Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6716 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-08-12
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Throughout The Straight Story, 73-year-old Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) gazes calmly at the night sky, as if the stars were reflections of his own memories. When he hears his brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton), with whom he hasn't spoken in years, is ailing Alvin decides to go visit him and make peace. But since Alvin's eyesight is bad and his daughter (Sissy Spacek) refuses to drive him, he sets out on the 500-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin on a John Deere lawnmower. It's slow going, so there's plenty of time to stop for the night and ponder the cosmos. Along the way, he befriends a variety of nice folks, and you have to ask yourself: is this really a David Lynch movie?

It's a miracle that this wholesome film was made by a director whose work is often described as twisted and bizarre. But Lynch is too complex an artist to be labelled, and he brings charm, grace and kindness to this story based on a newspaper clipping. Moreover, The Straight Story has a serenity rarely found in movies anymore. It's a film of moments--funny, odd, quietly spiritual--and this simple tale of a man, a lawnmower and rural hospitality becomes a genuine Lynchian odyssey, unlike any film you've seen but as welcoming as a cup of lemon tea with honey. Best of all, it's a fitting tribute to the career of veteran stuntman-actor Farnsworth who, at age 79, plays Alvin Straight to sheer perfection, his face a subtle roadmap to a broad spectrum of emotional destinations. --Jeff Shannon

Video Description

DVD Special Features:

Theatrical Trailer

Scene Index

Interactive Menu

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Dolby Digital 5.1

Synopsis
David Lynch's first foray into the land of Disney and G-ratings is a surprisingly gentle, hopeful, and irony-free crowd pleaser. The film tells the true story of Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), a 73-year-old man who journeys from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, on a John Deere lawn mower in order to visit his dying older brother, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton). The estranged brothers haven't spoken in years because of their stubborn pride, but Lyle's recent stroke convinces Alvin that now is the time to make amends. Along the way he meets a host of interesting characters--including a pregnant runaway teenager, a sad World War II veteran, and a sympathetic priest--affecting them deeply with his unflinching spirit and belief in the power of familial love. As Straight, Farnsworth slips into the role he was born to play with an effortless grace. Sissy Spacek gives a heartbreaking turn as his afflicted daughter, Rose, who looks after her father and mourns for her children, who were cruelly taken away from her after a freak fire threatened their well-being. Angelo Badalamenti's acoustic, string-heavy score, coupled with 81-year-old Freddie Francis's golden cinematography, adds an even deeper grace to Lynch's touching family drama.

Customer Reviews

A film about real people
Of course, the five-star rating here is a personal appraisal. This is not mainstream Hollywood and, in the opinion of this writer, is better for it. Had this been in any other language other than English, it would be regarded as one of the outstanding foreign films in cinema history. It is, after all, about beautiful people from the inside. A philosophical compendium based on the wisdom drawn from life experience and reflection. Just look into the eyes of Alvin as he speaks.

Slow Lane Blues
I was afraid that this tale of someone driving a lawnmower across part of the USA would be dull. It is not dull. The story is that an elderly, poor man, living with his slightly handicapped daughter (well played by Sissy Spacek) in (very) small town Iowa discovers that his brother has suffered a stroke in neighbouring Wisconsin. Unwilling to travel by bus and without a car, he adapts a ride-on lawnmower for the trip! He encounters interesting and odd people, some very pleasant and helpful ones among them. Eventually he reaches his destination.

This is very much a film where the important part of the journey is the travelling and not the arriving. It is a lot more compelling than you think it will be before you watch the whole of it. The amazing thing about it is that I believe that it is closely based on a real story and many of the locations used and credited at the end are those actually visited in the real-life journey. Certainly worth a look.

What's the worst thing about being old, Alvin?
Asks one of a group of cyclists of the central character in this quiet, classy film. 'Being able to remember when you were young' answers Alvin wryly. Alvin, whose health is failing, dispenses small, simple nuggets of wisdom throughout the film, but they never come across as cloying or corny.

I am not a fan of David Lynch films at all, and recorded this to watch if I had nothing better to do. Come a cold, rainy November day, I settled down to watch and, like most other reviewers here, saw two hours of a slow-paced, somewhat melancholy, yet deeply heartwarming and gentle-humoured film whizz by, and wished there were more of it.

You'll read a synopsis of the plot elsewhere, and it's not a complicated plot (based on a real life story), so the brilliant acting and cinematography are what will make this film stay with you and make you want to see it again. Every performance, even the very minor characters, rings true, and there are deeply moving moments when Alvin reflects out loud on his life and swaps war experiences with another veteran of WWII.

Visually, the film is like a little love poem to the rural upper Midwest; incredible sunsets, lightening storms, golden wheatfields stretching in every direction, night skies full of stars, lovely small towns set amongst autumn foliage.

I don't know what David Lynch fans would make of this untypical film, but those, like me, who find his films too 'out there' will be very pleasantly surprised. I only wish I could award it more than five stars. Absolutely superb.