This topic will be an opportunity for me to rewatch Straight Story!

For the moment, what I remember the best is the late deer on the road and subsequently at the bonfire ;-)

And the final almost-speechless scene.

It's a great film but I suppose it will be difficult to select actual scenes... it all seems like one very long scene, doesn't it?!

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1. Alvin talking to WWII veteren in pub

2. Alvin talks about Rose/"that bundle of sticks is family"

3. The final shot of Alvin + Lyle

4. The opening shot of fields

5. Alvin shooting lawnmower

darn it, weasel...I saw your first pick...but yeah, the scene with the veteran is far and away the best scene of the movie...

1) Alvin and the WWII veteran in the bar.

2) Alvin and Lyle at the end, together again at last.

3) Alvin the Sage and the Hitchhiker

4) The Deer Slayer

5) Rose breaking down to Alvin why he shouldn't go on the road..."You're, uh 73 years old, Dad"...Sissy is hilarious in that scene and Richard plays off her wonderfully.      

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

1. Alvin and the WWII veteran in the bar.
2. The final scene, the moment Lyle sees the lawnmower in particular.
3. Alvin and the hitchhiker
4. Alvin explaining how Rose lost her kids, followed by the shot of Rose.
5. Lightning Storm

love every scenes yall have mentioned & gotta say I do donate little to Alvin's house, I will donate this year, I wanna go visit there one day, the town, the people, I  got a very sweet thank you note from there & it sure did gimme a sweet feelin how very sweet the whole dang town is. I even called to get the address at the city town hall, the woman, dunno her name, talked to her last year was very sweet as sugar. sweeter than sugar I.M.O. :)

oh, and any of you wanna make a small donation, make it out to: straight house restoration, p.o. box 125, laurens, Iowa 50554 :)

Well, I like the entire movie but here are my 5 highlights:

- The whole opening sequence with the long take, Alvin slipping on the floor of the kitchen and the friend and the neighbor finding him.

- The hardware store scene and the 'grabber' punchline.

- The scene where Alvin tells those guys that the worst feeling elder people can have is the memory of when you were going

- The deer scene

- The Fire / Downhill sequence

 Other highlights are the Mississippi crossing, the confessions to the Father and of course the whole breath-taking finale.

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

- Final scenes with Alvin and Lyle.

- Alvin and the old man talking drinking beers and talking about war.

- Alvin leaving Laurens for the first time with his lawnmower, dogs running, the old guys from the store following him...

- The scene of Rose looking out the window.

- The opening scene, very Lynchian.

The opening shot is a very long one, isn't it? I have a memory of it as a very classic filmmaking piece of work.

So many of you say Alvin and the veteran. Hmm, I don't remember that scene very well. Probably that's because it's a conversation kind of scene. I tend to remember imaging better than words (in films).

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1. The closing scene... very beautiful and surprising, one of the best films endings ever. It couldn't have been done without the terriffic acting by Harry Dean Stanton... he's very necessary to the movie even though he doesn't appear till the last couple of minutes.

2. The whole scene where Alvin talks to the girl by the fire, including his speech about Rose.

3. The scene where Alvin and Rose watch the lightning storm, and get the phone call.

4.  The scene with the woman that hits the deer.

5. The hilarious scene where Alvin buys the "grabber".

A lot of my favorite parts are just the traveling images of Alvin driving down the roads... Lynch  has many beautiful shots there... However they aren't really self contained scenes and I would have trouble choosing particular ones... I really like the part where he goes drives into the abandoned barn thing to get out of the rain... there's just something I just really like about the mood of that scene. The veteran scene was good.... but not one of my favorite parts...

That god damn trailer's more popular than Uncle's Day in a whorehouse!

The Straight Story is a great, under rated film, and I was aghast that Disney completely dropped the ball on it.

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

Disney opened the film on seven, yes seven, screens nationally. WTF? THAT is dropping the ball. They never got behind the movie and pushed it like they could have. Just the marketing angle of David making a 'G' rated film should have done the job, but they sort of ignored it.

Many people here have rented the DVD or seen it on TV, but hardly anyone got a chance to see it in a theatre. As it was, most theatres that got a print at all, showed it for a week or less.

"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

And I did! I finally got down to rewatching Straight Story and found it brilliant! I'll let it take some time but right now I am tempted to say that higher on my list only Blue Velvet and FWWM can get. Definitely liked it more than Elephant Man last time I saw it.

Anyway, the scenes. The veteran scenes struck me as good but more from the point of view of words, the dialogue - than purely filming values. Therefore I will not have it at the top.

I am very much surprised nobody even mentioned the Olsen brothers scene. I found i splendid! Not only it is truly hilarious but quite surprisingly it turns very serious and isn't it the first time we really find out that something really bad happened between the brothers?
Let it be my number one.

1. Olsen brothers scene

2. Alvin and Lyle... the ending

3. The deer

4. Rose watching the blue ball... the music... marvellous shot!

5. Alvin and the veteran

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"Did they scoff the whole damn Smörgåsbord?" (Audrey) 

"Gimme a donut!" (Coop)

Totally unrelated: I went through the Create-A-Caption pics that I have, looking for stuff about the Olsen bros.; I didn't find any, but I found a lot of creations about the Olsen twins, "those little girls from "Full House"", as one of the pics says... A lot of those were done...

Irene from Hap's "Those chicks are legal...pretty soon". Awesome memories...

Top five scenes from Straight Story - according to this topic:

1. Alvin and Lyle at the end ....... 25 pts.

2. Alvin and the veteran ............ 20 pts.

3. Alvin and the Hitchhiker ......... 14 pts.

4. The deer slayer ..................... 10pts.

5. Olsen Brothers ....................... 5 pts.

... though it's a bit silly when a vote from one person makes it into the top five... there were a couple of scenes which got 4 pts., the opening, the grabber, Rose looking through the window...

P.s. I counted Mr Silencio's votes as ex-aequo since he didn't indicate an order and the scenes seemed to be listed chronologically.

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oh yes I am gonna donate! every little penny counts on Alvin Straight's  HOME! The people there in town are so sweet!!!

I will visit there hopefully  soon!!!

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

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1 - Final scene

2 - Two veterans exchange war stories

3 - Alvin's first attempt to leave town - the way all the guys from the hardware store get tired chasing the mower. Also the fantastic music which starts up here and continues for a couple of minutes. Also an important scene because it first introduces the idea that Alvin won't make it past "the grotto".

4 - "Grabbin'" - first time I saw this movie, I was still chuckling at this scene two days later

5 - Fireside scene with the hitchhiker. The way they gradually begin to enjoy each other's company is fantastic, and the bundle of sticks in the morning reduces me to a blubbering wreck.