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MOVIES / ON DVD / THE STRAIGHT STORY
The Straight Story

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The Straight Story (1999)

95%
96%
91%
N/A
N/A
N/A
95 %
Reviews Counted: 84 Fresh: 80  Rotten:4 Average Rating: 8.1/10
 
Consensus: Slow-paced but heart-warming. Slow-paced but heart-warming. more
 
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Synopsis:
Alvin Straight (RICHARD FARNSWORTH) was 73 when he got the call about his brother. Alvin couldn't see well enough to hold a driver's license. He walked only with the support of two canes. He didn't much care for anybody else helping him out. But when he got the call that his brother Lyle... [More]
Alvin Straight (RICHARD FARNSWORTH) was 73 when he got the call about his brother.

Alvin couldn't see well enough to hold a driver's license. He walked only with the support of two canes. He didn't much care for anybody else helping him out. But when he got the call that his brother Lyle (HARRY DEAN STANTON) -- separated from him by hundreds of miles and a decade of proud silence -- had suffered a stroke, Alvin knew he had to reach him.

So, with little money but abundant determination, he climbed on his lawnmower and set out.

From two-time Oscar-nominated director David Lynch ("Blue Velvet," "The Elephant Man") comes a lyrical portrait of this real man's journey across America's Heartland. Filmed along the route that the actual Alvin Straight traversed in 1994 from Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin, "The Straight Story" chronicles Alvin's patient odyssey and those he meets along the way. When not rolling along at five miles an hour aboard his '66 John Deere, Alvin encounters a number of strangers, from a teenage runaway to a fellow World War II veteran. By sharing his life's earned wisdom with simple stories, Alvin has a profound impact on the characters that color his pilgrimage.

Menaced by enormous, rumbling 18-wheelers, lapped by bicycle marathoners and sheltered by abandoned barns, Alvin proceeds steadfastly along on the shoulders of snaking roads toward a hopeful and long-deferred reunion with a brother whose fate he doesn't know. [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Everett McGill, Harry Dean Stanton, Jane Heitz

Director: David Lynch
Screenwriter: Mary Sweeney, John Roach
Producer: Alain Sarde, Mary Sweeney, Neal Edelstein
Composer: Angelo Badalamenti

DVD Info

Release:

Nov 7, 2000

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen Anamorphic - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Trailer - Original Theatrical

Interactive Features:

  • Scene Access
  • Interactive Menus

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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12/27/07 03:15 AM
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
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06/24/06 03:40 AM
Derek Adams
Time Out
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12/06/05 07:50 PM
Film Threat
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04/09/05 03:50 AM
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews
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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.

Full Review | Comment
01/15/05 10:39 PM
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer
N/R

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05/28/03 05:19 PM
Beth Jones
Roanoke Times (Virginia)
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05/20/03 05:19 PM
Susan Tavernetti
Palo Alto Weekly
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12/08/02 08:45 AM
Film Threat
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Director David Lynch's American odyssey is a masterwork of quiet poetry.

Full Review | Comment
11/07/02 01:23 PM
James Rocchi
Netflix
N/R

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11/06/02 03:20 PM
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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10/15/02 08:30 AM
Margaret A. McGurk
Cincinnati Enquirer
N/R

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09/09/02 07:26 PM
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
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Farnsworth proves the greatest special effect is the human face.

Full Review | Comment
07/09/02 03:26 PM
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
Ratings Image

Lynch has no intention of trying to “explain” what makes Alvin tick or of understanding him in any reductionistic way; of reducing a man to a motivation.

Full Review | Comment
05/08/02 12:16 PM
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films Guide
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The story seems to reveal itself naturally, like a flower bud opening up.

Full Review | Comment
05/05/02 01:55 PM
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
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03/22/02 08:20 AM
Globe and Mail
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N/R

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03/05/02 08:19 AM
Kevin Jackson
Sight and Sound
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Marvels abound in this honest and engaging film about real people from the heartland of America.

Full Review | Comment
03/04/02 07:18 AM
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice
N/R

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02/03/02 08:18 AM
Gemma Files
eye WEEKLY
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Lynch has slowed the world down and gotten back in touch with it.

Full Review | Comment
01/15/02 08:18 AM
David Edelstein
Slate
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