My Own Private Idaho

I watched this film on TV 5 years ago, when I was only eleven years old, and I remember that I was especially impressed by River Phoenix's magnificent performance. I had already watched "Stand By Me" (one of my favorites), and it was very interesting to watch him older in such a daring film. I think he was the best actor of his generation but, unfortunately, he died too young. His film legacy and his magnificent aura, however, live on forever.

"My Own Private Idaho" is a poetic and bittersweet road movie, and Van Sant's masterpiece. Here in Brazil it received a bad title, "Garotos de Programa" (literally, "Rent Boys"). Yes, the main characters are rent boys, but this is not what defines them. "My Own Private Idaho" (what a beautiful title!) mostly deals with loneliness, virile sexuality and friendship, and paternity. It's much more than "a film about rent boys". Besides, by watching it my contemporaries will realize that Keanu Reeves isn't Neo from "The Matrix", but a versatile actor; and, perhaps, they'd discover that friendship - and romantic love - between two men can be truly sincere. 10/10.

Gus Van Sant has always been an interesting filmmaker. He cares about character and story and through the process, his artistic integrity is able to shine through his work and that is why he's considered a prominent director in independent cinema. My Own Private Idaho is more of is more well known independent features and is often viewed as a triumph of independent cinema from the 1990s.

The film follows Mark Waters (River Phoenix) an aimless, misguided young man who hustles on the streets and is yearning to find his way in life. His best friend is Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), who is also a young man and and a hustler, but who instead is running away from his life in the hope of finding something better. Scott comes from a lot of wealth but chooses not to live that lifestyle because when he's this young and wild, he just doesn't believe that its right for him.

However the film is centered around Mark, who is played with such brutal honestly by the late River Phoenix. River is completely dedicated to the character and brings a wonderful vulnerability to a lost soul and it makes him relatable. We watch him go from scene to scene, leaving us as unaware of his future as he is. We watch him make many mistakes and we want him to better himself but such a task is not easy. Because that's the way life is.

Mark hustles because its just who he is. We don't know how he got here, but we know that he has fallen into this lifestyle and it has consumed him. He needs the money. All of his friends are hustlers, too. He has dreams but its tough to say if he ever truly wants to leave the lifestyle. It seems that getting clients and often falling asleep during it (due to him being narcoleptic) doesn't seem to take as much of a toll on him as does his thoughts about his mother, or his feelings for his best friend.

Gus Van Sant crafts a very fine film here that focuses on such a lifestyle that we're not exposed to in our every day lives and turns it into something we can all relate to. It all comes back to that road, the road that we're all on. Does it really end? Probably not. Much like in the way that Mark is shown standing on that road, staring out into the nothingness. Its really about our lives. We live and we're happy, and we're sad, and we're lonely, and we're lost, and we've found ourselves, all of these things happen on the very same road that never ends.

Overall, this is a very artsy movie with a unique vibe. It has an interesting plot and main character, and it does have some vague elements of caring for others, and watching others succeed. But, the acting is... strange. It feels disconnected and it hard to understand what's going on at quite a few moments because of the dialogue. Good for if you want a taste of very artistic movies of the 90s.

I adore this movie, have owned it on VHS long before there was anything else and have seen it an insane number of times. It isn't perfect, but with me personally, though I'm a European female and thus have no personal life experience that could resemble anything the main characters go through, it struck a chord of universality that made it heart-breaking. The pathos in it, the bitter poetry, the warped magic is just unbelievably beautiful... and painful. It is visually inventive and the casting - even Keanu Reeves's, which has been so often criticised - is top-notch. Reeves's character is a flippant, spoilt young man who goes through life acting in his own self-glorifying drama: what better actor to cast in that role than someone whose acting is so contrived? And Phoenix... well, what can I say... to me, this is THE River Phoenix role, the one that can single-handedly turn him into an immortal, a legend. The Shakespearian quotations I adored: the relationship between Prince Hal and Falstaff from Henry IV, Part II is among the most mesmerising of the Bard's dramatic repertoire - that play was like an emotional earthquake to me. My Own Private Idaho caught its spirit perfectly, and translated it into a context that was original in its own right yet more faithful to Shakespeare in feeling than a more literal transposition might have been. Also, I found the portrayal of Rome in the part in which River's character goes out there to search for his mother, refreshingly true to life and totally cliché-free. As an Italian from Rome, it's very rare that I see a non-Italian film portraying my city of origin with so much authenticity. The FEEL of the place at a given time - the late 80s - was spot-on. In conclusion: to me, not only was My Own Private Idaho one of the best adaptations of (at least parts) of a Shakespeare play that I've seen, but also a tragedy of almost Shakespearian intensity in its own right. It had it all: the unhealthy, consuming passion (the fatal flaw), the power struggles, the young heir in his reckless, youthful days eventually maturing into the arrogance of the privileged (Keanu), the parental ghost that one of the protagonists looks to as his prophetic voice, the voice that may give his life a meaning (River's search for and the flashbacks to the memory of his mother), the intense pathos throughout, the tragic deaths at the end... that film is just pure magic to me! Just writing about it makes me want to see it again - what, for the 20th time or something?! And the tragedy at My Own Private Idaho's core is so universal, it really becomes completely secondary whether it's about and between men, women, homosexuals or heterosexuals.

This is the movie that I sincerely hope River Phoenix will long be remembered for. His performance as the narcoleptic and confused street-hustler Mike is so perfect and touching and realistic that it makes me cry every time. Gus Van Sant's films often have a strange aura about them (see Drugstore Cowboy, To Die For) and never has it been more evident than in this oddly affecting road movie/drama. The camera shots of long horizon-spanning roads and skylines, fast-motion clouds, surreal and symbolic shots of houses and rushing rivers provide the film with a strange almost other-worldly charm. Interspersed with the gritty realism of life on the streets of Portland Oregon in the early 90's, and (stranger still) Shakespeare. Some of the plot (Bob and Scott mainly) is based on the Shakespeare play Henry IV (with Keanu Reeves playing the Prince Hal character of Scott, and William Richert playing the Falstaff-like role of "King-Of-The-Streets" Bob.) It's a fascinating, touching and very successful blend of styles overall. The big themes (the search for love and belonging) are conveyed in a very interesting and genuinely moving manner. I particularly enjoyed the symbolism and pathos the film flittingly suggests. The performances are uniformly excellent, and this movie remains one of my all-time favourites. One of the greatest (and most unique) indie movies of the 1990's.