Reviews

I have long admired the work of David Lynch--"Eraserhead" and the original "Twin Peaks" TV movie being my favorites--and I expected from word of mouth that I would like "The Straight Story", but I was not expecting to be as touched as I was by this thoughtful, lovely work of cinematic art. Perhaps I am simply at the right time and place in my life to appreciate the movie's messages (I can imagine some people, especially younger viewers, not having the patience for its leisurely pace and "plot"), but I feel privileged to have shared in a little of the journey (both literal and figurative) of Farnsworth and Lynch's Alvin Straight. One of the most resonant aspects of the movie for me was how it depicted the "American heartland" and its people and their very sturdy moral code (a major theme of "Fargo", also). And it isn't a religious moral code either, though it does adhere to the basic Protestant tenet of "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you". In this movie there is a definite sense of people wanting to do the right thing for themselves and for others--an all-for-one attitude. This is, for my money, the type of movie that we of the spiritually-conflicted new millennium need right now, for it brings it all down to a basic level. We need to take personal responsibility for ourselves and for others. Alvin Straight knows what he needs to do for himself and his brother and it is a testament to his character that he lets nothing stand in the way of his doing it. Alvin and all the others like him are the true heros of life. This story could have, in the hands of many other directors, been quite an intolerable affair (Rob Reiner? Steven Spielberg? Sorry to be insulting, but they would have laid it on thick!). Luckily Lynch was the one to do it, bringing both his keen, at times hokey (here appropriately so) sense of humor and his commitment to acknowledging life's "dark side" with him. Yes, Lynch does Disney, but rather than leaving out the dark side, he simply subverts it (imagine a G-rated "Blue Velvet"). From the Olsen twins to the deer lady to that surreal star-dotted sky, things are, as usual, a bit off-kilter in Lynchland....and thankfully so! Final thoughts: It was really nice to have Sissy Spacek back in such an interesting (and, unfortunately, supporting) role. I'd like to thank David for that. And as good as Kevin Spacey and Denzel Washington were in their Oscar-nominated performances last year, I'd have been thrilled to see Richard Farnsworth win the Best Actor award. Now that this gem is out on video I look forward to seeing it again. When you are in the mood for a such an experience, I urge you to do the same.

I first saw this movie when released in 1990 and just watched it again, partly out of curiosity as to whether i would feel differently about it. I don't. I still see it as a movie with all the right things going for it but just missing the mark.

The acting, writing, cinematography, etc. are all exemplary. It is, i believe, the movie's episodic structure which ultimately makes it seem rather uneventful when, in reality, the story is made up of many quite important events. An episodic structure, can work just fine, of course, but, as with most successful stories, it still needs to have a certain "build" to it in order to really satisfy. If that "build" IS here in this movie, it is so muted as to be incoherent to most viewers. Not that Mr and Mrs Bridge is not worth viewing! In fact, its thematics are well worth discussing. In my eyes, the parents represent an older, more traditional way of life on the verge of irreversible change, as personified by their children (though one or two of them eventually settle back into the groove). The country club/tornado sequence seems especially significant in light of such a reading, that a "storm" is on its way and they had better take cover. That Mr Bridge should remain steadfast in its occurence speaks volumes about his character. There are myriads of wonderful little character traits, etc., in this movie worth pondering, by the way.

While Mr Bridge is a fascinating persona, it is Mrs Bridge who, for me, remains central to the film. In fact, it might be THE major statement of the movie that this suburban woman has begun to awaken to how sheltered (stifled?) she and others like her have been. Though she does yearn for more--in a sense she really does want to be fully awakened--she never becomes more than vaguely enlightened. She realizes--even accepts with a great deal of comfort--how "lucky" they are to have lived such a privileged life. Though there have been many victims of female discontentedness (e.g. her friend Grace), she and many like her have adapted quite well to their mode of survival and comfortable living. It simply means sacrificing all of those crazy dreams that artistic types pursue, not to mention sacrificing passion--real passion--for life.

There are many significant instances to underscore Mrs Bridge's circumstance as a woman dependent on her man, but none better, perhaps, than the at the end of the movie as a pampered victim in a car: "hello? hello? is there anybody there?"...indeed!

I first began watching MH2 in the eighth grade on the advise of my friend Todd. We would laugh hysterically each morning in homeroom at the strange absurdity of it all. Though we weren't getting all of it at that age, we understood a lot of their references and learned a lot in the process. And suffice it to say that when "Soap" came on the air a couple of years later, we could only see it as a network ripoff of a show they didn't have the guts to take on before the waters were tested (and by the way, I'm not knocking "Soap" which was a good show. It's just that MH2, for all its absurdities, was riskier and more truly satirical, and...it didn't have a laugh track). One of the most special traits of MH2 was that it tended to focus on small town America's working class and the places they congregate such as the bowling alley or the factory break room. Though serials like All My Children and One Life To Live had revolutionized the soap genre in the 70s by focusing on more "topical" characters, it was still unusual for a soap (or a satire of one) to focus empathetically on the denizens of the other side of the tracks, sometimes referred to as dirty white trash (Roseanne would later revolutionize sitcoms in a similar manner). This was certainly part of MH2's charm. I grew to love Mary Hartman's kitchen (and other Fernwood locales) as if they were an extension of my own town and home. Too bad the show couldn't have lasted longer than it did. Let me finish by saying this...about 5 or 6 years ago Lifetime network began reruns of this show and I was in my glory. For some strange reason, they stopped very soon into it and never resumed. But, I was fortunate enough to have viewed, for the first time in 20 years, the first episodes in which Mary is held captive by the guy who "killed the whole Lombardy family, two goats and six chickens" and, from the vantage point of my 30s, I was finally able to really "get it"; Mary Hartman is one of the great emblems of the distress of the mid-20th century American woman. Her hair in childish pigtails while wearing those little girl dresses, Mary was an example of the overly-consumered, growth-stunted American housewife trying to function while in a semi-daze. Her confrontations with adultery, contemporary feminism, and countless other social issues (often found within her own family) while trying to be the perfect little housewife and mother makes her eventual nervous breakdown more than just another crazy plot twist. In actuality, it was an inevitable progression. Compare her and her friends and neighbors to Carol Burnett's Eunice and other 70s television characters like Edith Bunker and you'd have a rather fascinating college course, I think. Perhaps I need to put one together! So, for those of you who have a similar fondness for this groundbreaking, offbeat series and to those who have never seen it, here's to bringing Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman back in reruns. Fernwood deserves to be revisited! P.S. If you want to see Louise "Mary Hartman" Lasser in a recent role, rent "Happiness". Beware, though,