It is a straight story.

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The movie was based on a true story. Alvin Straight ,the protagonist , the WWII veteran, who has bad eyes and no driver's licence was all hellbent on visiting his stroke-striken brother with whom he used to watch the starry sky together and share aspirations over the years of coming of age and with whom he has't been on speaking terms for almost a decade . On the 1966 john deere lawn mower , this stubborn ,old man sets off his odyssey from 愛荷華 to Wisconsin.

His 6 weeks on the road has accompanied him with a runaway teenage girl who later came to her senses and went back to her family, a grouchy jumpy commuter who ran down 13 deers in 7 weeks, a team of young cyclists who bubbled with the seemingly inexhaustible energy of life, a generous couple who allowed him to camp in their garage, a bickering pair of brothers who fixed his unique mode of transport, another WWII veteran who still has the shadow of guit of surviving the bomb attack while all his buddies died hanging over his head, and a priest in the oldest mid-west cemetery to whom he confided his purpose of this grueling journey.

The two most heart-tugging moments come when Alvin heaves a breathe of relief after hearing Lyle answered him which signals that Lyle is still alive and when Lyle's eyes are overflowing with tears at knowing that Alvin rides that clunker all the way to see him. Lyle holds his head up to prevent the tears from falling down. It was a marvelous moment of reunification and reconciliation without the redundancy of any appogogies made or accepted. The film ends on a serene and far-reaching note when both of them look up and the starry sky stretches all over the screen.

Paired with string music, the employment of full-length shots perfectly presents the charm of mountains, corn fields, and sun rays in the midwest.

What's worth mentioning is Richard Farnsworth , who played Alvin Straight and recieved a nomination for an Acadamy Award for Best Actor , shot himself after the movie due to the unbearable pain from bone cancer, which made 'the straight story' his swan song. He was in excruciating pain when the movie was filmed.