I just watched this movie on Bravo and i loved it.I never in my wildest dreams imagined that Lynch could direct a G rated movie about a man driving 300 miles on a lawnmower to see his brother, but Lynch managed to create something so beautifull that i’m suprised he didn’t get any accolades for this film.
I liked the end.
“Alvin, did you come all the way to see me on that thing?”
“Yes I did.”
Roll credits.
- The Straight Story * is indeed one of the marvels of cinema, a film that takes one simple idea and just brings it home perfectly. Richard Farnsworth does a great job as the old man, and the ending is indeed fantastic.
It’ll interest you to know, ** HalberMensch242 **, that the film did get quite a few prizes, and a heap of nominations: it just didn’t get any of the “major” awards, which, I think is a shame.
You can find a list of awards and nominations here:
http://us.imdb.com/Tawards?0166896
Good flick. Very, good flick!
It showed me a dimension to Lynch’s talent which I was unaware of. In every other movie of his I’ve seen, the oddity was in his telling. In The Straight Story, it’s the story itself which is odd, yet it’s told simply and with great love. A beautiful film.
It is a shame Richard Farnsworth commited suicide not that long after this movie came out. One or two years, at most.
He was quite sick. He had cancer during the production of that movie.
Wow…haha…i take it back it did get quite a lot recognition and rightfully so, what an amazingly touching film…
I also thought it was a great and touching film. At the end, it says it is dedicated to Alvin Straight, who apparently died in 1996. I don’t know anything about the real Alvin, but the movie did raise a lot of questions.
[spoilers]I think we are to deduce that Alvin, due to his post-war alcoholism, was responsible for the fire which injured one of his grandchildren and tore apart his family. Perhaps that incident is what launched the fight between he and his brother. It’s interesting that he chose to have a beer right before seeing his brother. Any thoughts on the significance of that moment?[/sploilers]
i second plastic conspiracy’s interpretation. I’ve read it somewhere when I was looking for discussions on Mulholland Drive, but for the life of me can’t remember where I read it. The poster there did elaborate: there was
a connection with the woman who continually bumped into deer. I’ve forgotten about the precise argument, unfortunately. If someone does remember, please tell.
That woman was interesting.
[spoiler]She complained about not being able to avoid killied deer, and says she loved dear; yet, she drove recklessly and left a dead deer in the middle of the road. She took no responsibility for her actions and seemed to hate her predicament, even though she didn’t take any steps to improve it.
Maybe you could tie that into Alvin’s story. Maybe felt like he had to take responsibility for his past and future. He had to make up for drinking recklessly and for running away from his problems. (Running away from his brother, perhaps). Maybe he was going back to get the dead deer out of the road.
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I LOVED this movie. Especially the end. I remember thinking, “If this goes on ONE SECOND LONGER, the whole movie will be ruined!”–and at that very second it ended, and I nearly died of joy.