Alright, now for a full on review of THE STRAIGHT STORY by one of the folks that absolutely loves it. This is one of the key films coming to the AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL in a little over a week's time. I'm anxious as can be to get started on the new crop of films that I haven't seen nor heard a thing about, but with THE STRAIGHT STORY... I'm dying.... I've been hearing and awaiting this one for a very long time now. But on to the good Sgt....
Okay...
Harry, as a big fan of your site I felt compelled to share...
Finally catching my breath after seeing the amazing "Three Kings" (I know what you all should be doing this weekend!) once again I can't resist functioning as The Town Crier and singing the praises of another amazing film that's headed our way this fall. It doesn't open until late October, but I won't be able to sleep until I speak very highly of David Lynch's "The Straight Story."
RUMOR CONTROL: They're all true. David Lynch's new film is, in fact, Rated G. It is also being released by Walt Disney Pictures (you heard me... not Touchstone... we're talking the blue logo with Walt's autograph that you usually only see in front of cartoons.)
Yes, "The Straight Story" is indeed the true story of Alvin Straight - an almost-blind and almost-crippled 73-year old man who drove 300 miles from Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin in order to visit his estranged, dying brother... on his John Deere Lawnmower.
And yes, Lynch tells the story "straight," as it were... without hiding behind irony, freakshows, or anything else that will get in the way of his point that America is a gorgeous landscape populated by decent, caring, and hardworking people.
And most importantly: Yes, the rumors that the film is absolutely fucking beautiful are absolutely fucking true.
(Sorry, but since nobody in the movie curses, I felt compelled to make up for them.)
I cried three times during "The Straight Story." The first outburst came early, when Straight (portrayed by Richard Farnsworth with such texture and dignity that I will throw rocks if he is denied an Oscar nomination) sits by a campfire and shares some family secrets with a bitter teenage hitchhiker who, only moments ago, has been openly mocking him and his unconventional mode of transportation. Unlike the sage charicatures of something like, say, "Waking Ned Devine" (exactly the kind of condescending, sentimental rubbish that this film could have degenerated into were it in lesser hands) Straight talks like most elderly men: There's a point that he's going to get to sooner or later, but there's a lot of ground that needs to be covered first.
I'm not sure where it was during their exchange that I first lost it, but here he is trying to beat into this dumb girl's head the importance of staying close with your family... and meanwhile he's on this crazy journey because he's been too stubborn to even talk to his brother for the last ten years. (Of course he leaves out that part during his sermon, but it comes through Farnsworth's eyes nonetheless.) It's a stunning representation of The Old pleading with The Young to learn from their mistakes... and it turned me into a mess.
The second time I fell apart is a shot that has already been extensively written about by The Great Greil Marcus in Salon-dot-com. Straight has found himself in a road house, sharing a drink with another man his age. They're strangers... but they both served in WWII. This common experience leads to the kinds of confessions you can probably only share with a stranger... and if that wasn't enough to destroy me, Lynch ends the scene with one of the most evocative images I've ever seen on film. The two old men are huddled over the bar, consoling one another through the grief they have kept private for all these years... while the young bartender stands at a respectful distance, gazing downward. The greatness is that WE ARE THE BARTENDER!!!! We're intruders on thier private guilt and ashamed for being unable to fathom what these men have been through. It's barely a snapshot - but there's so much going on in the shot that you could write a whole damn book about it. ($20 says Greil Marcus eventually will... after all - he's published tomes about tapes he found in Bob Dylan's trash.)
The final time I lost my shit is at the end, which you could not get out of me if you stuck bamboo shoots underneath my fingernails. Oddly enough, this final sequence caused much chatter and consternation at my screening. The moment cries out for exactly the kind of teary, Gimmie-The-Oscar speech that would have sank the entire endeavor. Lynch is SO MUCH SMARTER than that. He gives us a great actor, he shows us his eyes... he shows us a realization... roll credits. Any other choice would be the kind of mawkish, syrupy trash that "The Straight Story" is the exact opposite of.
Next month you're going to hear a lot of comparisons to Frank Capra with regard to "The Straight Story." They are understanable considering the nature of the story, and it's film's fervent commitment to depicting America as a wonderful place populated by wonderful people. But (and this is no slight on Capra - I understand how his films are a lot richer and darker than people give him credit for) I get a much stronger echo of John Ford in this picture. Obviously Ford-ian is Lynch's reverence and awe of the untamed, wide-open landscapes. (The Scenery should be eligible for a Best Supporting Actor nomination.) But even moreso there is the bruised idealism. Lynch's (mostly elderly) cast of characters could be right out of any John Ford movie because they've seen the worst of life, but they're not going to bitch about it... yet such heavy knowledge still informs their manner and bearing and each decision they make. Every character's eyes betray a past we may not like to hear about, and it makes their irrepressible optimism and goodwill feel hard-won instead of just being a cloying Hollywood device.
Ford or no Ford (we can argue about that next month) - G Rating and all - this still feels like a Lynch film through and through. It's got that same, intensely personal, handmade signature that comes through in everything he does... you'll recognize it during the slow-mo shots of the amber waves of grain backed up by the Badalamenti score. "Blue Velvet," "Wild At Heart" and early "Twin Peaks" were battles between (ahem) Darkness and Light... battles in which Light eventually won out... even if it wound up a little wiser and sadder for it. Darkness started winning (big time) in the final episode of "Twin Peaks" and the subsequent movie version... which brought us up to "Lost Highway" - a practiaclly unwatchable masterpiece of abject terror that contained no Light whatsoever.
It's tempting to say that "The Straight Story" is Lynch's apology for the relentless pessimism of "Lost Highway" - but that would be selling both Lynch and the film short. There's plenty of Darkness in "The Straight Story"... it just so happens that the film is about a very stubborn old man who is determined to make sure that Light wins this round.
It's a beautiful little film that's a high point in the career of one of our most important directors....
Now let's see how those poor bastards at Disney try to market it!!!!!!!
Okay, I have ranted of "The Straight Story"'s greatness, and now I can sleep.
-Sgt. Welsh.
