A long, meaningful tractor ride

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, July 26th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: We rewind to 1999 to a slow-burning family film about growing old and making peace.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Here’s reviewer Chelsea Boes on why movies like The Straight Story can fight against a phenomenon called “popcorn brain.”

CHELSEA BOES: While you’re sweating it out on your mower this summer, imagine what it would feel like to hit the road on that lawn mower for 240 miles straight.

ALVIN: I’ve gotta go see Lyle.

ROSE: But dad–How are you?

ALVIN: Well I haven’t quite got that figured yet. . .

Richard Farnsworth plays retired Iowa farmer Alvin Straight in The Straight Story. It’s a film based on a true story and directed by David Lynch. Alvin’s estranged brother, Lyle, just had a stroke … and Alvin is determined to visit him and make amends. Here he’s arguing with his disabled daughter, Rose, played by Sissy Spacek.

Rose has plenty of reasons for Alvin not to go:

ROSE: One, your eyes are bad, that’s why you don’t drive your car. Two, uh Uncle Lyle lives in Wisconsin, which is 370 miles away. You would have to stay all night in Des Moines. Three, your hips are bad.

The Straight Story is rated G and puts David Lynch’s storytelling chops on full display–as well as his insistence that his audience be patient.

MUSIC: [Alvin’s Theme - The Straight Story Soundtrack]

The real Alvin Straight took his lawn mower trip thirty years ago, and Lynch made his film long before the invention of TikTok. But something about this film feels like a good antidote to a problem of today, the problem of the shortened attention span, or what’s earned the nickname “popcorn brain.” They say it comes from too much scrolling. TikTok and Instagram are the main culprits—causing our brains to pop from one focus to another, much like popcorn in the microwave. The Straight Story can help you slow down long enough to pay attention to people again. The film is about growing old–but it offers what Dune director Denis Villenueve has said young people are craving: substantial, meaningful content.

ALVIN FRIEND 1: Crimenetto, it’s Alvin! And he’s driving his lawnmower!

ALVIN FRIEND 2: Alvin! What are you settin’ out to do here?

ALVIN FRIEND 3: For cray-ay, Alvin!

ALVIN FRIEND 4: Alvin, you’re gonna get blown right off the road, that’s what I’m afraid!

Most of Lynch’s movies are slow-moving but mesmerizing, surrealist art films. Though The Straight Story is hardly Lynch’s usual fare, he does use his signature lingering shots and includes whole scenes that don’t noticeably drive the plot. Lynch forces us to slow down as we watch Alvin’s five-mile-per-hour plod across the plains. And somehow, we want to watch every second. Alvin’s hat blows off his head when a semi passes too close to his mower? We’re glued. He’s going so slowly we can see every yellow dot in the road, but we can’t look away. What we’re watching is the master strokes of David Lynch, who knows how to make us feel the glory in earth’s smallest moments.

We learn more about Alvin’s life, wisdom, and immense suffering as he meets strangers along his route: A parade of bicycle racers. Twin mechanics. A Catholic priest. A fellow World War II vet. A pregnant teen.

TEEN: No one knows. Not even my boyfriend.

ALVIN: Well, they may be mad. I don’t think they’re mad enough to want to lose you or your little problem.

TEEN: I don’t know about that.

ALVIN: Well, of course, neither do I, but a warm bed and a roof sounds a mite better than eatin’ a hot dog on a stick with an old geezer that’s travelin’ on a lawnmower.

And while on the surface almost nothing is happening, tension is building. Terrain grows hillier as he nears Wisconsin, making towing a trailer with a John Deere mower more and more perilous. Kind strangers offer to help him—but Alvin has to do this his own way. Will he get to Lyle in time?

MUSIC: [Laurens, Iowa - The Straight Story Soundtrack]

I wouldn’t recommend asking young kids to sit through The Straight Story, but it’s an excellent watch for teens and parents. It contains some mild swearing and some hard themes—including talk of war, teen pregnancy, and family tragedy. But it also carries with it a lesson in patience—a patience essential if kids (and the rest of us) are to learn to listen well to the elderly.

I’m Chelsea Boes.

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