The Straight Story

1999
G
1h 52m

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

100K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer1:58

Docudrama Road Trip Biography Drama

Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old, learns that his estranged brother, Lyle is critically ill. Unable to drive, Alvin embarks on a journey from Iowa to Mt. Zion, by riding a lawn mower. Will he s... Read allAlvin Straight, a 73-year-old, learns that his estranged brother, Lyle is critically ill. Unable to drive, Alvin embarks on a journey from Iowa to Mt. Zion, by riding a lawn mower. Will he succeed?Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old, learns that his estranged brother, Lyle is critically ill. Unable to drive, Alvin embarks on a journey from Iowa to Mt. Zion, by riding a lawn mower. Will he succeed?

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

100K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

2,801

1,067

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 18 wins & 40 nominations total

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Trailer 1:58

Trailer

Photos164

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Richard Farnsworth was terminally ill with bone cancer during the shooting of the film, which had caused the paralysis of his legs as shown in the film. He actually took the role out of admiration for Alvin Straight, and astonished his co-workers with his tenacity during production. Because of the pain of his disease, Farnsworth committed suicide the following year, at the age of 80.

Goofs
Alvin is shown crossing the Mississippi River on the Black Hawk Bridge at Lansing heading westward into Iowa, instead of eastward into Wisconsin. This bridge, in real-life, isn't in the vicinity of Prairie du Chien; rather, it would have been the Marquette-Joliet Bridge that he crossed.

Quotes
Alvin: 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."

Crazy credits
Walt Disney Pictures Presents: A film by David Lynch

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Instinct/The Loss of Sexual Innocence/Limbo (1999)

Soundtracks
The Most Requested Song
(From Strange Tales of the Late West)
Written by Middlejohn & John Neff
By Arrangement with Maui Zone Records & Tapes

User reviews499

Review

Featured review

8/10

Slow, but steady

It takes patience to get through David Lynch's eccentric, but-- for a change-- life-affirming chronicle of Alvin Straight's journey, but stick with it. Though it moves as slow as Straight's John Deere, when he meets the kind strangers along his pilgrimage we learn much about the isolation of aging, the painful regrets and secrets, and ultimately the power of family and reconciliation. Richard Farnsworth caps his career with the year's most genuine performance, sad and poetic, flinty and caring. And Sissy Spacek matches him as his "slow" daughter Rose who pines over her own private loss while caring for dad. Rarely has a modern film preached so positively about family.