The Straight Story

For some reason it took me over ten years to catch up with The Straight Story, famous for being the most unLynchean of David Lynch's oeuvre. It's a simple tale full of heartland American values, and though that sounds treacly, it is remarkable in its restraint.

Richard Farnsworth, who received an Oscar nomination, stars as Alvin Straight, a retiree living in Iowa. He has trouble walking and seeing, and has long lost his driver's license. He lives with his daughter, Rose (Sissy Spacek), who is mentally challenged. When word comes that his older brother, who lives in Wisconsin, has had a stroke, Farnsworth wants to visit him. How to do it is the question.

Farnsworth ends up rigging his riding lawn mower to a trailer and sets off, at five miles an hour. His first attempt is aborted when the mower gives out, so he buys a John Deere (used, a 1966 model) and tries again. Avoiding the Interstate, he put-puts along, camping by the road at night.

At first I wondered how this film could possibly sustain interest over a near two hours. But it became clear that this was, in a way, a middle-American Odyssey, with the meat of the film the people Farnsworth meets along the way: a teenage runaway, a group of bicyclists, and then, most memorably, when his mower breaks down, some people in a town about sixty miles short of his destination. They are astonished to hear that he has been on his journey for five weeks, and he refuses their offer of driving him the rest of the way. "You're a kind man, talking to a stubborn man," he tells the good Samaritan.

The film is full of small moments that celebrate human goodness. The encounter with the girl is one of them, as is when a fellow World War II vet invites Farnsworth to a bar to have a drink. Farnsworth tells him he doesn't drink anymore, and recalls how he acquired a taste for liquor in France and became mean. The two old men recall the horrors of war, and though over fifty years later, the images of death are still vivid in their memories. At times the cracker-barrel wisdom edges into the precious, but I enjoyed the feeling the movie gave me.

When Farnsworth reaches his brother (Harry Dean Stanton) the result is refreshing low-key but nonetheless extremely moving. I defy anyone to watch it with a dry eye.

This is based on a true story, and one question nags at me: How was he not stopped by the police. Surely a man without a license can't legally drive a lawn mower on a highway, yet we never see him pulled over by a cop.