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The Straight Story
***
Cinema
Releases - December 10, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Directed by David Lynch. Written by John Roach and Mary Sweeney.
Starring Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, James Cada, Everett McGill, John
Farley, Harry Dean Stanton.
After years of using heartland America as a location
for freak shows, filmmaker David Lynch has found a tale that meditates on
the place's essential goodness. "The Straight Story" slowly
savours the countryside and its residents, albeit from the point of view
of an old man on a lawnmower.
His name is Alvin Straight, here played by Richard
Farnsworth, the Oscar nominee from "Comes a Horseman". Straight was a real
man who, several years ago, really did make a six-week road trip with a John
Deere lawnmower to see his ailing brother Lyle. It was an intrepid plan --
after all, Straight had weak hips, his eyesight was fading, his lungs were
packing in, and, well... he was on a lawnmower, dammit.
Straight had to make several stops in his undesirable
streetcar, and Lynch enjoys imagining what kind strangers the cowboy might
have happened upon. There is a fellow World War II veteran, a pregnant teenage
runaway, a motorist distraught about how many deer her car has hit and, quite
luckily, a former John Deere technician. I expected the movie to take an
epic approach to this -- almost as if it were a dramatic "Forrest Gump" or
a human "Littlest Hobo". But instead of seeing Straight mosey from place
to place like an angel, sorting out problems, tipping his hat and heading
off, "The Straight Story" unfolds with subtlety. Each time Alvin has an
encounter, we learn as many specific details about his character as we do
solemn pearls of wisdom. By the time he gets near his brother's house, we
understand his history and his head, and are experiencing the same sort of
joy and anticipation we felt for the Pran-Shamberg reunion in "The Killing
Fields".
The film's best moments are those free from dialogue,
as Alvin makes his way along the road and we reflect on whatever has just
happened. Farnsworth is a great actor to spend this time with because his
eyes tell us all we need to know -- they have not aged with the rest of his
creased face, and can still dance, quiver or pause in contemplation. The
vastly picturesque hills, cornfields and blue skies around him are photographed
brightly, colourfully and fluidly by Freddie Francis, and are accompanied
by a string score of soaring joy from Angelo Badalamenti.
Many viewers will ponder little about the music
and cinematography, to concentrate on what this movie means in terms of Lynch's
career. Most will be baffled -- the director is known for sordid ironic fantasy,
and this piece is as sincere as its title suggests. Some will waffle on about
how Lynch always shows outsiders and eccentrics, and "The Straight Story"
is simply a more sedate example of this than "Eraserhead", "The Elephant
Man" or "Blue Velvet". I dunno. Since the film is indeed uncharacteristically
sincere for Lynch, isn't that an especial reason to just take it at face
value and pay attention to the plot?
Indeed, if the film means something crucial in
a particular person's career, that person is Farnsworth. He has been in more
than 300 movies without achieving stardom, mostly as a character actor or
stuntman, whereas now he seems set for an Academy Award nomination as best
actor. Even after the pomp of Oscar night has faded, "The Straight Story"
will remain something special -- it is a film that attempts to place us inside
the mind of a wise, experienced main character, and, thanks to Farnsworth,
succeeds.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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