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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- Gus Straight wasn't sure what to expect.
It had been a couple of years since his father, Alvin Straight, had driven his lawnmower 240 miles across the Midwest from his home in Iowa to Blue River, Wisconsin to visit his sick brother. The story, as peculiar as it was, had been covered everywhere from The New York Times and the international press.
Then Hollywood came calling, and a filmmaker named David Lynch was hired to direct a movie on Alvin Straight.
Not familiar with his work, Gus Straight decided to learn a little more about the man who was going to make a movie on his father. So he rented the auteur's first film, "Eraserhead."
The American director tells the story of the reunion of two brothers. (Photo by William Campbell/Sygma via Getty Images)"It worried me a little," Straight said from his home in Newton, Iowa about the experimental, black-and-white exploration of fatherhood, among other things. "It was a little different."
Unbeknownst to Straight at the time, Lynch was incredibly moved by the story of his father and wanted to tell that story in the most honest way he could, first through a screenplay his partner Mary Sweeney had written for "The Straight Story." It was the second film he had done after "The Elephant Man" in 1980 to be about a real person.
"I read it (the script) and fell in love with it and what I fell in love with was the emotion in that script," Lynch said in an interview with the American Film Institute in 2009. "I wanted to see if I could get that emotion to come out of the film."
The resulting film, with veteran actor Richard Farnsworth playing Straight, proved not only to be one of Lynch's most accessible films, but one of the most soulful from the late director, who died Jan. 15 at the age of 78. More than chronicling Alvin Straight's journey, "The Straight Story" also dealt with themes like regret, mortality, family and setting things right.
American actor Richard Farnsworth on set of the film The Straight Story, directed by David Lynch. (Photo by CHRISTOPHE D YVOIRE/Sygma via Getty Images)"The Straight Story" was released by Walt Disney in 1999, making over $6 million at the box office and earning Farnsworth an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Over the years, the film has gained a following over the years, now considered a classic work by Lynch. As of Friday, the movie remains the highest-rated film in Lynch's body of work with a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
With Alvin Straight and David Lynch gone, Gus Straight said he has seen the film several times over the last 20 years and that he still gets emotional watching it.
"The movie itself, I’m told it makes them think and reflect on their lives," he said. "Anytime you get to think about your own life, you wonder what would happen if you had done things different. You wonder what would happen if I did something like this."
Straight said that during the making of the movie, he was able to talk to Farnsworth about his father and what he was like, but he didn't have any contact with Lynch.
"David Lynch kept to himself," said Straight, who was on set during the making of the movie. "He wouldn’t let anyone around him who wasn’t part of the cast."
Straight's father never got to see the movie, dying three years before the movie came out, but he believes he would've approved.
"I think there are a few things he would’ve changed, but that would’ve been between him and David Lynch," he said. "I’m sure they’re talking about it right now in Heaven."
English (US)