Both River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves carry strong performances in this unusual and poignant film. He was a very compassionate intelligent young man. Its night in the desert. The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. [23] They were not in the script and the film's producer was worried that he was using too much film. My Own Private Idaho. Surreal & colorfully shot. [11] In a 2012 interview, Kiefer Sutherland said that he declined Van Sant's offer to star in the lead role because he wanted to go skiing, a decision he has said he regrets. Van Sant had just bought a house in Portland's west hills, and he invited Phoenix to stay there instead of a hotel. In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen praised Phoenix's performance: "The campfire scene in which Mike awkwardly declares his unrequited love for Scott is a marvel of delicacy. (1991) The mayor's rebellious son (Keanu Reeves) slums with a narcoleptic hustler (River Phoenix) in Washington before embarking on a quest with him. [12] Ultimately, while editing Drugstore Cowboy, he combined the scripts for Modern Days and Storytown with the "Idaho" short story. Man, Van Sant sure loves him some Portland, about as much as men, and he was able to put gay themes in here, so I reckon this is a definitive film for him. My Own Private Idaho ending got a lot of viewers wondering what it actually meant. Back in Portland, Bob and his gang confront a reformed Scott at a fashionable restaurant, but he rejects them. Mike's vision of Scott cradling him at the foot of a monument called The Coming of the White Man takes some creative liberties. After getting some attention with his micro-budget debut, Mala Noche, Van Sant wanted to make My Own Private Idaho next. My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 American independent adventure drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V. The story follows two friends, Mike Waters and Scott Favor, played by River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves respectively, as they embark on a journey of personal . Coming Soon, Regal [11] Not to be deterred, Van Sant got the idea for Reeves to personally deliver the film treatment to Phoenix at his home in Florida. Then Keanu and I refined it, worked on it, but it was all done quickly. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2012. 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. When I hear this music "America The Beautiful" in this movie it is a tearful reminder for me of how we profess this country to be the greatest country in the world and at the same time we are so cruel and hateful to some of its people and combined with fact that River, this beautiful human being has left us. It is especially heart wrenching for me when I hear the pedal steel guitar play "America The Beautiful" and seeing River's character Mike Waters looking down the long endless lonely road. The heaviness of the literal subject matter doesn't weigh this film down, defying the odds. Artist Name The B-52's Tags The B-52's 1980 Log in to post comments [32] Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter Mike (River Phoenix), a teenage hustler given to bouts of narcolepsy, and Scott (Keanu Reeves), a slumming preppy prince, are huddled over a campfire. He has some of the same moods and traits as Mike Waters does here: Both live in unreal worlds, detached from the ordinary progress of time by their conditions. Phoenix arrived in Portland two weeks before principal photography was to begin to do research and Van Sant remembered, "He seemed to be changing into this character". [12], Initially, no studio would finance the film because of its controversial and offbeat subject matter. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy . Everything Everywhere All At Once [Blu-ray]. You're almost there! New, restored 4K digital transfer, approved by director Gus Van Sant and director of photography Eric Alan Edwards, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, Alternate 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, Illustrated 2005 audio conversation between Van Sant and filmmaker Todd Haynes, Conversation from 2005 between producer Laurie Parker and actor River Phoenixs sister Rain, Audio conversation from 2005 between writer JT LeRoy and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette, English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, PLUS: A book featuring essays by film critic Amy Taubin and LeRoy; a 1991 article by Lance Loud; and reprinted interviews with Van Sant, Phoenix, and actor Keanu Reeves. Gus Van Sant. The costume designer, known for her work on Inland Empire, Spring Breakers, and Euphoria, reflects on a few favorite movies that have shaped her aesthetic sensibility. Criterion upgrades their previous DVD edition of Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho to Blu-ray, presenting the film in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a dual-layer disc (it was presented in 1.78:1 on the DVD). It encompasses what it means to be an heir in modern American society. He never had "real" parents who were there for him, and his only father figure is Bob, the man who acts as a leader to the group of hustlers working in Portland. (It looks like this.). This movie is like nothing I've ever seen. 102min. The directing and acting is excellent. wide, Release Date (Streaming): They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. To conclude, 'My Own Private Idaho' stands as a classic example of the queer character in cinema with its emotional demonstration of queer love and acts while contrasting them with the ever dominant heteronormative perceptions which can act to eliminate LGBT+ identities. Again he is looking into the lives of outlaws on the road. [18] Scenes of the Idaho road depicted in the film were shot near Maupin, Oregon, on Oregon Route 216. Meanwhile, Mike yearns to find his mother, so he and Scott leave for Idaho to visit Mike's older brother, Richard. It's poignant at times, funny at times, and very sad at times. Well worth the price for a fan of this Iconic movie. Amiable, none-too-bright street hustler Mike Waters (Phoenix) works . My Own Private Idaho (1991) Full Cast & Crew See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Directed by Gus Van Sant Writing Credits Cast (in credits order) verified as complete Produced by Music by Bill Stafford Cinematography by Film Editing by Curtiss Clayton Production Design by David Brisbin Art Direction by Kenneth Hardy Set Decoration by "[34] J. Hoberman, in his review for The Village Voice, wrote, "While Phoenix vanishes with reckless triumph into his role, Reeves stands, or occasionally struts, uneasily beside his, unable to project even the self-mocking wit of Matt Dillon's star turn in Drugstore Cowboy. He recorded various arrangements for the film, including instrumental adaptations of "Home on the Range" and "America the Beautiful". Ultra-Stereo, Stereo, Surround, On DVD This Week: Magic Mike XXL, Insidious: Chapter 3, And More, RT Interview: Gus van Sant and Dustin Lance Black on Milk, RT25: Celebrating 25 years of Rotten Tomatoes. It's character-driven rather than plot-driven, but the fine cinematography and the unquestionably excellent acting of River Phoenix carry the movie. Mike Waters and Scott Favor are young male hustlers (with both male and female clients) working the Pacific Northwest, they often hanging out with other young male hustlers in an abandoned building in Portland under the mentorship of an overweight homeless gay man named Bob Pigeon. Mike and Scott will do almost anything for the other, but under the circumstances of the different view of their own future, their friendship may have a limited shelf life. They had to shoot his scenes tomorrow. Before Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester; before the ill-advised Psycho remake and the experimental Gerry; before the movies about Harvey Milk and Kurt Cobain, Portland-based indie auteur Gus Van Sant made My Own Private Idaho, an avant-garde drama starring River Phoenix as a narcoleptic gay hustler and Keanu Reeves as his friend and co-worker. Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2022. Finally, Mike is back on the deserted stretch of Idaho highway. My Own Private Idaho. MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. - Mike Waters: It'll never happen Bob.". "My Own Private Idaho"(1991) is directed by Gus Van Sant(Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester). The next day the hustlers hold a rowdy funeral for Bob, while in the same cemetery, a few yards away, Scott attends a solemn funeral for his father. We wont be able to verify your ticket today, but its great to know for the future. The Really amazing! I love the cameos made by actual hustlers from the streets of Portland, OR. Off-beat and shakespearian at times, this arthouse production is existentialist in its undertones, but no aspect of it feels forced, rather, everything flows naturally. Copyright Fandango. 1991 Directed by Gus Van Sant. $6.4M, Runtime: All rights reserved. Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer, Jurassic Park Movies Ranked By Tomatometer, RT25: Celebrating 25 Years of Rotten Tomatoes, Betty Gilpin & Co. on Deciphering Mrs. Davis, Weekend Box Office Results: Super Mario Sets Record in Its Second Weekend, A tantalizing glimpse of a talented director and his stars all at the top of their respective games, Gus Van Sant's loose reworking of Henry IV is smart, sad and audacious. Starring: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves. In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. And there are certain scenes in Running On Empty in which he steps completely outside the box (to use a contemporary cliche). 17+. They find themselves in Italy. I watched it 20 years ago (loved it), and i watched the dvd version again recently, and even after all those years this movie still mesmerises me. My husband and I are both seniors my husband who is 84 felt somewhat uncomfortable throughout the movie. To those who do not understand the disorder, it appears that he must be on drugs, or mentally deficient, or from another planet. 1. [28][29], The film achieved critical acclaim. Van Sant said he found out his producers had committed to makingMy Own Private Idaho when other filmmakers told him, "Congratulations, they're skipping our film to make yours.. Cinemark Here is a movie about lowlife sexual outlaws, and yet they remind us of works by Shakespeare or Dostoyevsky, not William Burroughs or Andy Warhol. Carmela, a young woman who lives there, tells Mike that his mother returned to the United States months ago. Amazon has encountered an error. It's a long scene." My Own Private Idaho is considered a landmark film in New Queer Cinema, an early 1990s movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking. We meet Mike (River Phoenix), a drifter and a hustler, who stands on the side of a long road, contemplating its beauty and considering whether he's ever been down this path before. [25] It also received screenings at the 17th Deauville Film Festival, 16th Toronto International Film Festival[26] and the 29th New York Film Festival. Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. [20] The campfire scene, originally just three pages,[20] was expanded by Phoenix into an eight-page scene in which Mike professes his love for Scott, thereby making the character's homosexuality obvious, as opposed to Van Sant's more ambiguous original version. Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. Life centers around who you get a ride from, where you spend the night, how much money you have in your pocket. The film is about two street hustlers, one (Mike - River Phoenix) of whom has narcolepsy and is continually falling asleep wherever that may be, and the other, Scott (Keenu Reeves), who comes from a well to do family. Mike meanwhile never had an easy life, and he hustles out of necessity not choice. The movie's visuals are very haunting with the music with scenes of salmon going upstream, rolling clouds and sunset, barns falling from the sky and scenes of the Pacific Northwest and Italy. [9] Van Sant had another script, The Boys of Storytown, containing the Mike and Scott characters, as well as Hans and Bob; Van Sant wanted to make the film but felt the script was unfinished. "Across The Way" performed by River's band, Aleka's Attic is a masterpiece. In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. A couple of weeks ago I was going through some movies on my computer. The road is both a refuge and a prison in My Own Private Idaho, the seminal 1991 drama by director Gus Van Sant. While preparing to have sex with the woman, Mike has another narcoleptic episode and awakens the next day with Scott in Portland, Oregon. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. Really amazing! [37] The new high-definition transfer is presented in 1080p/24hz and comes from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative (the DVD was a high-definition scan of an . The movie takes place in Portland, Ore., and the open spaces of the Pacific Northwest - the same territory covered by "Drugstore Cowboy," Van Sant's previous picture. I came across the movie "Sneakers" I was instantly reminded of River Phoenix. Watching the film, I was reminded of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, in which Raskolnikov, the murderer of the old lady, suffers from epileptic seizures. He starts talking to himself and notices that the road looks "like someone's face, like a fucked-up face." The film is all over the place at times with its layering its disjointed narrative, yet no matter how much the film gets to be overblown to the point of convolution, Gus Van Sant can't quite overshadow natural shortcomings to this near-inconsequential story concept, and it doesn't help that when he doesn't bloat substance, he expends it for style. Composition [ edit] The B-52's are from Athens, Georgia, and never played a concert in Idaho until September 13, 2011, when they played at Eagle River Pavilion in Eagle, Idaho. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. R. Starring River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo. My husband and I are both seniors my husband who is 84 felt somewhat uncomfortable throughout the movie. also showed me MR RIVER PHOENIX'S IMPROV made this movie SOOOO fucking amazing. It's poignant at times, funny at times, and very sad at times. He then experiences a narcoleptic episode and dreams of his mother comforting him as home movies of his childhood play in his mind. Mike Waters lives on the street and befriends the somewhat older and streetwise Scott Favor who shows him what is necessary to survive. But according to Van Sant, Phoenix really wanted to beef up the impact of the scene. DAMNN- my own private idaho is one of my favorite movies and this script (while obviously lacking in bits) gave me more insight and closure on the movie itself. There is no mechanical plot that has to grind to a Hollywood conclusion, and no contrived test for the heroes to pass; this is a movie about two particular young men, and how they pass their lives. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. To see our price, add these items to your cart. Rated the #36 best film of 1991, and #3383 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). (Parker wasn't narcoleptic, though another friend of Van Sant's was.) Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2015. Two young hustlers, Mike and Scott, navigate a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns. Early in his career, Kier had a cabaret actan amusing contradiction to his filmography, which has consisted mostly of serious, sinister types. It's gritty and real! [19] One of the film's directors of photography, Eric Alan Edwards, recalled that Phoenix "looked like a street kid", and "in a very raw way he wore that role. 74, but the song did far better in the clubs: the tune ascended all the way to No. Don't forget to hit the 'Like' button and leave commons.#MyOwnPrivateIdaho #RiverPhoenix #gaymovietrailers My Own Private Idaho. In a sense, their own lives are so elusive that what they do to the lives of others is not very meaningful. An absorbing movie in a great new Criterion issue, Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2016. The film is about two street hustlers, one (Mike - River Phoenix) of whom has narcolepsy and is continually falling asleep wherever that may be, and the other, Scott (Keenu Reeves), who comes from a well to do family. In this, and every scene, Phoenix immerses himself so deeply inside his character you almost forget you've seen him before: it's a stunningly sensitive performance, poignant and comic at once. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Picture 8/10. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. It is about street life and hustling, homelessness and marginalization, homosexuality, and friendship, and much more. . On the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast some years ago, Van Sant even posited that Mike and Scott might not have sexualities in the conventional sense. My Own Private Idaho. Van Sant was leaving it ambiguous whether either of the hustlers was actually gay. Amazon's Choice highlights highly rated, well-priced products available to ship immediately. The film was a moderate financial success, grossing over $8 million, above its estimated budget of $2.5 million. Existence originates from a biological father and mother that conceive offspring which they nurture into childhood and later adolescence. Maybe that's because Van Sant is essentially making a human comedy here, a story that may be sad and lonely in parts but is illuminated by the insight that all experience is potentially ridiculous; that if we could see ourselves with nough detachment, some of the things we take with deadly seriousness might seem more than faintly absurd. Scott grew up in a house of privilege as the son of the current Portland mayor, with his street life a manifestation of the rebellion against the oppression of that privilege. 2.75/5 - Decent. It's gritty and real! Immediate development is seriously lacking in this often very sudden character piece, and quite frankly, gradual characterization isn't too much more extensive, relying on the occasional piece of forced exposition to punctuate long lapses in character focus that storytelling works to fill with mere excess. Some will embrace this film , some will not, to see it or not can only be a personal choice. Please use a different way to share. The film was part of a new wave of gay cinema, and it added to Phoenix's burgeoning reputation as a sensitive, brooding actor, made all the more tragic by his sudden death two years later. The two stars (Reeves,Phoenix) took a major gamble as starring as said Rent boys. The idea to combine the two scenarios occurred to Van Sant after seeing Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight. It came in perfect packaging and even includes a really neat booklet with Interviews, Reviews and some of the Script. An amazing Gay Iconic movie with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix! 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