break it. Then he would take a bundle of sticks and tie them together and tell his children to try to break the bundle.

They couldn't, of course. And that, Alvin explains, is family.

The next morning the girl is gone, a bundle of sticks lying near the campfire embers.

Another powerful sequence features Alvin and another World War II veteran sitting in a bar swapping their war memories. Their shared pain can be seen in their eyes. It's here that Alvin explains that the war led him to drink, which he admits caused much pain for his family.

But he has quit drinking and put that part of his life behind him. Now he only wants to make amends.

Farnsworth, a former stuntman, best known for his roles in such films as "Comes a Horseman" (for which he received a supporting actor Oscar nomination), "The Natural" and "The Grey Fox," gives a magnificent performance. It is so warm, so tender - so human - that if does not walk off with the best actor Oscar at the next ceremony, the movie industry should toss the entire proceedings into the trash heap.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime role, one which Farnsworth was born to play. Whether dealing with a distraught woman who - because she has to travel the same road every day to get to work - has hit and killed 14 deer in seven weeks (a typical Lynchian touch), or sweetly explaining to the bickering twin mechanics who repair his riding mower the special bond of brotherhood, Farnsworth carries himself with a craggy dignity.

Ably supporting Farnsworth are Spacek as his loving daughter, Everett McGill as the John Deere dealer who gets him the wheels to make his journey, and Harry Dean Stanton as Lyle.

When the brothers finally meet, no words are necessary. Alvin and Lyle merely need to look at each other. Their expressions convey all that needs to be said.

"The Straight Story" is one of the best movies of the year, and Lynch's finest achievement. Academy Award recognition should go to the movie, Lynch, Farnsworth, the cinematography of the legendary Freddie Francis and the screenplay by John Roach and Mary Sweeney.

"The Straight Story" is that rarity, a "G"-rated movie that is a true family experience. In this instance, the "G" stands for more than "general audiences;" it connotes gem, great and genuine. "The Straight Story" is a film that will make you stand up and cheer.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net

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