percy toboggan
24-Mar-08, 15:53
Anyone who has had a look at my youtube site - (search for Wallet and Grimace) ...will know I'm a big fan of road movies.
Aside from my own, which are realtively pathetic I'm always keen to hear of professionally made movies which relate to the road...be the tarmac this side of the Atlantic or't tother.
Have you seen the 'Straight Story' It's a compelling and engaging film - based on truth - about an old geezer who travels 500 miles on a motorised lawn-mower to visit his ailing brother. The cussed pair have not spoken for years but the ties of blood prevail...despite being wracked with arthritis old Alvin Straight has to visit his sibling one more time before he dies. He's lost his driving licence due to diabetes, and is generally just about knackered in the physical sense.
This is the ultimate road movie in my opinion.The camera often fixing on rickety wheels trundling ever forward. Relentless, almost ponderous, and sweeping helicopter shots of auld Alvin and his choice of chariot...slow and tiny in the vast space that is America.
The acting - the late Richard Farnsworth plays Alvin - is first class. There are several cameo performances by convincing grumpy comteporaries of Alvin in his home town out in the mid-west. Sissy Spacek plays his slightly handicapped daughter...her voice grates but you get used to it after a while.
The real stars - and astral stars feature prominently too... are Alvin....and the great agri-lanscape of the mid-west..America's bread-basket through which Alvin glides surreally at about five miles per hour mixing it with big rig on the highway. He meets various folk and the vignettes which transpire are heartmtwarming rather than schmaltzy.
There is one scene where he pulls off the highway in a rainstorm and takes shelter in an empty barn...lights up and watches the angry sky deliver its worst while he draws on his cheroot...it's just brilliant.
All in all I recommend this for any fan of film who likes a good, believable yarn..who does not need special effects and thrills, and has the patience to sit through a literally slow moving account of one old man on a mission.
I've watched this movie about five times in the last fifteen months. I love it.
It might simply be because the old man reminds me of...my old man..but this is one jouney you should share if you like a good story..a straight story.
Aside from my own, which are realtively pathetic I'm always keen to hear of professionally made movies which relate to the road...be the tarmac this side of the Atlantic or't tother.
Have you seen the 'Straight Story' It's a compelling and engaging film - based on truth - about an old geezer who travels 500 miles on a motorised lawn-mower to visit his ailing brother. The cussed pair have not spoken for years but the ties of blood prevail...despite being wracked with arthritis old Alvin Straight has to visit his sibling one more time before he dies. He's lost his driving licence due to diabetes, and is generally just about knackered in the physical sense.
This is the ultimate road movie in my opinion.The camera often fixing on rickety wheels trundling ever forward. Relentless, almost ponderous, and sweeping helicopter shots of auld Alvin and his choice of chariot...slow and tiny in the vast space that is America.
The acting - the late Richard Farnsworth plays Alvin - is first class. There are several cameo performances by convincing grumpy comteporaries of Alvin in his home town out in the mid-west. Sissy Spacek plays his slightly handicapped daughter...her voice grates but you get used to it after a while.
The real stars - and astral stars feature prominently too... are Alvin....and the great agri-lanscape of the mid-west..America's bread-basket through which Alvin glides surreally at about five miles per hour mixing it with big rig on the highway. He meets various folk and the vignettes which transpire are heartmtwarming rather than schmaltzy.
There is one scene where he pulls off the highway in a rainstorm and takes shelter in an empty barn...lights up and watches the angry sky deliver its worst while he draws on his cheroot...it's just brilliant.
All in all I recommend this for any fan of film who likes a good, believable yarn..who does not need special effects and thrills, and has the patience to sit through a literally slow moving account of one old man on a mission.
I've watched this movie about five times in the last fifteen months. I love it.
It might simply be because the old man reminds me of...my old man..but this is one jouney you should share if you like a good story..a straight story.