MovieChat Forums > The Straight Story (1999) Discussion > the films pacing.

the films pacing.

posted 15 years ago by thecultofhorror
17 replies | jump to latest

It all makes sense when the end credits role. I read alot of complaints about the film being slow, but that is the beauty of the movie, the premise of the story is an old man on a tractor stubbornly driving 300 miles in (approx) 2 months. How the hell else is it supposed to be edited?

The pacing works for this film, the editing is great and years from now people will still watch and talk about this film.

In the age were Transformers and Matrix style films rule the box office, I'm glad I can watch A Straight Story and appreciate it on many levels, regardless of the "pacing".

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[–] PoppyTransfusion 13 years ago

I also agree with the OP. For a film with little apparent activity so much happens in it. The way that we get under the lives of many of the characters, not just Alvin's, shows how less action can give you more.

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[–] Scorpio_65 13 years ago

I thought the film's pacing worked perfectly with the emphasis on the "journey" rather than the "destination".

[–] totalbollacks 9 years ago

I especially enjoy some of the shots that introduce another day of driving or the intro to another scene when the camera picks up the garden tractor from a wide shot.
Normally road movies have cars that are obviously doing 60 or more, going somewhere fast. The speed of Alvins tractor is so absurdly slow in the huge landscape that it made me chuckle each time the typical road movie vehicle intro was used.