About

Richmond Film Society's Summer film - The Straight Story - is screened as part of the Richmond Arts & Ideas Festival, the theme of which is Cultural Reforesting. The film is a 1999 biographical road trip drama directed by David Lynch and based on the true story of Alvin Straight's 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn mower. Nature features strongly throughout, with The Chicago Tribune observing that "we see something American studio movies usually don't give us: the simple, unsentimentalised beauty of the rural landscape."

Alvin (played by Richard Farnsworth, who was Oscar-nominated for his role) is an elderly, chronically ill World War II veteran who lives with his mentally challenged daughter (Sissy Spacek). When he hears that his estranged brother, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has suffered a stroke, Alvin - mindful of both his and Lyle's mortality - makes up his mind to visit and hopefully make peace with his brother before it's too late. Along the way, he meets a variety of strangers who share their own struggles, hopes and wisdom.

Because he does not have a driver's licence and his eyesight is too poor to drive a car, Alvin hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty-year-old Lawn Tractor, which has a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour and sets off on the 240-mile journey from Laurens, Iowa, to Mount Zion, Wisconsin. Will he make it ?

Unlike Lynch's usual surrealist and darkly mysterious films (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive), The Straight Story is deeply grounded in realism, focusing on themes of family, ageing, and perseverance. It is a meditation on reconciliation, as well as exploring mortality, with Alvin's physical frailty contrasting starkly with his unwavering determination.

Beautifully filmed, deeply humanistic and a road trip like no other, the film received critical acclaim for its sincerity and emotional depth and is widely regarded as one of Lynch's most accessible works.

Non-member tickets are £5 (full-time students £3) and can be purchased in advance from The Exchange's Box Office online at http://exchangetwickenham.co.uk/events, by telephone 020 8240 2399 or in person.

For further information on RFS and the programme of films, please visit
http://www.richmondfilmsoc.org.uk