The Straight Story

We recently received the news of the passing of the legend of Turkish arabesque music, Ferdi Tayfur. Right in those days, his song Stop the World was playing in my head, as I was fed up with the occupation, massacre, rape, cunningness around me and a system that tried to normalize these and those at the helm of the system. Even if the world didn’t stop, when I saw what this greed did, I wanted to escape from humanity.

Last week another leaf fell... We read about the death of director David Lynch. He is the genius filmmaker who created a style called ‘Lynchian’ in absurd art and interpreted the fear in us so well. But I want to talk about his very soft film that warms your heart: The Straight Story.

The film tells the story of Alvin, an old man who sets out to talk to his brother who lives far away. When Alvin has a heart attack, he begins to question life and thinks about his estranged brother. He takes his two walking sticks and gets on the motorized lawnmower. He continues on his own pace along the road, ignoring the vehicles whizzing by. He encounters various lives and people, and has conversations.

According to Prof. Serdar Öztürk*, “I” is a practical element that flows in life, and when it interacts with the environment, the “self” theory emerges. This ​​interaction includes both people and other living things, as well as objects. Just like when we come into the world. Alvin also looks at the world again after years as he comes out of his shell. When the camera moves towards the horizon and stays in the sky for a while, we feel that his soul has opened up and his transformation journey has begun.

The film was made based on a real life story. Perhaps David Lynch got tired of thinking about the surreal, and wanted to experience the worldly but warm feelings within himself. He said stop and feel. An incident on the road literally throws our contradictions of being “self” in our faces. After a car overtakes Alvin’s lawnmower, we are startled by the sound of the impact. Later, we understand that the car has hit a deer passing by. The driver woman cries in panic: I go 30 km every day, I killed 13 deer in the last seven weeks, I love deer very much.... Stop the world, says her inner voice, but she gets in her damaged car and continues driving at full speed. She is running away from the situation she is living in, but can she run away from herself? Always a dilemma.

David Lynch presses our awareness buttons by creating a sense of curiosity in his films. First horizons, then sounds... He does not show what is happening right away. The camera moves from the woman sunbathing on the lawn to a window, we hear something fall. Then we understand that Alvin is lying on the ground having had a heart attack. In another scene, we feel like we are reading a poem as we experience the rain and thunder in the reflections on the faces of Alvin and his daughter Rose. When Rose does not understand her father, she looks out the window, we get the answer from the emotional tones of the music in the garden...

Alvin is finally reunites with his brother. After such a long separation, a few words are enough for them to share their feelings :

- Do you ride that thing all the way out to see me?
- I did Lyle.

The camera shows the three, Alvin, Lyle and the good machine one by one. Finally, moving towards the stars in the sky like at the beginning of the movie: we are as far away and together as they are.

In an interview with Charles Rose, David Lynch explains how he captures the rhythm in his films: When you read a text, a book or a scenario, when an idea comes to your mind, when you love it, you feel something in the air. Embrace it. It may change over time, because you don't stay the same. But it always comes with you and confirms your love.

Doesn't this also apply to human relationships? Whether our loved ones are far away or have said goodbye to this world, sometimes they fall into our hearts in a song, sometimes in a scent. In fact, they never leave...

Stay with love.

* Serdar Öztürk - Film Philosophy and Educational Videos: Communication Spaces