David Lynch's 'THE STRAIGHT STORY'
I like most David Lynch movies. I love Eraserhead, Dune (my review is here: http://cinematixyz.livejournal.com/2012/04/03/), Twin Peaks (both the show and the film, also reviewed here: http://cinematixyz.livejournal.com/2011/12/12/), and Lost Highway. I like The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. I disliked Wild at Heart, however. But I have a special place in my heart for 'The Straight Story.'
I was lucky enough to see this wonderful film on the big screen in New York the week before I started taking film-making classes there. It was only showing on about 6 screens (literally) in the whole country.
The film combines many elements that are close to my being, including long road trips, beautiful vistas, and meaningful thinking about life, the universe, and everything. If you have not seen it, I encourage you to do so - and share it with everyone in the family... it is rated 'G' and was even released through the Disney Company.
The film is absolutely gorgeous visually and has a purposely slow-moving pace that allows the characters and situations to sink in, and it has no reason to go more quickly. The passing of time is actually a theme in the material, as well as finding peace and meaning in one's existence.
I am avoiding saying it has 'family values' because many potential viewers may be turned off by the idea of watching a goody-goody movie, but I assure you that the audience for this film will be rewarded with a rare experience, considering the state of cinema these days.
Just so you know, I do enjoy a good effects-laden blockbuster now and again, too. I await with anticipation going to see the next 'Hobbit' movie sometime this next week. (Review to the first installment of "The Hobbit" is right here: http://cinematixyz.livejournal.com/2013/07/15/) I also like a good horror movie now and again, and even have plenty of guilty pleasures... just look at some of my reviews on this blog and know that my tastes run all over the place!
But, I will state one quick example in 'The Straight Story', of why I love it so. One of the reasons that when I saw it made me go from 'I kinda like this movie' to 'this may be one of the most brilliant films I have seen in years.' It is this:
The main character, Alvin Straight, is riding his lawn-mower a great distance to see a long-lost brother who he needs to see before it is too late - for himself or the brother, or for both of them.
He is traveling down a long country road under a beautiful blue sky filled with sunshine bouncing amongst billowing white clouds. The shot is from above, of him passing under the camera which slowly tilts away from him and up to the sunny sky and then, the shot holds for a bit.... nothing but sky and clouds and the sun....
...in any other movie the viewer would realize that this is a 'passage of time' shot. In cinema terms we know that when the camera tilts back down to the road we will see Alvin on his mower way down the road, just a speck on the far blue horizon.... That time has been crunched for us so that we understand that what has taken him an hour is passing by in only a minute for us.
However, director David Lynch has done a fantastic thing. Against our expectations, when the camera tilts down again, the mower and its driver are only about 40 more feet down the road. Real time has passed, not cinema time. It purposefully has slowed our perception down. It has given us time to breathe and think.
It is one of my most favorite scenes in all of cinema. One that can remind us to try and see the beauty in the world around us... if only we can stop and actually SEE it once in a while.
I hope you will check it out. Everyone from 8 to 80 can see it together, and that is indeed a very rare thing in film these days. Article by XIM