The Straight Story is the slowest of road movies, its elderly protagonist crawling 240 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin at just five miles per hour. Screenwriters John Roach and Mary Sweeney based their script closely on a true story, that of 73-year-old Alvin Straight, who made his journey riding a lawnmower upon hearing that his estranged brother had suffered a stroke. Sweeney’s then-partner David Lynch was intrigued and took on directorial duties. This is a real outlier in his output, a colleague describing it as “the one Lynch film that isn’t perverse in some way”, the finished product deemed so wholesome and family-friendly that Disney successfully bid for distribution rights on its 1999 release.
Veteran actor Richard Farnsworth is perfectly cast as Alvin, his frailties laid bare in the opening minutes. A widower, living with his daughter Rosie (Sissy Spacek), Alvin’s truisms would sound trite if spoken by a lesser actor, and learning that his on-screen physical stiffness was caused by the terminal cancer he was suffering from during production makes his performance more impressive still. Farnsworth’s Alvin is stubbornness incarnate, his odyssey progressing against a backdrop of vast skies, endless cornfields and Hopper-esque small town life, cinematographer Freddie Francis making the images glow.
It's rare to encounter an actor who can do so much with apparently minimal effort, every frown and pause pregnant with meaning. Farnworth’s rheumy blue eyes hint at decades of regret, the catalyst for Alvin’s years of alcoholism and the falling out with his brother Lyle slowly revealed as the narrative proceeds. A lesser director would milk Alvin and the people he meets for broad comedy, but Lynch always treats his characters with warmth and respect. An encounter with a young hitchhiker prompts Alvin to give the reason for Rose’s halting speech, and there’s a revelatory confessional scene with a fellow WW2 veteran.
There are a few Lynchian fingerprints, notably the camera’s creepy prowling around the outside of Alvin’s house in the opening scenes and a surreal encounter with a distraught driver who’s collided with a deer, but this is a warm hug of a film, an unsentimental celebration of human decency. Alvin meets nothing but kindness from those he meets, notably when forced to camp in an obliging stranger’s garden after the mower’s drive belt snaps, James Cada’s Danny offering in vain to drive Alvin to his destination. Twin Peaks fans will enjoy a cameo from Everett McGill as a big-hearted John Deere salesman.
Alvin’s eventual reunion with Harry Dean Stanton’s Lyle is sweetly handled, the two men content to sit together on the porch and gaze up at the night sky. Glorious, in other words, Lynch's 'straightest' film undoubtedly one of his best, and it looks radiant in this new HD transfer. Studio Canal’s release includes some entertaining if non-essential extras, with “On Set with David Lynch” showing the director in relaxed, affable mood.
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