I have no idea which category is for David Lynch's Straight Story also late... :(
Straight Story David Lynch's peculiarly heartwarming film (especially when considered with his canon of films, many of which have been described as violently misogynistic) depicts life at a pace, and tone different from all of the other films we have viewed this semester. That big nasty beast, known as the road, is ridden at pace that may kindly be called contemplative, as Alvin Straight travels on from Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin on a riding lawn mower.
The road in this film differs not just from the slow pace at which it is traveled, but also from its exclusively rural setting. This rural setting also has a sentimentalizing effect on me, as it is in the Midwest, but the film's town tends not to overtly sentimentalize anything. But also Alvin Straight is a bit different from all the other characters we have seen, insomuch as he is 73 years old. Straight's journey, seems to be conceptualized as an allegory for the seemingly slow journey towards death, as his goal is not to escape his current life, but to make amends for his actions from years earlier.
Though making amends, could read as a desire (or want) the grave life or death circumstances are coupled with his increasing fragility, and Straight succinctly puts it, "Well I can't imagine anything good about being blind and lame at the same time but, still at my age I've seen about all that life has to dish out. I know to separate the wheat from the chaff, and let the small stuff fall away." Thus the road journey becomes not a desire but rather a need for him to continue on, or at the very least close the last chapter of his life on a good note.