The Straight Story: A Screenplay

by Mary Sweeney

Based on a true-life journey, The Straight Story chronicles 73-year-old Alvin Straight and his travels from Laurens, Iowa, to Mount Zion, Wisconsin, on a 1966 John Deere riding lawnmower. His trip takes him across hundreds of picturesque miles of America's Heartland, into a variety of people's lives, and all the while he shares his simple but poignant insights. Despite crippling arthritis and poor vision, Straight is resolved to travel by his own means to make peace with his ailing brother. His trek and the incidents that he experiences on the road provides a triumphant and inspirational representation of the course of a lifetime as it nears its end.

156 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 1999

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a lot that's not in the film,
but,
there was a montage articulating passage of time & space & the sometimes weirdness of Iowa,
where Alvin passes a dairy farm, cut to passing buffalo farm, cut to passing ostrich farm.

I wish that had made final cut.