Richard Farnsworth as Alvin Straight in The Straight Story (1999)
Vitals
Richard Farnsworth as Alvin Straight, septuagenarian retiree
Across the Midwest from Iowa to Wisconsin, Fall 1994
Film: The Straight Story
Release Date: October 15, 1999
Director: David Lynch
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
Background
Perhaps the most accessible and mainstream entry in David Lynch’s electric filmography (and the only one to be rated G), The Straight Story was released 25 years ago this week on October 15, 1999. The film depicts the real-life journey undertaken by Alvin Straight, a retired laborer who rode a lawn mower for 240 miles from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin to visit and make amends with his ailing older brother after the latter’s stroke.
Born 104 years ago today on October 17, 1920, Alvin Straight had served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War, but diabetes and emphysema had taken their toll on his health over the following decades to the point where he couldn’t see well enough to receive a driver’s license. Undeterred, the 73-year-old widower set out eastward in July 1994 on an old John Deere riding mower with a homemade trailer in tow, sticking to highway shoulders and side roads at a top speed of five miles per hour.
Henry and Alvin Straight, the real-life brothers—and Alvin’s actual secondhand John Deere 110 Lawn Tractor—which inspired the story. Alvin’s hatband appears to be the same that Richard Farnsworth wore when portraying him on screen.
Photo by James Schnepf, 1998.
Only a few years older than the real Alvin Straight, veteran actor Richard Farnsworth received his second and final Academy Award nomination for his portrayal that would also be his cinematic swan song after a six-decade career dating back to 1937. Filmed in sequence, The Straight Story co-stars Sissy Spacek as Alvin’s birdhouse-building daughter Rose—one of his seven children—and Harry Dean Stanton as his brother, renamed Henry to “Lyle” for the movie.
Alvin: Rose, I’m gonna go back on the road. I’ve gotta go see Lyle.
Rose: But Dad, how are you…?
Alvin: (looking at his two crutches) Well, I haven’t quite got that figured yet.
What’d He Wear?
Perhaps to take advantage of a more autumnal aesthetic, The Straight Story bumps Alvin’s the start of road trip up two months from early July to September 5th, as he states to the group who diagnoses the transmission issues with his mower. The shift results in a warmer, more layered wardrobe, compiled of time-tested and unfussy staples that look authentic to “that kind of stoic, non-verbal, stubborn, idiosyncratic American character… old and poor and are living in the middle of nowhere,” according to co-screenwriter Mary Sweeney.
Alvin cycles through a hardy half-dozen flannel shirts—mostly plaid—before he sets out on his journey in the sole shirt he would wear every day of the trip. The multi-plaid pattern features a ground pattern of wide tan and navy horizontal block stripes, over-checked in brown and narrower red and beige double-striped checks. Made from a gently pilling cotton flannel, the long-sleeved shirt has a spread collar, front placket, adjustable button cuffs, and an open-top breast pocket where he keeps his packets of Swisher Sweets.
Alvin wears a red-and-black plaid woolen flannel jacket similar to the venerable hunting coats produced by outdoors brands like Woolrich and Filson for more than a century. The outer shell presents a black-on-red shadow plaid while the lining is a more structured buffalo check in the same red-and-black color scheme.
Alvin’s hip-length jacket has a straight-zip front up to the wide, long-pointed collar that sits flat on his shoulders. The chest pockets have slanted and slim-welted openings, and the set-in hip pockets are covered with single-snap flaps. A game pocket (or “poacher’s pocket”) extends across the lower back of the jacket with a long scalloped single-snap flap entry vertically aligned on each side seam. The set-in sleeves are finished with plain cuffs.
Alvin is a Levi’s denim devotee, cycling between several pairs of 501® Original Fit jeans in varying light-to-medium blue denim washes before settling on his lightest pair for his road trip. The 501’s denim DNA dates to the early 1870s, evolving with the times until the modern pattern characterized by its belt loops, button-up fly, and five-pocket configuration was firmly established after World War II.
He carries his black leather wallet on a silver chain that connects to a black leather loop strapped over the right side of his belt, making Alvin Straight only the second chain-wallet wearer to be represented on BAMF Style.
Alvin can be forgiven for being a “belt and braces” guy, as his aged posture and mobility issues result in one of the few cases that necessitate these otherwise redundant systems for keeping his pants up. His brown leather belt is detailed with a narrower self-strap that extends around the entirety of the belt, pulled through double sets of self-loops integrated into the belt’s construction. The belt closes through a dulled silver-toned single-prong buckle.
The straps of his olive-brown fabric suspenders (braces) are woven into five ridges, connected over the back with a black leather patch and with gold-toned hardware including front adjusters and the clips that attach them to his jeans’ waistband.
Belt and braces! (Alvin is wearing a blue shirt in one of these screenshots as it was captured from the earlier scene after his first mower broke down.)
Alvin’s exotic two-toned cowboy boots feature tan full-quill ostrich vamps and contrasting brown leather shafts that are decoratively stitched up the calves. A single-stitched welt connects to full-leather outsoles with stacked mahogany leather heels, a configuration suggesting Lucchese “Luke” boots in their barnwood-and-tan colorway.
Alvin’s booted foot on the pedal of his faltering “Rehds” riding mower, which he ultimately replaces with the ’66 John Deere.
Alvin’s journey has its first interruption just a few miles outside of Laurens when a passing semi-truck blows his hat off. Already stricken with mobility issues that result in his needing two canes (as he refused a walker), he climbs down from the tractor to retrieve it.
This silverbelly felt hat shows the creases and dirt of considerable years of wear, detailed with a “Gus”-style raised back and top-creased crown with a self-edged brim that curls up on each side. At the start of the story, the hat had a simple narrow band. By the time he gets back on the road, Alvin has added a wider tan rawhide band detailed with seven hammered brass coins.
We occasionally see white cotton cuffs emerging from under the sleeves of plaid shirt, though we never see it under the shirt’s open collar, suggesting that he wears a long-sleeved undershirt with either a V-neck or a henley-style placket that he wears open at the top. His sole piece of jewelry is a gold wedding band on his left ring finger.
What to Imbibe
“I haven’t had a drink in a lot of years, but now I’m gonna have me a cold beer,” Alvin proudly tells a bartender (Russ Reed) upon rolling his mower into Mount Zion. When the barman asks “what flavor?”, Alvin responds by asking “what does a Miller’s Lite taste like?”
He may have been inspired by fellow veteran Verlyn Heller (Wiley Harker) drinking a bottle of Miller Lite as the two connected over war stories several towns back, and we know Miller was the preferred beer of his friends back in Laurens as the cantankerous Sig (Donald Wiegert) had been holding an MGD on the day Alvin collapsed in his kitchen. Either way, the brew is just what Alvin needed as he confirms to the bartender: “it’s good!”
How to Get the Look
Richard Farnsworth as Alvin Straight in The Straight Story (1999)
Alvin Straight and his portrayer, real-life and screen cowboy Richard Farnsworth, are the real deal in cowboy hat and ostrich boots, layers of plaid flannel, time-tested denim, and necessary redundance of belt-and-braces as this determined old man traverses the Midwest in his secondhand mower.
- Red-and-black shadow-plaid woolen flannel hunting coat with wide-pointed collar, straight-zip front, slanted slim-welted chest pockets, set-in hip pockets (with single-snap flaps), back game pocket with single-snap side entries, and set-in sleeves with plain cuffs
- Tan-and-navy block-checked (with brown, red, and tan over-checked) plaid cotton flannel long-sleeved shirt with spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and adjustable button cuffs
- White cotton V-neck long-sleeved undershirt
- Light-blue denim Levi’s 501® Original Fit button-fly jeans
- Brown leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle and self-belted detail
- Olive-brown ridged fabric suspenders with gold-toned hardware
- Twot-tone cowboy boots with tan ostrich vamps, brown decorative stitched leather shafts, and mahogany stacked leather heels
- Silverbelly felt “Gus”-style cowboy hat with raised-back, center-creased crown and hammered brass coin-detailed tan rawhide band
- Gold wedding ring
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
The worst part of bein’ old is rememberin’ when you was young.
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