The Straight Story

• Cert:
• Cat.no: VCD 0042
• Running time: 107 minutes
• Year: 1999
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 17 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
• 16:9-enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Scene index, Trailer
  

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  Director:

  David Lynch

  (Blue Velvet, Dune, The Elephant Man, Eraserhead, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Wild at Heart, TV: Hotel Room, On the Air, Twin Peaks)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Alvin Straight: Richard Farnsworth
Rose Straight: Sissy Spacek
Lyle Straight: Harry Dean Stanton

The Straight Storyis a very simple one too. Widower Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) is a 73-year-oldman who has poor eyesight and bad hips, hence has difficulty getting about anywhere.He learns that his brother Lyle (Lynch regular Harry Dean Stanton), to whom he hasnot spoken for over ten years, has had a stroke and he feels the need to make peace withhim.

Doing that means leaving his disabled daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek) at homeas he sets off on his six-week 317-mile journey to Wisconsin.

What follows is a basic road movie that follows Alvin’s progress and it’s more aboutthe relationships he forges along the way. Farnsworth earned an Oscar nomination forthis role and he becomes an octogenarian on September 1st, 2000, while Stanton isolder than I thought, having turned 74 on July 14th and it’s just a shame he onlygets a couple of minutes of screen time at the end.

The picture quality is typical of most VCI releases: an anamorphic print,here in the original 2.35:1 ratio and looks excellent, bar a few flecks on the printwhich are nothing to be particularly concerned about. Daylight scenes look fantasticwith bold, sharp colours.The average bitrate is a superb 8.1Mb/s, often just creeping to 9Mb/s.

The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is trouble-free. Dialogue is clear,quiet scenes feature crickets rubbing their legs in the rear speakers,Angelo Badalamenti‘s score gets into the brain and never leaves and theDD5.1 sound comes into its own occasionally such as when Alvin is passed by a truckafter setting off on his lawnmower and later, shooting said lawnmower for breaking down.In fact, there’s great fun to be had whenever vehicles pass him by, especially when it’sa truck on each side.

There’s also three scenes where the dialogue is purposely damn-near inaudible and subtitles arerequired. It’s one of the few times Lynch puts his ‘bizarre’ stamp on this film.

Overall, I really expected to get bored to tears with this film, but by complete contrastfound it to be a very endearing film and far from anything I’d ever expect David Lynch tobe associated with. It’s certainly worthy of a rental, although I wouldn’t particularlyrecommend buying it due to the lack of extras and the fact that it’s not the sort of filmI’d want to watch more than once.

So, what’s next for Lynch on DVD? Universal tell me that Eraserhead is a forthcomingpossibility, Blue Velvet has already been released but was pointlessly cropped to4:3 so don’t waste your money on that one especially as a widescreen versionis planned. An extended version of Dune has been touted, but when thatappeared on a Japanese laserdisc it was cropped to 4:3 from the original 2.35:1ratio because the extra footage was shot for a 4:3 TV ratio and the sound wasremixed into mono (!) I’m sure most people could have handled a ratio changeas dictated by the footage to keep what was from the cinema version in itscorrect format.

I’d also like to see both The Elephant Man and Wild At Heart make an appearance,not to mention the entire Twin Peaks series and films.

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