THE STRAIGHT STORY: David Lynch's Unsung Masterpiece

This 1999 collaboration between auteur filmmaker David Lynch and Walt Disney Studios is a forgotten winner you all need to see.

By: Josh McCormack

My self isolation in the midst of this COVID-19 quarantine has led me to catching up on even more films since my last blog post a mere week ago. I've been watching everything from Straw Dogs to Leaving Las Vegas and on Monday afternoon, I popped on a film I had never seen from a filmmaker I've admired for years; the filmmaker is David Lynch and the film is The Straight Story.

Released in 1999,  The Straight Story adapts the real life events of Alvin Straight (played beautifully by Richard Farnsworth), a widowed 73 year old man with no drivers license who was intent on reuniting with his estranged brother after finding out he had a stroke. Leaving behind his mentally disabled daughter Rose (an incredible Sissy Spacek) and driving cross country with only a John Deere lawnmower, Alvin sets out to make amends with his brother, contemplating life, death, and everything in between on the way in this beautiful, meditative gem of a film.

The Straight Story is David Lynch at his most humanist since 1980's The Elephant Man (another true story tearjerker about mortality and kindness), but the avant garde filmmaker responsible for so much surreal and nightmarish imagery (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, etc.) has always been a humanist, even in his coldest and most unrelenting stories. Whether it's the comforting smile of Naomi Watts as she enters the hellish world of Mulholland Drive or Laura Dern's speech of seeing robins that symbolize hope in the midst of the chaos that is Blue Velvet, Lynch has always been a somewhat hopeful individual who believes in just as much in the inherent goodness of people as he does their inherent evil.

With this film, Lynch utilizes his knack for creating fascinating, quirky, three dimensional characters to tell a story about the impact we have on others and the little acts of kindness that can change a life. It's a simple concept, one that doesn't necessarily seem all that unique, but it's Lynch's utter sincerity and his complete lack of sap that makes the warmth radiating off The Straight Story so infectious. 

The film is a Walt Disney Studios release and a G-rated one at that (by the way, seeing the words "Walt Disney Studios presents a David Lynch film" at the start of the movie is enough to make my head explode), but don't let that fool you. The film dives deep into dark, emotional subject matter. Whether it's war trauma, broken homes, or facing your own mortality. Sissy Spacek's character of Rose--one of my favorites in the whole film--has a dark past that comes into light around halfway through the film and I can certainly see it being upsetting for younger viewers. However, Lynch never goes low and exploits this character's illness nor her tragic past. He instead delivers this information matter of factly only once and Sissy Spacek--who WILL break your heart--is able to convey so much of this internal pain through just her gaze alone. It's incredible stuff.

But, of course, the centerpiece of the film is Richard Farnsworth as Alvin Straight who is just magnetic, giving a performance that is not only honest and tearjerking, but also incredibly poignant seeing as the man passed away less than a year after the film's release in 2000. A great stuntman turned character actor who is memorable in such films as The Natural and Misery, Alvin is the part Farnsworth was born to play. As a performer who had nearly seven decades in the game, looking into his eyes you see the old soul of a man who has seen the world change around him so much as he gets close to the end of his road. When Alvin is asked by a young bicyclist what the hardest part of getting older is, he responds with, "The worst part of being old is remembering when you was young." Seeing this line delivered with such honesty from Farnsworth really hit me while watching the film.

There's so much more about the film to talk about. The gorgeous cinematography by Freddie Francis, the lovely score by frequent Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, and the colorful cast of characters Alvin meets on his journey, but I feel like I should leave you to discover that for yourself.

Log onto 'Disney+' ASAP and give The Straight Story a watch. It's just the type of optimistic, loving story you need in these uncertain times.