American Cinematographer - November 1999 - 22

movement to a minimum. "If David wants
camera
camera

the

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movement,

he wants good

- not
just, 'Oh, move
from here to there,'" Francis

movement

camera

explains. "That takes time. I concentrate
on doing the job as quickly as possible,
because the less time I spend, the more
time the director has. That, to my mind, is
very important. I find that the Varicon
speeds things up even more."
Hayman chose the truck-mounted
Shotmaker crane, with its very flexible
configuration, specifically to enable him
to get a wide range of shots quickly and
easily. Fie says that "it was one of the
most important pieces of equipment in
our kit." Francis and Flayman made
subtle use of the crane throughout the
picture to emphasize Straight's excru¬
ciatingly slow progress. At one point early
in the movie, they achieve a highly
successful visual joke simply by
exploiting the gentle rise and fall of the
camera on the crane. The shot begins
near road level, tightly framing the back
end of Straight's mower as it travels
along. The camera then rises suddenly to
reveal a panoramic view of the highway
stretching into the distance. After a long
pause, the camera lowers back to its
original composition, to find that the
intrepid Straight's slow-but-steady
headway can be measured in mere yards.
Francis strove to capture authentic
Midwest ambiance and mood for The

Straight Story. "We lapped up the
atmosphere of Iowa and tried to put that
on the screen to accentuate the plight of
the old boy and his daughter, and to
convey the poverty they were in," he
notes. "The film then opened out once he
took to the road. If you've ever been to
Iowa and seen the fields of corn, they
look pretty much the same. The place has
a certain quality, but it's very flat with
straight roads that go on forever." This
feeling is well-represented in the picture
by broad, swooping shots (made by
aerial coordinator Bobby Zajonc and the
second-unit crew) that establish the
majestic scale and autumnal colors of
the landscape.
Francis used a natural approach in
his lighting. "When I was a kid starting
out in the

business," he reflects, "I

became all too

that

good
picture, the photography was always
first-class but rarely had anything to do
with the story. It was always brilliant and
glossy regardless of the subject matter. If
I've done nothing else in my career, I've
really registered that point." Indeed, in
The Straight Story, understatement
serves to accentuate the clarity of the
film's script and acting. Low-key interiors
of bars reminiscent of Flopper paintings,
as

well

as

aware

on a

dramatic contrasts of weather

and

landscape, are injected only at
points in the story.
The accuracy of a given location
is of special importance to Francis. The

essential

French Lieutenant's Woman was shot in

Weymouth using the precise places
described in the book, and the battle
scenes in Glory were shot on the actual

historical sites when

possible. As Alvin
Straight grinds his way across Iowa,
over the Mississippi River, and into
Wisconsin, Francis exploits the cinema
verite qualities of the seemingly
endless, flat topography. Francis came
to

Middle America

observer with

as

an

outside

objective view, but as
progressed he was drawn into
the story. "I suppose the great thing is,
when I get on this sort of film, in a
strange way I become one of the actors."
Francis notes that the progression
of the seasons helped to reinforce the
passage of time in the story. The tale
begins in high summer as a woman
sunbathes adjacent to Straight's house,
an

the film

but

as

autumn

advances, the cornfields

becomes

"crackly and ripe," with
working the fields in the
background.

harvesters

The

cameraman

testifies that the

locations, and the lowans themselves,
made

an enormous

contribution to The

Straight Story. "One of the great things
about the movie, which surprised me,
was that we had so many local actors
who were absolutely wonderful," Francis
commends. "The small parts, vignettes
really, were nearly all taken by local
artists, who

were

invariably brilliant. We

shot in their home environments, which
must have made it easier for them. We
even

shot in the real home of Alvin

Straight, which

was very

small for

a set,
American Cinematographer - November 1999

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