by David Sterritt
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor, , Friday June 11, 1999

Filmmakers and audiences have thought about violence for as long as movies have existed, but lately the subject has been uncommonly affected by real-life events.

News of a Georgia school shooting arrived here during the Cannes Film Festival, where American moods were already sobered by the Littleton, Colo., tragedy. Given such events, it's small wonder that movies dealing with violence were scrutinized with special care by spectators. [...]

Perhaps the most radical rejection of violence seen at Cannes was in the new picture by David Lynch, who has built a flourishing career on mayhem-filled movies like "Blue Velvet" and his surrealistic "Twin Peaks" television show. The Straight Story astounded his admirers by spinning a fact-based story full of gentle touches, family values, and an idyllic view of the American heartland.

Richard Farnsworth plays an elderly Midwesterner who learns that his brother is ill and hops onto a slow-moving lawn mower tractor for a six-week voyage to his sibling's home. The story travels as gradually as the hero. What's extreme this time about Lynch's direction is the sweetness, compassion, and generosity of his vision - a daring contrast with his previous work, and a tantalizing hint that his enormous talent contains whole continents he's only started to explore.