fine whine

Tuesday's trip to NYC caught me by surprise, as I had mentioned, and I ended up needing to return a couple DVDs to the library unwatched as a result. I realized about five minutes after leaving the house that day that I should have grabbed my portable DVD player and a couple of those movies for my two two-hour flights, but alas, we cannot change the past.

We can, however, make it more dramatic or interesting by adding wide angle shots and a score by Angelo Badalamenti. At least that's what David Lynch did with The Straight story, the "true story" of an old guy who drove a John Deere riding mower from Iowa to Wisconsin in 1994 to see his estranged brother Lyle. The discrepancies between the film and the reality begin with the previous sentence, as Alan's brother's name was in fact Henry, not Lyle.

I've done a little bit of research, you see. I'd planned on writing a brief recap of several movies I'd watched lately today, but I instead will publish that material tomorrow and today will focus on Mr. Straight and his story.

Alvin Straight was born October 17, 1920, in Minnesota and died November 9, 1996 in Iowa. In between those dates he led a full life, as a soldier, farmer, laborer and more. He married twice and had seven children, though it is unclear whether any of them had the sort of developmental problems that Sissy Spacek portrayed in the film. I suspect not, but have nothing on which to base my doubts other than Hollywood's common desire to augment reality to attract more sympathy and heartwarmth. But I might just be jaded, taking out my lack of admiration for Sissy Spacek out on her character and its place in the film (I never got on the Carrie bandwagon, but haven't yet seen Badlands to really make a judgment on her abilities). His second wife Betty remained at home in Laurens, Iowa, not some mentally-addled daughter. It was she who sent him his Social Security check when he ran out of money in Charles City.

They divorced not long after his return from spending several weeks visiting Henry in Blue River, Wisconsin. Though he intended to return home on a replacement John Deere riding mower (donated by a Texas dealer whom I will mention more later) his nephew Dayne took him home in a pickup on a day off from his job at the cheese factory, reducing what would've been a six week drive into about a six hour one.

This was not to be the last time he was driven back to Iowa in a pickup. In July of 1995 he set out west to visit some other relatives in Idaho, but made it only as far as Pine Ridge, South Dakota before a breakdown. A local minister drove him and his ailing lawnmower, heart and circulatory system back, a 250-mile return trip. He'd likely been driving a brand-new John Deere mower given to him by Paul J. Condit, chairman, president and head honcho of Seminole, Texas farm supply company Texas Equipment Corporation. Paul swapped him the new mower for Straight's 1966 model and supposedly displays it at his dealership (1305 Hobbs Highway, Seminole TX 79360. Give 'em a call at 915-758-3643 to make sure it's still there before making the trek).

I figured it would take me about two days to drive there in my Galant if I drove the 22-hour trip stopping only somewhere in Missouri for the night. If the mower's still there it would take me at least thirty days if I kept up Alvin's 8-10 hours of 5 mph "top speed", or over thirty weeks if I matched his 240-miles-in-six-weeks average (though he did stop for a while to get his Social Security check) on his first Deere. That said, I don't know if Paul and company would part with it. They did have some financial difficulties in 2001 and likely then lost their official John Deere status during those Chapter 11 proceedings, which might be why they don't appear in the johndeere.com dealer locator. They'd probably want to keep the mower anyway. I'm guessing the $5000 retail value of the mower they gave Alvin wasn't what pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy.

A couple other details different from the movie: Straight's mower did break down not far from Iowa, but the repairs in West Bend did cost him $250. There was no word whether twins worked on the mower. He camped out (to wait out his check) in Charles City, ninety miles further. The movie combined these two events, possibly in an effort to keep it around two hours. Nothing anywhere indicated whether he did, in fact, pick up a hitchhiker and have a touching conversation about family, nor did anywhere indicate his campfire food preferences. His journey began July 5th and ended August 15th of 1994.

One preliminary film contract had his payment as $10,000 plus 10% of the profits. He turned down all television appearance offers (and didn't really like Jay Leno's show, he said).

His brother Henry was seven years older, and both of them had lost their licenses due to deteriorating eyesight.

Richard Farnsworth, who portrayed him in the film, had health problems of his own. In cancerous pain, he shot himself in October of 2000. There is no indication that his Best Actor Oscar loss to Kevin Spacey for American beauty had anything to do with his suicide.

On another film related note, I felt that Angelo Badalamenti's fiddle-driven score was somewhat off-putting. ANGelo BAdalamenti. BaDAlamenti. BadaLAmenti. BadalaMENti. BadalamenTI. What a fun name to say! I suspect it will be bouncing around in my head. Oddly enough, I can assign musical notes to it, say E-D-C E-D-E-F-E in the key of C major. Of course considering his track record (Christmas vacation) perhaps a minor key would be more appropriate.

Please realize that that previous paragraph was just a mental meandering and had absolutely no point. This whole endeavor is my brain dump, after all. If something I write happens to amuse or interest you, it's just a side effect.

As for my sources, I'm not listing them. If you really want to check my work, search Google and Lexis Nexis. That's what I did.