"Straight Story"
In the film Straight Story, we are presented with a journey that is mostly stripped of environmental changes and explorations. A road trip that takes the protagonist into uncharted or unfamiliar areas usually has a heavy impact on the other elements of the adventure. However, with a bland and repetitive landscape, the focus becomes entirely on the self and it's interactions with the people it stumbles upon. "What are you setting out to do?" asks a man from Alvin's town before he leaves. I think at this point, Alvin really wasn't prepared for a reunion with his brother, and the journey to come was obviously going to give him time to mentally collect his thoughts on the past and the future. His first encounter is with the pregnant runaway, whom Alvin informs that the impending conflict with her family is not something they would want to lose her over. This is our first glimpse at the potential growth ahead for Alvin. His bike-troupe stay shows him as the "elderly, wise" man, realizing that he sees the most happiness in looking at things behind him, instead of thinking of the present and life to come. Although he encounters mild environmental change, the lack of variance really forces him to seek out other areas of interaction and contemplation. I think that with the distractions of changes in location (i.e. venturing into the city, leaving the midwest or country) Alvin would not have been mentally prepared for his reunion. It is hard to put difficult events in the past, and although he clearly deeply cares for his brother (he would have never set out to see him otherwise) it took a new sense of understanding through the help of strangers (via the help that he gave them, for the most part) that the road gave him to know he was doing what was right.