It’s almost hard to believe that The Straight Story is directed by David Lynch, whose previous work is responsible for his characterization as the first popular surrealist in American movies. Very little, if anything, about this movie is surreal, except perhaps the sense of the passage of time. In nearly every scene, Lynch slowly builds toward some type of action, although it is not necessarily flashy and it sometimes results in inaction. The opening shot demonstrates this very nicely: we begin with a long shot of a yard separating two houses and a large woman sunbathing in between. The camera cranes toward the woman but she suddenly gets up and goes into her house while the camera continues to dolly in the other direction towards the neighboring house, where we come upon a window and hear a small crash. Lynch pauses for a moment — this pause is an injunction to the audience to release typical expectations. In The Straight Story, the ususual characteristics of action, tension and release are not present. What the story is about and what Lynch emphasizes are the notions of the passage of time, remembrance of youth and coming to terms with one’s mortality and the legacy one leaves on Earth. Many viewers might not think of these themes as being necessarily relevant to such a simple story, but it is this idea of the beauty and profundity of simplicity that makes the movie reveal much more than what appears to be, and is certainly what drew Lynch to the project.

In interviews, Lynch has referred to The Straight Story as “my most experimental film” and for him this an absolute truth. Since all of his own projects incorporate non-linear storytelling and ambiguous themes, the fact that he would helm a movie with such a simplistic plot and straightforward thematic content constitutes experimentalism by Lynchian standards and provides a taut lesson in the expansiveness of filmmaking. It’s not that Lynch was ever incapable of making a ‘conventional’ movie, but rather the challenge to do so must have seemed interesting following the dark postmodern detachment and uncertainty of Lost Highway. Indeed, with these two movies back-to-back, Lynch seems to have convinced himself (and audiences) that not only is he capable of such contrasting stories and images but that these two sides of the same coin can be incorporated with one another in almost any setting. There are plenty of disturbing and sad images to consider here but most of their power rests internally both for the characters and the viewer. To see this gentle old man attempt to come to terms with the end of his life, its significance and the journey he must undertake to make ammends is not only moving but frightening since many of us will no doubt experience the same emotions. Essentially, The Straight Story shows Lynch getting in touch with these feelings and, perhaps, understanding their significance for himself and his career.

Given its placement in his career, The Straight Story shows Lynch at a crossroads. Lost Highway, while certainly successful creatively, did not do well at the box office or with the press and this forced Lynch to find a more bankable project in order to continue working. While not contributing directly to the screenplay, his longtime editor and producer Mary Sweeney did and thus surely helped convince him to take on the project. Perhaps, then, this is an attempt by Lynch to realize his own aspirations and intentions as a filmmaker. After the dark and sullen ending to his time on Twin Peaks, Lost Highway feels like a search for one’s self and all the horrors and difficulties that come with that journey. Indeed, Lynch may have changed considerably along the way and saw The Straight Story as the antidote to chaos and bleakness. Keeping his camera work simple and elegant, Lynch and his cinematographer, Freddie Francis, photograph the American midwest with delicate, soft colors that evoke not only the pastoral landscape but also the loneliness and difficulty of life that people like Alvin Straight experience. There is a strong feeling of gentleness to the story, both in its acting and how it is put together. From the opening sequence, Lynch never forces anything and as we follow Alvin along his journey, where he encounters people from all walks of life, these scenes do not feel overreaching or falsified. Perhaps they never happened as depicted to the real Alvin Straight, but their emotional content allows the viewer to empathize not only with the people but also with Alvin and his reaction. When he meets the young hitchhiker, there is never a threat of danger or fear. At the same time, Lynch edits and films the scene so delicately that some viewers may feel it is too laid back. But, understanding Alvin as a man who sees in these people memories of his own life gives the audience the realization that not only is the goal of finding his brother an attempt to make ammends with his past but this is also true with everyone he encounters in the movie. Perhaps most touching is when he is taken to a bar by a fellow World War II veteran and the two men sit at the bar drinking beer and milk and swap stories of their time as soldiers in Europe. Again, Lynch directs this so gently with no music or noticeable camera work to emphasize a line or an emotion. Simply listening to these two men discuss what they have been through and how they’ve carried their youth into old age is tremendously powerful. Similarly, the movie ends with a scene in which Alvin encounters his brother and the two men sit silently on the porch, looking out at the surroundings, including the tractor that brought Alvin there. Lynch simply cuts from one brother to the next and then ends with a medium shot of the two men next to one another with just the sounds of nature on the soundtrack. As quietly as it opened, the movie closes and the viewer is left to merely ponder the feelings.

Given that the story is so simple and gentle, there is little to be said except that whether you are a Lynch fan or not, this is a must-see. In this simply-told tale, Lynch not only shows us the other side of his disposition but also touches upon universal themes regarding old age, regret and the pressures of daily life. The story of Alvin Straight is one that could have been cooked up in the conventional Hollywood style with more action, less contemplation and a twisting of characters into caricatures instead of three dimensional people. Ironically, someone as outside of the Hollywood system as Lynch had to have made this movie if only because Alvin Straight stands for so many working-class Americans who have similar financial, familial and health issues. Lynch, for all his accolades and success, still seems to have a tangential connection to his childhood roots, during which he encountered the Pacific Northwest and its sacred natural beauty and thus was willing to take as direct and simple an approach to this material as Alvin Straight would have wanted. The Straight Story is so aptly titled because not only is it told straight and Alvin is attempting to straighten out his relationships, but the straight attachment to linear plotting and a complete lack of ambiguity forced Lynch to come to terms with a side of himself he probably hadn’t seriously encountered since Blue Velvet. In a sense, this movie is like Blue Velvet without the severed ear and insects beneath the ground. This is not to say there are no issues to deal with; rather the subtlety of their depiction forces the viewer to meet Alvin on his terms and follow him wherever the journey takes him. In the case of David Lynch, his audiences must do the same.