David Lynch, a name synonymous with dark, twisted, and confusing movies. The kind of movies that actively punish you for trying to “get” them. The kind that forced famous film critic Roger Ebert to tell Mr. Lynch on the Oscars red carpet “next week I’m going to take [Mulholland Drive] to the University of Colorado… we’re going to spend 10 hours over a week going through it a shot at a time, and at the end, I’ll be able to understand it.”
Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Inland Empire —the list of Lynchian films goes on, and with that reputation, the last thing you’d expect to see is a David Lynch film on Disney+ alongside your favorite animated classics and Disney Channel Original Movies. But, as luck would have it, you can find the appropriately titled The Straight Story on Mickey’s streaming service. Before you google it, yes, it is that David Lynch who directed the G-rated Disney film.
So, what’s the deal?
Before I go into that, I’d like to briefly discuss Lynch’s career up until The Straight Story. His debut feature, the low-budget and surreal Eraserhead, made a name for itself in the late 1970s as a successful midnight movie and paved the way for Lynch’s first studio film The Elephant Man. Tinsel Town kept Lynch in its embrace throughout the production of the large-budget and ultimately commercially unsuccessful Dune.
Looking to reset his career, Lynch pursued a project that was closer to his sensibilities: Blue Velvet. From there, the David Lynch we now know and love was here to stay. So, a few big projects happen; Wild at Heart, two seasons of Twin Peaks followed by the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and Lost Highway, all of which fit nicely in the Lynchian style. It’s not long after finishing Lost Highway that Lynch’s then-girlfriend (also his editor and producer), Mary Sweeney, co-wrote The Straight Story with John Roach based on the true story of Alvin Straight, an elderly man who rode his lawnmower from Iowa to Wisconsin to make amends with his ill brother.
So right off the bat, the plot does not seem to fit into the Lynchian style that had been established for over ten years, and for all the attention The Straight Story gets for being so anti-Lynch, I think all those comments are surface-level. What makes David Lynch David Lynch? To me, The Straight Story is pure Lynch, the only thing it is missing is a dark plot and disturbing violence. It feels more like Disney making a David Lynch movie than it does David Lynch making a Disney movie.
But, here I must contradict myself. While amongst film fans The Straight Story is David Lynch’s G-rated Disney movie, that is only partially true. The movie is indeed rated G and was distributed by the Mouse House, but it was produced independently. It wasn’t until the film’s successful premiere at the Cannes Film Festival that Disney bought the movie for distribution. It’s for this reason that The Straight Story still feels like a David Lynch movie, one that he describes as his “most experimental movie.”
So then, what makes a David Lynch movie? Despite the non-violent and emotionally driven plot, the film still features many of Lynch's trademark qualities. For one thing, the movie never attempts to explain why Alvin Straight decided to use a lawnmower to travel 240 miles. He could have taken a bus or taken up a kind offer from someone to drive him. But that’s not how the story goes, is it? Alvin Straight did drive his lawnmower all that way.
Does the long journey on a vehicle that has a max speed of 5 mph serve as a punishment for Alvin’s past of drinking, picking fights with his family, or his tortured war memories? Does Alvin see this as the last task he’ll do on his own? Or, with his mortality as clear as ever, does he simply want to enjoy the countryside one last time before his time is up? Any interpretation is as good as the next.
Aside from a lack of answers and a clear resolution, the movie also features a string of interesting supporting characters whose main purpose is to add color to the movie. Take, for example, a scene where a woman frantically yells at Alvin on the road about how she has hit 13 deer in 7 weeks driving down the only road that will take her to work. It is truly the performance of someone at the end of their rope, and a character we will never see again. But, for about a minute in a half she completely commands the screen as she yells about all the methods she’s tried to scare deer away – including, and I quote, “I roll the window down and bang on the door and play Public Enemy real loud!” She caps the scene with “And I love deer!” This non-sequitur scene honors Lynch’s appreciation for over-the-top performances for over-the-top supporting characters and it fits right in similar one-off scenes such as the diner scene in Mulholland Drive and the countless no-context scenes in Inland Empire.
On a more aesthetic level, The Straight Story shows Lynch’s willingness to slip into mood, even in his most heartfelt movie. The biggest example is a sequence in which Alvin’s lawnmower gains too much speed going downhill. Lynch fades in a droning soundtrack (something that is very much a David Lynch move, who serves as his own sound designer) and makes great use of subjective camerawork, fully placing the audience in Alvin’s headspace as he struggles to regain control of his vehicle. If there’s a common statement about Lynch’s work it’s his preference for mood over the story, and when the moment is right in The Straight Story, Lynch will rely on mood.
But, in the end, The Straight Story is a lovely movie about personal responsibility and aging; and while its notable lack of adult content earned the movie a G-rating, it is still very much a film by David Lynch. The film also confirms a belief I’ve had for years: David Lynch could make a great traditional movie if he wanted to. The Elephant Man and The Straight Story show that he understands plot, character, and emotion. It’s because of this understanding that he can experiment with them on Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive. Why he chooses to experiment is not for me to say, but it’s not the only kind of movie he can make.
FEATURED MOVIES:
The Straight Story (1999) Stream on Disney+, Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
ALL MENTIONED MOVIES:
Mulholland Drive (2001) Stream on Mubi, Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Eraserhead (1977) Stream on HBO Max and The Criterion Channel, Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Blue Velvet (1986) Stream on Kanopy, Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Inland Empire (2006) Not currently streaming, but soon to be released by The Criterion Collection
The Elephant Man (1980) Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Dune (1984) Stream on Starz, Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Wild at Heart (1990) Not currently streaming
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) Stream on HBO Max and The Criterion Channel, Rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu
Lost Highway (1997) Rent on DirecTV, soon to be released by The Criterion Collection