The Straight Story

How this film uses it

The trip plays as a string of small meetings. Alvin shares dinner with a pregnant teenage runaway, camps with cyclists and talks with a woman who keeps hitting deer on her drive to work. No single plot drives these scenes, but together they paint a picture of the people along his road.

Where to see it

The runaway and the cyclists. Alvin eats with a pregnant teenager who has left home, then camps with a group of cyclists who ask him about getting old.

How this film uses it

Lynch shows Alvin on his tractor in wide shots of open farmland, a small figure in a big country. The size gap shows how slow and stubborn the trip is. It also makes you feel how far 240 miles is at that speed.

Where to see it

The open road. Alvin crawls along in wide shots of Iowa and Wisconsin farmland on his lawn tractor.

How this film uses it

Alvin's reason for the trip comes out in pieces. Late in the film, he tells a fellow World War II veteran about a friendly fire killing that haunts him and about the drinking that followed. That confession helps explain why he needs to see his brother before it is too late.

Where to see it

The bar with the veteran. Alvin, a former sniper, quietly admits what he did in the war and says he is now sober.

How this film uses it

The film keeps the reunion small. After the long trip, Alvin reaches his brother Lyle's run-down cabin and Lyle asks if he really rode a tractor all that way. The 2 men sit on the porch and look at the stars, and almost nothing more needs to be said.

Where to see it

The porch at the end. Alvin walks the last stretch after his tractor stalls, and the brothers sit together under the stars.