Editing The Straight Story (section)

==Production==

=== Development ===
In 1994, 73-year-old [[Alvin Straight]] rode a lawnmower across roughly 250 miles of the American Midwest to visit his ailing brother.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Patrick |date=14 April 2017 |title=How an old man and his lawnmower made David Lynch weep: the making of The Straight Story |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/old-man-lawnmower-made-david-lynch-weep-making-straight-story/. |url-access=registration |access-date=2022-11-14}}</ref> [[Mary Sweeney]], David Lynch's frequent collaborator, read about Straight's story in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that summer.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Fagerholm |first1=Matt |date=2022-08-04 |title=You Want People to Enter the Dream: Mary Sweeney on Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr. and The Straight Story |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/you-want-people-to-enter-the-dream-mary-sweeney-on-lost-highway-mulholland-dr-and-the-straight-story |access-date=13 November 2022 |website=RogerEbert.com}}</ref><ref name="Ebert.com">{{cite web |last1=Olcese |first1=Abby |date=February 18, 2021 |title=Getting to the Heart of America in David Lynch's The Straight Story |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/features/getting-to-the-heart-of-america-in-david-lynchs-the-straight-story |access-date=13 November 2022 |website=RogerEbert.com}}</ref> Said Sweeney, "Growing up in [[Wisconsin]], I easily connected with that kind of stoic, non-verbal, stubborn, idiosyncratic American character. I get how hard it is to have quiet pride and dignity when you're old and poor and are living in the middle of nowhere. I understand what these people's dreams and frustrations are. And I loved how much his journey captured the national imagination, so, wearing my producer's hat, I started trying to secure the rights."<ref name=":1" />

Producer [[Ray Stark]] had already acquired the rights to Straight's story and envisioned the project as a potential star vehicle for [[Paul Newman]].<ref name=":1" /> Straight died in 1996, and the rights to his story became available again. Sweeney co-wrote the script with John Roach, a childhood friend; the two retraced Straight's route in the process of writing.<ref name=":1" /> When Lynch saw the finished script he immediately took to it, saying "it became, for me, very real."<ref name=":1" />

=== Casting ===
For the role of Alvin Straight, producers cast their first choice, [[Richard Farnsworth]].<ref name=":1" /> Though he was reluctant to commit to the role as he was then terminally ill with metastatic prostate cancer, he took the role out of admiration for Straight.<ref name=":1" /> [[Sissy Spacek]], a longtime friend of Lynch's who had helped to finance his earlier film ''[[Eraserhead]]'', was cast as Alvin's daughter, Rose.<ref name=":1" /> [[Harry Dean Stanton]] was cast as Alvin's ailing brother.<ref name=":1" />

=== Filming ===
''The Straight Story'' was independently shot along the actual route taken by Straight, and all scenes were shot in chronological order in the autumn of 1998.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Hollywood invades Clermont – Rear recalls filming of 'The Straight Story' 20 years ago |last=DeBack |first=Chris |date=10 October 2018 |url=http://fayettecountynewspapers.com/articles/2018/10/10/rear-recalls-filming-%E2%80%98-straight-story%E2%80%99-20-years-ago#:~:text=Filming%20of%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Straight%20Story,filming%20of%20the%20movie%20commenced. |newspaper=Fayette County Newspapers}}</ref> Lynch would later call the film "my most experimental movie".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.davidlynch.de/empire2001.html |title=David Lynch interview Empire November 2001 |work=davidlynch.de |access-date=August 6, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716194021/http://www.davidlynch.de/empire2001.html |archive-date=July 16, 2012}}</ref>

During production, Farnsworth's cancer had spread to his bones, but he astonished his co-workers with his tenacity during production. The paralysis of his legs as shown in the film was real.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-farnsworth-dies-of-self-inflicted-gunshot-wound-634900.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-farnsworth-dies-of-self-inflicted-gunshot-wound-634900.html |archive-date=June 18, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Richard Farnsworth dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound |website=[[The Independent]] |date=7 October 2000 |access-date=28 April 2020}}</ref> Farnsworth died by suicide on October 6, 2000, at the age of 80.<ref>{{cite journal |date=October 16, 2000 |title=Obituaries |journal=Variety |volume=380 |issue=9 |page=131}}</ref>

''The Straight Story'' was acquired by [[Walt Disney Pictures]] in the United States after a successful debut at [[1999 Cannes Film Festival|Cannes]] and was given a [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system|G rating]] by the [[Motion Picture Association of America|MPAA]] (the only Lynch film to receive such a rating).<ref name="Disney" /><ref name="Ringer">{{cite news |last1=Nayman |first1=Adam |date=May 23, 2019 |title=Remembering David Lynch's 'The Straight Story' |work=[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]] |url=https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/5/23/18636764/david-lynch-the-straight-story-20-years-later-cannes |access-date=13 November 2022}}</ref> It was [[Peter Schneider (film executive)|Peter Schneider]], Disney's president of production at the time, that got the idea to have the studio acquire the film after seeing it at Cannes, calling it "a beautiful movie about values, forgiveness and healing and celebrates America. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a Walt Disney film." [[October Films]] also negotiated for the rights, but a deal never materialized.<ref name="Disney" />

===Music===

The [[film score|musical score]] for ''The Straight Story'' was composed by [[Angelo Badalamenti]], continuing a 13-plus year collaboration with Lynch that began with ''[[Blue Velvet (film)|Blue Velvet]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wilson|first1=Sean|title=Angelo Badalamenti: The Straight Story|url=http://www.mfiles.co.uk/reviews/angelo-badalamenti-the-straight-story.htm|website=mfiles|publisher=Music Files Ltd.|access-date=August 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403232305/http://www.mfiles.co.uk/reviews/angelo-badalamenti-the-straight-story.htm|archive-date=April 3, 2015}}</ref> A soundtrack album was released on October 12, 1999, by [[Windham Hill Records]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Straight Story Soundtrack (1999)|url=http://www.soundtrack.net/album/the-straight-story/|website=[[Soundtrack.Net]]|access-date=August 23, 2015}}</ref>

{{Infobox album
| name         = The Straight Story
| type         = soundtrack
| artist       = [[Angelo Badalamenti]]
| cover        = The_StraigthStory.gif
| alt          = 
| released     = October 12, 1999
| recorded     = Asymmetrical Studio, Hollywood
| venue        = 
| studio       = 
| genre        = 
| length       = 48:09
| label        = [[Windham Hill Records|Windham Hill]]
}}

{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-straight-story-mw0000253787|title=The Straight Story – Angelo Badalamenti|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=October 4, 2017|last=Phares|first=Heather}}</ref>
| rev2 = [[Q (magazine)|Q]]
| rev2Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |title=The Straight Story |date=March 2000 |page=109 |quote=Neatly complements David Lynch's images of endless highways and patchwork fields...with some suitably open-plained backing....A useful souvenir of the complete movie experience.}}</ref>
| rev3 = [[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]
| rev3Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |title=The Straight Story |date=January 2000 |page=104 |quote=One of those rare pieces of music which freezes time, warms your will and causes you to perceive everything around you as if it's bathed in shafts of dusty sunlight"}}</ref>
| width = 33%
}}

===Soundtrack===
All music composed and conducted by Angelo Badalamenti.

{{Track listing
| headline = The Straight Story: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
| title_width = 100
| title1 = Laurens, Iowa
| length1 = 2:45
| title2 = Rose's Theme
| length2 = 2:55
| title3 =  Laurens Walking
| length3 = 4:11
| title4 = Sprinkler
| length4 = 2:56
| title5 = Alvin's Theme
| length5 = 4:25
| title6 = Final Miles
| length6 = 4:06
| title7 = Country Waltz
| length7 = 2:46
| title8 = Rose's Theme
| length8 = 3:07
| title9 = Country Theme
| length9 = 3:38
| title10 = Crystal
| length10 = 4:07
| title11 = Nostalgia
| length11 = 6:51
| title12 = Farmland Tour
| length12 = 3:09
| title13 = Montage
| length13 = 7:24
| total_length = 48:09
}}