How do you mend a broken heart?

David Lynch is the creator of the bizarre television series "Twin Peaks" and the equally bizarre and dark film Blue Velvet. So when he appears as the director of a Disney film, titled The Straight Story, you've got to wonder. Movie-goers who expect to see Disney continue on its strange and twisted path of late, however, will be pleasantly surprised.

The Straight Story is a true and moving account about a 73-year-old, crippled, legally blind but determined man from Iowa who rides a lawn mower across two states to mend his relationship with his ailing and estranged brother The movie embraces the importance of family, commitment, the sanctity of marriage and, yes, even love of country.

Alvin Straight's lawn-mower journey first made headlines in the New York Times in 1994. The Straight Story's producer and writer Mary Sweeney thought the story "very American" and decided to visit Iowa. Alvin passed away in 1996, but Sweeney and her cowriter John Roach retraced Alvin's steps, met with his family and found their respect for him intensify, considering his age and physical condition when he set out on his mission.

Sweeney presented the idea for a movie about Alvin Straight to David Lynch, her partner at The Picture Factory, a Los Angelesbased entertainment company. Skeptical at first, Lynch became intrigued after reading the screenplay, admitting that The Straight Story is a strange film for him to make but that he loved the story and decided to go ahead.

Alvin's journey took place in the autumn and lasted about six weeks. So Lynch took six weeks to film it, last fall. Actor Richard Farnsworth came out of retirement to play the part of Straight. Having acted since 1937 in major motion pictures, more recently he played the role of Matthew Cuthbert in the well-loved Canadian television series, "Anne of Green Gables."

Objective Norms For Family Life

Aerial shots of golden cornfields and rolling hills fill the movie. After a slow beginning, we are introduced to the town of Laurens, Iowa, and Alvin's neighborhood. He lives in a simple house with his somewhat simple daughter Rose, excellently portrayed by Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek. .

Surprisingly for Hollywood, The Straight Story has a pro-life theme.

Alvin's beloved wife has died. She had 14 babies, the last remaining one at home being Rose. Alvin reveals that Rose had four children, into whom "she poured everything she had." Until the long arm of the government intervened. One night there was a fire at her house, the authorities dubbed Rose "simple" and "incompetent" and took her kids away.

For the fatherless generation of the '90s, Alvin Straight could be a good role model. On the road he meets a young runaway She is pregnant and afraid to tell her family, fearful they might cast her out. As she sits with Alvin at his roadside campfire, he encourages her to go home, by relaying to her a story he told his children when they were growing up.

"See, here's one stick:' he tells her, picking up a twig. "They can break it. But a bundle of sticks can't be broken. That's family."

As the sun comes up the next morning, Alvin peers around the comer of his wagon and sees the runaway has gone. In front of the campfire lies a bundle of twigs, tied together, tightly with string.

Straight recognizes that it is within a family, together, that growth happens. A bundle of sticks is strong. Some opinion leaders have since the '60s told us that "family" is in the eye of the beholder and that the malefemale basis of marriage is merely a social construct. The fact is: When we try to break the objective norms for family life, what gets broken is us, not the norms.

One woman Alvin encounters asks why isn't he scared to travel alone in today's crazy world. "I fought in the trenches in World War II. Why should I be scared of an Iowa comfield?"' he retorts.

In a poignant scene in a roadside cafe, Alvin sits next to a fellow serviceman who fought the Nazis in France. They exchange stories of fighting for freedom and the horrible things they had to do and see. Having been raised to hunt in the Iowa countryside, Alvin was a sharp-shooter Lots of his friends were not so skilled, however, and died. Experiences like these can make a man strong and determined. How many men today if blind and crippled would ride a lawn mower to mend a broken family relationship?

Self-described as stubborn, Alvin says he said some "terrible things" to his brother the last time they talked. But, as he tells a fellow traveler on the road, "There's no one in your life better than a brother near your age. My brother and I said some unforgivable things the last time we met, but I'm trying to put that part behind me. And this trip is a hard swallow of my pride."

This film was anything but hard to take. Here's to more lawn-mower movies from Disney.

Miss Edwards writes for Insight magazine.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 12, 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved