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The Straight Story - trailer for David Lynch's masterpiece

submitted by Issykitty

1 decade 6 years 7 months ago

This was the last acting role for Richard Farnsworth, an actor that I adore for his role in Anne Of Green Gables as Matthew Cuthbert. I knew he had passed away the following year, but I only recently learned that he had taken his own life because of the pain he suffered from degenerative bone disease. RIP Richard Farnsworth.

From Wiki:
The Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch. It is based on the true story of Alvin Straight's journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawnmower. The film was edited and produced by Mary Sweeney, Lynch's longtime partner and co-worker. She co-wrote the script with John E. Roach.

The title of the film is a pun: it refers to Alvin's surname, but also refers to the story's seemingly straightforward nature, as compared to the complex, interweaving, mysterious plots of Lynch's other films.

Synopsis

Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek), a kind woman with a mental disability. When he hears that his estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke, he makes up his mind to go visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies. But because Alvin's legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty year-old John Deere Lawn Tractor and sets off on the 240-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin.

The film thus follows the story of Alvin's six-week journey across rural America, the people he meets, his impact on their lives, and theirs on his. It has been called a modern odyssey of a man dealing with his own mortality and mistakes and the lasting bonds of family.

Production

The Straight Story was independently shot along the actual route taken by Alvin Straight, and all scenes were shot in chronological order. An effect of this can be seen in the fact that there are no chapter markers on the DVD release, as David Lynch wanted the film to be watched as a whole.

Unlike his prior films (or any that would follow), "The Straight Story" was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures after a successful debut at Cannes, was given a "G" rating by the MPAA, and is the only film that Lynch did not write (although it was co-written by his recurring associate, Mary Sweeney).

Richard Farnsworth was terminally ill with bone cancer during the shooting of the film, which had caused the paralysis of his legs as shown in the film. He actually took the role out of admiration for Alvin Straight, and astonished his co-workers with his veracity during production. Because of the pain of his disease, Farnsworth committed suicide the following year, aged 80, at his home with a pistol.