The characters have been compared by one critic to Prince Hal and Falstaff - to the errant heir and his lowlife companion. The risks paid off. I had seen a handful of his movies when he was here, "Indiana Jones", "I Love You To Death", "Running On Empty" and "Sneakers". [4] Van Sant's original screenplay was written in the 1970s, when he was living in Hollywood. He was a very compassionate intelligent young man. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Additional Sources: Interview Magazine Keanu Reeves performance is equally powerful as a child . After getting some attention with his micro-budget debut, Mala Noche, Van Sant wanted to make My Own Private Idaho next. 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.. He did so much for us on social issues with animals and people at his young age. Much of the Keanu Reeves character's story comes from this part, complete with occasional Bard-like dialogue and the Falstaff-like character of Bob Pigeon. Surreal character study focusing on the friendship between two male hustlers, Mike and Scott, in Portland, Oregon. William Shakespeare, Visually dazzling and thematically groundbreaking, My Own Private Idaho is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life on societys margins. Find out where you can buy, rent, or subscribe to a streaming service to watch it live or on-demand. The. The directing and acting is excellent. This story is like a stream-of-consciousness biography of the two main characters. [32] It's gritty and real! Then Keanu and I refined it, worked on it, but it was all done quickly. Keanu Reeves is adequate, but nowhere near the brilliance of Phoenix. The film was a moderate financial success, grossing over $8 million, above its estimated budget of $2.5 million. Do I? In their friendship, Scott sees himself as Mike's protector as Mike suffers from stress induced narcolepsy, and as such Mike passes out unconscious sometimes at the most inopportune time or place, while Mike eventually admits to Scott that he loves him more than just a friend. My Own Private Idaho had its premiere at the 48th Venice International Film Festival, and received largely positive reviews from critics, including Roger Ebert and those of The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers. 1991, 104 min Country: US Studio : Criterion Cast: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, Udo Kier, William Richert, James Russo, Flea, Rodney Harvey, Grace Zabriskie, Chiara Caselli Director: Gus Van Sant. I will also remember his music. I just want to kiss you, man, says Mike softly. That wasn't a problem. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Surreal & colorfully shot. Amazon's Choice highlights highly rated, well-priced products available to ship immediately. Read critic reviews. I guess that the story concept stands to have a little more depth to its dramatics, as surely as its interpretation stands to be more focused and less stylistically overblown, but on paper, this film's subject matter dealing with two men bonding, maybe as more than friends, on their adventure to uncover their pasts and find paths to the future does a lot of things uniquely, and has its own dramatic value to both be done justice and betrayed by Gus Van Sant. Mike Waters lives on the street and befriends the somewhat older and streetwise Scott Favor who shows him what is necessary to survive. Everything Everywhere All At Once [Blu-ray]. Powell, Paige, and Gini Sikes. Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way. 4. But then there is a glimmer of hope. He gives the movie its emotional edge, and there's just something very haunting about the performance he gives. Twenty-five pages long, it concerned two Latino characters on the Portland streets who go in search of their parents and travel to a town in Spain. I never remembered hearing about this movie when it came out in 1991. "My Own Private Idaho"(1991) is directed by Gus Van Sant(Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester). My Own Private Idaho. Mar 8, 2005, Box Office (Gross USA): His first film, which he made with $20,000 of his own personal savings, was named 1987's . A perfect Road Movie with great acting. That night, Bob has a fatal heart attack. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. (@doubtmag) on Instagram: "My Own Private Idaho (1991) dir. Teetering on the edges, the street . 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. Scott is the rebellious son of a high-ranking family, who lives this life mostly to embarrass his father. also showed me MR RIVER PHOENIX'S IMPROV made this movie SOOOO fucking amazing. Private School (Blu-ray)(2019) Get top deals, latest trends, and more. Drama, DVD commentary and features, 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. Synopsis. . I can't believe that Gus Van Sant didn't make this "My Own Private Oregon" or something which isn't to say that there isn't a point in which the leads end up in Portland somewhere along the way. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price. Don't know if that's true or not, but in Van Sants book (available on this site) one character falls in love with another character who plays a rent Boy in a movie. Two young hustlers, Mike and Scott, navigate a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns. When I had first watched the film My Own Private Idaho (1991), I was unaware of the specific references to Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts I and II and Henry V. Categorized and hyped as a queer-road-western film by the press, the Shakespearean element was largely overlooked in favor of the then-shocking reality that beloved teen heartthrob and Finally, Mike is back on the deserted stretch of Idaho highway. [Tag: ability, cowardice, weight ] more on this quote . 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. They encounter a young woman from Italy. What Mike wants is love, and by love what he really means is someone to hold him and care for him. Criterion's Blu-ray edition of My Own Private Idaho is available now. Van Sant knew some of the local street kids and had them on set as advisers and extras. The internal desires appear in Mike's dreams, as he often falls into sudden slumber that habitually crawls upon him through his sleeping disorder, narcolepsy. After he falls into another narcoleptic stupor, two strangers pull up in a truck, take his backpack and shoes, and drive away. The performances from River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves are simply outstanding and the simple message the. In the script, Van Sant made the Scott character a rich kid, also fashioned after street hustlers Van Sant had met in Portland. Mike works as a male prostitute, and it goes without saying that narcolepsy is not an asset in his line of work. Again he is looking into the lives of outlaws on the road. William Richert was a writer and director who'd made A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, in which Phoenix played the title character. 2.75/5 - Decent. "[36], Conversely, USA Today gave My Own Private Idaho two and half stars out of four, calling it "nothing but set pieces; tossed into a mix whose meaning is almost certainly private". With the money they receive from Hans, Mike and Scott travel to Italy. Genre: Life centers around who you get a ride from, where you spend the night, how much money you have in your pocket. My Own Private Idaho is considered a landmark film in New Queer Cinema, an early 1990s movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking. Mike Waters, the young drifter played by River Phoenix in Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho," is a narcoleptic. I had forgotten how much I loved him. Van Sant had just bought a house in Portland's west hills, and he invited Phoenix to stay there instead of a hotel. Visually dazzling and thematically groundbreaking, My Own Private Idaho is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life on societys margins. It stretches out, vast and infinite in its scope, clouded by the memory of the cars all whizzing past, of the turns not made but longed for, and the journeys not quite finished yet well remembered. Scott is the son of the mayor of Portland and is simply hustling to make his father angry, but he's about receive his inheritance. And there are certain scenes in Running On Empty in which he steps completely outside the box (to use a contemporary cliche). River Phoenix was an extra-ordinary actor. That's those independent film guys for you. Mike and Scott are soon reunited with Bob Pigeon, a middle-aged mentor to a gang of street kids and hustlers who live in an abandoned apartment building. Reeves and others soon joined, and the place became an almost nonstop house party with jam sessions every night. 1. [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. It will always bring me to tears. "[22], Eric Edwards shot the time-lapse photography shots on his own. Drama, It is almost hallucinatory, how one can be in Idaho today and Italy tomorrow, and have no money in either place, but if you make an object out of yourself, then people with more money and stronger wills are able to take you wherever they choose. This is a new, restored 4K digital transfer.This disc has audio commentary with the director and some features, including the making of the film, an interview with film scholar Paul Arthur, a conversation between the producer Laurie Parker and River Phoenix's sister Rain, deleted scenes and an audio conversation between JT Leroy and Jonathan Caouette. They are constantly on their smart phones texting and talking about the Kardashians unaware of dangerous and cruel hateful things that are trying to be passed by our so called compassionate and very ignorant higher-ups. I loved it. I joke, but this feels about as much like the sequel to "Stand By Me" as it does like William Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and "Henry v", and if you're wondering how, well, it's because it doesn't feel that much like either "Stand By Me" or Shakespeare equally. Com uma trilha sonora que acompanha a desestabilizao emocional que o filme traz, "Cattle Call", parece um canto de sereias vindas da fantasmagrica cidade perdida de Atlntida, e que desejam nos levar para um novo mundo ou um novo e estranho estado mental. Still, like I said, the effort comes closer to rewarding than it would have in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, and if it had less solid style to overplay. The directing and acting is excellent. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter His condition has given him a certain dreamy detachment; there is no use getting too deeply involved in events you may end up sleeping through. It got to be such a party, in fact, that Van Sant moved out of his own house and stayed in an apartment downtown. age 17+. [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. Lgbtq+. Email address. Any would-be filmmaker can tell you how nerve-racking it is to meet with potential producers and then wait to hear back about whether they're going to make your movie. It is the promise of America, chronically out of joint with reality, especially for its most vulnerable inhabitants. 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 . His script ended up as a restructuring of the Henry IV plays. Mike is in love with Scott, who still maintains he is straight and insists that his wild lifestyle on the streets is only temporary. Terms and Policies [45] River Phoenix received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival. 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. First of all, while Portland does have a monument by that name, the real one doesn't look like that. This story is like a stream-of-consciousness biography of the two main characters. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Directed by: Gus Van Sant. Starring: River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves. My Own Private Idaho is certainly not typical Hollywood fare. Neither background would account for the strange existence they now share, drifting through the automobiles and bedrooms of strangers, acting out fantasy roles, spending long hours in coffee shops, smoking and talking and killing time. Expect More. looks back on the movies that expanded his idea of what cinema could be and made him want to be an actor. [27] The film was released in limited theaters in the United States on September 29, 1991. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "The achievement of this film is that it wants to evoke that state of drifting need, and it does. The BD is an improvement in many ways (textures, detail, tonal range, etc), but there's something I actually miss, although some people who've reviewed this title tend to consider in a rather different light: I first saw this film when it was theatrically released in 1991, and I miss the "Kodak palette" yellow-ish hue of the DVD transfer, because (as far as I can recall) it was consistent with the visual experience of the old 35mm projection. 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. At unrequited love and life on societys margins Bob has a fatal heart attack as advisers extras. Worked on it, worked on it, but nowhere near the brilliance Phoenix! Out of joint with reality, especially for its most vulnerable inhabitants has a fatal attack... Just want to be an Actor and Keanu Reeves are simply outstanding and the became... Of joint with reality, especially for its most vulnerable inhabitants never remembered hearing about this SOOOO. On Empty in which he steps completely outside the box ( to a. 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