The Rural Road and Alvin Straight
The rural road is slow compared to the city and urban roads. It is also open, quiet, and empty in comparison to the urban road. Being empty and quiet the rural road allows for the sky to be open and the stars to be seen. In road films like, Set it Off and The Grace Lee Project, the road isn’t empty. It is full of highways, skyscrapers, and fences. Mr. Straight meets a pregnant girl who is trying to escape her family and her rural life. Mr. Straight explains to her that her family will probably love her and her baby. Instead of sleeping in the trailer, the girl sleeps near the fire, underneath the stars, because the stars help her think. The rural road gives her a space to realize what is important in life. Mr. Straight himself also uses his road trip to come to terms with a relationship. After years of separation, Alvin Straight wants to befriend his brother. The road gives him the courage to do so. A major revelation Alvin has is at the bar with an older man he meets on the road. At a bar they talk their time in the war. Alvin tells the story about how he shot one of his own and never told his troop. Coming to terms with one’s past is hard for anyone, but Alvin uses space provided by the rural road he needed to actualize importance in his life and the life of those he meets. In films like Thelma and Louise and Easy Rider, the rural roads they travel on are space between the cities they travel between. The rural road is different for Alvin than in other road films because it is full of realization, revelation and actualization.