14. Nothing Else Matters &...

Lyrics

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
and nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they say
never cared for games they play
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
and I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters


This is a great song by a band I don't really like. I am not really a fan of hard rock/metal.
Metal music is very often associated with horror. So the movie I chose to link this song with is a straightforward drama by a director usually associated with twisted horror(-like) movies.

The Movie: The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)

The Straight Story is a movie about 73-year old Alvin Straight who goes on a 377 mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin, to visit his brother who recently had a stroke. His mode of transportation during this trip is a lawnmower. I may be a bit too much of pragmatic, but one of the reasons I didn't really like this movie was Alvin's completely irrational insistence to travel by lawnmower. It's stupid and unnecessary. He is not a poor man. He buys the lawnmower for 325 dollars and when it breaks down pays another 180 dollars to repair it. And he still seems to have lots of money left. He is also not very healthy. He needs two canes to walk properly and has all kinds of other problems. As you can see there is no reason to not take a bus. And at one point he is actually offered a free ride to Mt. Zion which he refuses. The movie presents Alvin's journey as a heroic one by a man who always stays true to himself. And of course being yourself is the most important virtue, right? Well, not if you are in a hurry to see your brother who might die soon and who you haven't seen in 10 years because of a falling out. The movie cannot both claim that Alvin wants to see his brother very much and that his traveling there by lawnmower is a good, heroic thing. When he is offered a ride he is already a month on his way without having a clue whether his brother still lives or not.

There is more wrong with the movie. On his journey Alvin meets all kinds of people who he teaches all kinds of 'valuable' life lessons. His life lessons though are the kinds of cliches you can hear uttered by television doctors who want to be the next Dr. Phil. The movie pretends that these are some kind of profound statements he makes. 'The worst thing about being old is remembering that you were young' Alvin says and the young man hearing it, gives him a contemplative look. That statement forever changed his life. And in one, for some reason very darkly lit night scene, so we can hardly see anything, Alvin meets a girl who ran away from home 5 months earlier. Alvin tells her the following story: "I'd give each one of 'em a stick and, one for each one of 'em, then I'd say, 'You break that.' Course they could real easy. Then I'd say, 'Tie them sticks in a bundle and try to break that.' Course they couldn't. Then I'd say, "That bundle... that's family." This story is hundreds, if not thousands years old. The very next morning the girl has gone, leaving Alvin with bundled sticks. Oh, please.

I am curious what exactly attracted David Lynch to direct this movie. He is a director of absurd, twisted, dreamlike movies that often go into the realm of horror. Besides this one I have also seen his Blue Velvet en Mulholland Dr and I think Blue Velvet is a really great movie. I was too young when I saw Mulholland Dr. and did not like it. Watching this movie I sometimes thought that Lynch was aware of how absurd and stupid this movie actually is. Is this some sort of elaborate joke by Lynch? The movie's beginning scenes are actually very similar to the beginning scenes of Blue Velvet. We see a montage of an ordinary American town and its ordinary citizens. It's fun to think, but most probably not true, that Lynch might have intended this movie as a parody of itself. That he read the screenplay and thought to kid around a bit with the audience. He would make the audience believe that he made a conventional straightforward drama. And he would be lauded for this, because he stepped outside his comfort zone. But secretly this conventional straightforward drama would often be just as absurd and insane as many as his other movies, like Blue Velvet. And nobody would notice this. In any case, if in 1999 you wouldn't know anything about the movie and be familiar with Lynch and heard that he made a movie called The Straight Story, chances are you'd think the title was some kind of joke. Unfortunately as I said, this is most probably not true and this is just a bad movie. If there is anything positive about it it is that David Lynch is a great visual director. There are some really wonderful shots and if there was no dialogue at all the movie could have worked as a love letter to the landscapes and people of the American Midwest. The scene below is actually quite beautiful.