The Straight Story: Lynch's Most Overlooked Gem
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- The Straight Story (1999) follows real-life Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old WWII vet who rode a lawnmower 300 miles across the Midwest to reconcile with his ailing brother; Mary Sweeney, Lynch's then-partner, optioned the rights after reading about him in the New York Times and co-wrote the screenplay with John Roach.
- Richard Farnsworth, a stuntman-turned-actor previously Oscar-nominated for 1978's 'Comes a Horseman,' starred while terminally ill; he died at 79, never seeing himself lose the Best Actor Oscar to Kevin Spacey for 'American Beauty.'
- Freddie Francis, in his final film as cinematographer, shot sweeping Midwest vistas and quiet close-ups that the essay calls Oscar-worthy but un-nominated.
- Angelo Badalamenti scored the film with mournful Spanish guitar and folksy fiddle, matching its hushed, low-key tone across Alvin's roadside encounters — a pregnant runaway, squabbling twin mechanics, and a fellow veteran in an Iowa tavern.
- Harry Dean Stanton closes the film as Alvin's estranged brother Lyle, with 'years of resentment dissolving in a single frame' — what the author calls a 'flawless ending' that leaves viewers untouched.
- The film earned just $6.2m at the US box office against a $10m budget, a commercial underperformer despite critical acclaim, and remains a 'relatively unknown gem.'
- Viewing now carries added pathos after David Lynch's death in January 2025, given the director himself struggled with walking and lung damage in his final years — mirroring Alvin Straight.
Why it matters: The piece recasts a 26-year-old, $6.2m-grossing Lynch film as his most quietly devastating work — newly resonant after his January 2025 death. For cinephiles and Lynch completists, it argues The Straight Story deserves rediscovery on Disney+ and the Criterion Channel as proof the director's genius extended far beyond the macabre.
