The Straight Story (1999)
There is a version of David Lynch's career that reads as a consistent exercise in the uncanny: industrial wastelands, dream logic, violence lurking beneath the surface of small-town America. Under the Skin fans will recognise that particular brand of alienating, unsettling cinema, even if Lynch had no hand in it. So when Disney, of all studios, approached Lynch to direct a G-rated road movie based on a true story from 1994, the reaction from most quarters was somewhere between baffled and sceptical. The Straight Story is the result, and it stands as perhaps the most quietly radical thing Lynch ever put his name to, a film that takes its director's preoccupation with the hidden life of ordinary Americans and strips it of all menace, leaving only warmth.
The real Alvin Straight made his 240-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin on a John Deere lawnmower in the summer of 1994, at the age of seventy-three. The story was picked up by journalist John Ferriter, and the screenplay was written by John Roach and Mary Sweeney (who also edited the film and had a long creative partnership with Lynch). Production was a genuinely international affair, backed by Les Films Alain Sarde, Le Studio Canal+, and Film4 Productions alongside the American Picture Factory, giving it a European art-house sensibility that sits comfortably alongside its Midwestern Americana. The budget was modest by Hollywood standards, which suits the material perfectly. Cinematographer Freddie Francis, a veteran of classic British horror and no stranger to the strange, shoots the Iowa and Wisconsin landscapes with a painter's eye for wide, unhurried space, golden fields rolling away under enormous skies. It is the kind of visually considered, patient filmmaking that owes more to Badlands than to anything multiplex-friendly, whatever the certificate on the tin might suggest.
The cast is small and well-chosen. Richard Farnsworth had been a stuntman and bit-part player for decades before a late-career flourish brought him real recognition, including an Oscar nomination for Comes a Horseman in 1978 and another for Tender Mercies-era picture The Grey Fox in 1982. By 1999 he was seventy-nine years old, creased and slow-moving and entirely at home in front of a camera. Sissy Spacek, a long-time favourite on this blog (her work in Carrie remains definitive), takes the role of Rose, Alvin's daughter, and brings to it the same quality she always has: an absolute lack of vanity and a generosity towards the character that makes every scene feel lived rather than performed. The supporting cast is largely made up of non-professional or regional actors, faces that look like they belong to the places they are filmed in, which gives the whole thing a texture that polished studio casting would have ruined. Jane Galloway Heitz, Joseph A. Carpenter, and Donald Wiegert are among those populating Alvin's journey with small, unhurried human encounters.
When you think of David Lynch, your mind likely drifts to surreal nightmares, flickering neon, and industrial dread. You do not, typically, picture a family-friendly road trip across the American Midwest on a ride-on lawnmower. Yet, The Straight Story (1999) is exactly that, and it is arguably one of the most profoundly moving films of his entire career.
It follows the true story of Alvin Straight, an elderly man in failing health who, upon learning his estranged brother has suffered a stroke 260 miles away, decides to visit him. Unable to legally drive a car due to his poor eyesight, Alvin exploits a charming little legal loophole: there is no law against driving a mower on the highway. So, quite simply, that is exactly what he does.
The emotional anchor of this journey is the late, great Richard Farnsworth, whose casting is nothing short of miraculous. Playing Alvin with a quiet, weathered dignity, Farnsworth brings a profound sense of lived-in truth to the screen. Knowing that the actor himself was battling terminal cancer during production adds a deeply moving, almost unbearable layer of poignancy to his performance. He is brilliantly matched by Sissy Spacek, who plays his daughter, Rose. I have said it before and I will say it again: Spacek is easily one of the most criminally underrated actresses of her generation, and her grounded, empathetic presence here perfectly balances Alvin’s stubborn, quiet determination.
I am an absolute sucker for the film’s auditory landscape. Angelo Badalamenti, Lynch’s usual collaborator in all things eerie, pivots beautifully here to compose a sweeping, heartfelt soundscape of Americana. It is a score built on weeping fiddles, warm steel guitars, and gentle, rolling melodies that perfectly capture the vast, sun-drenched expanses of the rural heartland. It never manipulates you; rather, it acts as a gentle, rhythmic companion to Alvin’s slow, methodical progress, turning a mundane journey into something genuinely mythic.
This is the kind of modern folklore we desperately need: a tale that doesn't rely on extravagant legends or flashy spectacle, but rather on a singular, stubborn feat of deep human love and passion. Lynch strips away all his trademark stylistic trickery to deliver a picture of remarkable clarity and grace. It is a wonderfully humane, deeply affecting film that reminds us of the quiet heroism in simply keeping moving forward. For anyone willing to take the slow road, it is an absolute triumph.
The Straight Story sits in a curious corner of Lynch's filmography, acknowledged by critics, beloved by those who have seen it, and somehow still not quite as well-known as it deserves to be. Alongside reflective, quietly emotional work like Youth, it belongs to a particular tradition of films that take ageing and regret seriously without tipping into sentimentality or easy resolution. What Lynch achieves here is a kind of restraint that, in its own way, takes more discipline than any of his more ostentatiously strange work. The film trusts the audience, trusts the landscape, and trusts Farnsworth's face to carry the weight. Sometimes the slowest road is the right one.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 1999 | Watched: 2026-08-06
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Straight Story (1999) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Studiocanal Presents Amazon Channel
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Buy: Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus · Criterion Channel
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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