The Straight Story **** (1999, Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton, Jane Galloway Heitz) – Classic Movie Review 6378

Double Oscar-nominee Richard Farnsworth (1920–2000) is the oldest nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor at 79 years and 167 days for The Straight Story (1999).

At 73, Alvin Straight (Farnsworth) is having a troubled old age with both eyesight and walking difficulties. He lives in Laurens, Iowa, with his middle-aged daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek), who is mentally handicapped.

But Alvin’s life changes when he hears that his disaffected 75-year-old brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has had a stroke, and Alvin sets off riding on a 300-mile trip on his 1966 seated tractor lawnmower to Mount Zion, Wisconsin, to mend his relationship with Lyle.

This beautifully achieved, astonishing looking, and ultimately hugely moving 2000 film is a huge credit to both Farnsworth and director Lynch, as well as maestro veteran cinematographer Freddie Francis.

John Roach and Mary Sweeney write the excellent, crafted screenplay, based on the true life 1994 story. Special thanks are offered on screen to the Alvin Straight family. Lynch named this totally untypical work his ‘most experimental movie’. It is certainly one that took many of his fans by surprise.

Also in the cast are Jane Galloway Heitz, Joseph A Carpenter, Donald Wiegert, Tracey Maloney, Dan Flannery, Jennifer Edwards-Hughes, Ed Grennan, Jack Walsh, Gil Pearson and Everett McGill.

It is produced by Mary Sweeney and Neal Edelstein, scored by Angelo Badalamenti and designed by Jack Fisk, Spacek’s husband.

Farnsworth’s last film: he later committed suicide.

It is Farnsworth’s last film: tragically he later committed suicide by gunshot on 6 October 2000 after being struck down by terminal cancer.

Harry Dean Stanton appears all too briefly at the end. He died on 15 September 2017, aged 91.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6378

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