The Straight Story (1999)
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 87
Fresh: 83 | Rotten: 4
Slow-paced but heart-warming.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 27
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 1
Slow-paced but heart-warming.
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Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 29,693
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Movie Info
David Lynch offers an uncharacteristically straightforward and warmly sentimental approach to his material in this film, based on a true story, about an elderly man's journey to reconcile with his brother. Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) is an ailing widower in his early 70's who lives in Laurens, Iowa with his daughter, Rose (Sissy Spacek), who is mildly retarded and has a speech defect. Alvin doesn't trust doctors, despite suffering from emphysema and a bad hip. Alvin learns that his
Cast
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Richard Farnsworth
Alvin Straight -
Sissy Spacek
Rose -
Jane Galloway Heitz
Dorothy -
Everett McGill
Tom The Dealer -
Jennifer Edwards-Hughes
Brenda -
Barbara E. Robertson
Derr Woman -
John Farley
Thorvald -
John Lordan
Priest -
Harry Dean Stanton
Lyle -
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All Critics (107) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (4) | DVD (11)
Lynch has slowed the world down and gotten back in touch with it.
Top CriticAnother pleasant surprise.
A beguiling piece of Americana.
David Lynch shifts gears in this lyrical miracle of a film about a man and his John Deere riding mower.
A great Richard Farnsworth performance and an even better one by Spacek.
Great, but young kids may be bored and restless.
Mainstream-accessible yet completely maintains Lynch's uniquely off-kilter artistic identity.
One could say that The Straight Story is a twilight Western on the order of Unforgiven, except that the pale rider here mounts a snail-paced John Deere instead of a stallion.
A great big can of corn. Kernel corn, not that mushy crap.
I don't know how much is 'based on a true story,' but deeper truth about life, love, and forgiveness rings out loud and clear.
Director David Lynch's American odyssey is a masterwork of quiet poetry.
Farnsworth proves the greatest special effect is the human face.
Audience Reviews for The Straight Story
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Lyle: Did you ride that thing all the way out here to see me?
- Alvin Straight: I did, Lyle.
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- Alvin Straight: There's no one knows your life better than a brother that's near your age. He knows who you are and what you are better than anyone on earth. My brother and I said some unforgivable things the last time we met, but, I'm trying to put that behind me... and this trip is a hard swallow of my pride. I just hope I'm not too late... a brother's a brother.
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- Alvin Straight: I'd give each one of 'em a stick and, one for each one of 'em, then I'd say, 'You break that.' Course they could real easy. Then I'd say, 'Tie them sticks in a bundle and try to break that.' Course they couldn't. Then I'd say, 'That bundle... that's family.'
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- Dorothy: What's the number for 911?
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Foreign Titles
- Eine wahre Geschichte (DE)
- Une histoire vraie (FR)
