The result was so intriguing that he put some of that footage into the film. His script ended up as a restructuring of the Henry IV plays. During a lunch break one day, Van Sant turned the camera on these guys and interviewed them, hoping to inspire the cast with some authenticity. Free standard shipping with $35 orders. Scottie leaves the streets because he inherits his money. In 2005, the film was remastered by The Criterion Collection and released on a two-disc DVD set. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. 74, but the song did far better in the clubs: the tune ascended all the way to No. To achieve the effect of magazine cover boys on the newsstand coming to life and talking to each other, Van Sant went old-school. He used Edwards's footage to present Mike's perspective of "an altered sense of time". Gus Van Sant. Drama thrives on the weaknesses of its characters, but what can we make of a hero who suffers from narcolepsy? You're almost there! 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. [Tag: ability, cowardice, weight ] more on this quote . "Private Idaho" provided The B-52's with the second Hot 100 appearance of their career, with the single climbing to No. [18] Scenes of the Idaho road depicted in the film were shot near Maupin, Oregon, on Oregon Route 216. Mulholland Dr. (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD] [Blu-ray], Uncut Gems (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD] [Blu-ray]. 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 Really amazing! . . 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. Gus Van Sant took a giant risk with this masterpiece about rent boys. [5] After reading Rechy's book, Van Sant felt it was considerably better than what he was writing, and shelved the script for years. 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. - Bob Pigeon: I'd give a thousand dollars to be able to run as fast as you can. Gus Van Sant, Release Date (Theaters): Is this what you think of me? Mike Waters lives on the street and befriends the somewhat older and streetwise Scott Favor who shows him what is necessary to survive. [11], Van Sant showed the script to a 20th Century Fox executive who liked Shakespeare. Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. In one of the most significant scenes, his best friend. Keanu Reeves is adequate, but nowhere near the brilliance of Phoenix. Later in life however, Favor has joined mainstream society and has little time for his old friend. Gus Van Sant" River Phoenix was an extra-ordinary actor. River Phoenix gave a brilliant performance as a street boy with narcolepsy who wants to find his mother. Good movie. 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 Must purchase this movie, or at least see it! In 1988, while editing Mala Noche, Van Sant met street kid Michael Parker, who inspired the character of Mike in My Own Private Idaho. 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. A strange but somehow affecting modernization of William Shakespeare's Henry IV, My Own Private Idaho is driven by an incredible performance from River Phoenix and a sort of fleeting beauty in the story and cinematography. This story is like a stream-of-consciousness biography of the two main characters. Amazon has encountered an error. I loved it. Synopsis. Surreal & colorfully shot. The idea to combine the two scenarios occurred to Van Sant after seeing Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight. Anything else would be a token". I looked up all the movies that he had made and this one "My Own Private Idaho" I had to see it since it was gay themed as I have a lot of gay themed movies in my collection - "Making Love", "Brokeback Mountain", "The Trip" and so on. "[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. (It looks like this.). I'm an actor. Set on 900 acres, the Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch (208-774-3544; idahorocky.com ), built in 1930, features 17 hand-hewn, just-luxe-enough log cabins and four lodge rooms, a natural hot springs pool . 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. 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. Mike identifies more as gay, while Scott identifies more as straight, seeing his sexual encounters with male clients solely business. Now, that's as far as I remember, and that shouldn't hold you back from getting this little gem of early 90s cinema. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2022. Visually dazzling and thematically groundbreaking, My Own Private Idaho is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life on societys margins. For some reason, Phoenix became fixated on the idea of Richert playing Bob Pigeon in My Own Private Idaho, even though Richert was not an actor. Carmela and Scott fall in love and return to the US, leaving a brokenhearted Mike to return on his own. Anyone who has had expectation piled upon them, and felt the need to rebel will understand the nature of this film, and the reason it had to be made. The dialogue is a modernization of the original Shakespearean dialogue, which feels a little unnatural at times but it works well enough and it's been changed enough so that it's at least easy to understand. The third element was a short story Van Sant wrote called "In a Blue Funk," about the River Phoenix character being picked up by a German man and kept in a house. For if River Phoenix was here today he would be very aware of this and be standing up for people's basic rights. My Own Private Idaho. William Richert - Bob Pigeon. It helps that Sara Burton knows how to manage locations, distinguishing each setting in this film in a way that doesn't simply immerse you into handsome environments, but gives you a sense of dynamicity that, of course, defines the sense of adventure that drives this drama's narrative. In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. My personal opinion is that this is definitely an Art Film, somewhat temerarious. On the 25th anniversary of its release, it reminds us of the risks. The sheer, expressive beauty of those images haunted me for days. I miss the yellow of those wide time-lapse shots in the middle of nowhere. "[31] Vincent Canby, in his New York Times review, wrote, "The performances, especially by the two young stars, are as surprising as they are sure. He is picked up by a wealthy older woman, who takes him to her mansion, where he finds two fellow hustlers she also hired. Everything Everywhere All At Once [Blu-ray]. They find the country farmhouse where Mike's mother worked as a maid and English tutor. Mr. Phoenix (Dogfight) and Mr. Reeves (of the two Bill and Ted comedies) are very fine in what may be the two best roles they'll find in years. Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2016. Early in his career, Kier had a cabaret actan amusing contradiction to his filmography, which has consisted mostly of serious, sinister types. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest along the grungy streets and open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called home. "[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". [5], Early drafts of the screenplay were set on Hollywood Boulevard, not Portland, with working titles such as Blue Funk and Minions of the Moon. I bought the Blu-ray version. [37] Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy . Its night in the desert. The two stars (Reeves,Phoenix) took a major gamble as starring as said Rent boys. The risks paid off. 80% 80%. There's moments of humor and sadness in equal measure, but it always feels very personal and interesting. The overall theme was easy to get, but the details of the narrative often seemed confused. An absorbing movie in a great new Criterion issue, Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2016. Reeves cruel rejection obviously destroys the character played by River Phoenix. His first film, which he made with $20,000 of his own personal savings, was named 1987's . Lgbtq+. anr filma: Drama. 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. [8] Van Sant realized he could blend the two stories together in the manner of William S. Burroughs' "cut up" technique. Mike Waters lives on the street and befriends the somewhat older and streetwise Scott Favor who shows him what is necessary to survive. I had seen a handful of his movies when he was here, "Indiana Jones", "I Love You To Death", "Running On Empty" and "Sneakers". My Own Private Idaho is far from a normal drama, but if you can appreciate its quirks and occasional eccentricities it is actually one of Gus Van Sant's better (albeit less typical) movies. This movie will be forever my favorite for River Phoenix is absolutely beautiful in it as Mike Waters, a homeless narcoleptic who's in search of his mother that abandoned him and who comes to terms with his sexuality and falls in love with his best friend, Scott Favor played by Keanu Reeves who also gives an awesome performance too as a rich man's son rebelling against his family and travelling with Mike for kicks. [14] Reeves did so over the Christmas holidays, riding his 1974 Norton Commando motorcycle from his family home in Canada to the Phoenix family ranch in Micanopy, Florida, outside Gainesville. 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. 1h 42m, Distributor: Having watched the campsite scene again in My Own Private Idaho, I noticed Phoenix's body-language, and his improvisation acting skills and intonation, and i realised that he (Phoenix) was one of the greatest actors in the history of motion pictures. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Copyright Fandango. In a sense, their own lives are so elusive that what they do to the lives of others is not very meaningful. Other original and selected songs from various artists were also featured in the film, including: The soundtrack was not released on any media. Abandoned as a child, he is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother. When professional actors got involved, Parker was relegated to the ensemble (he plays a hustler named Digger), but he continued to help Phoenix research the role and understand the character. 'My Own Private Idaho' is a great little off-beat movie. 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. I bought the Blu-ray version. [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. Sign In. Richard tells a story of a man he claims is Mike's father, but Mike says that he knows it is Richard. IT'S A COMBINATION OF THREE STORIES, INCLUDING ONE BASED ON SHAKESPEARE.. So instead he made Drugstore Cowboy, about a roving band of junkies who rob pharmaciesa premise with more mainstream appeal, apparently. Fine Line Features, Production Co: I'm not one for absolutes but this might be my favorite movie ever and this criterion release is as elegant as this film deserves. Saving Private Ryan (Sapphire Series) (Blu-ray) $16.99. They find themselves in Italy. the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes. Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2005. A couple of times a week, they would play music together. 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 . Present Mike 's mother worked as a street boy with narcolepsy who wants to his. What is necessary to survive in equal measure, but Mike says he... Is obsessed with finding his long-lost mother the two stars ( Reeves, Phoenix ) took a giant my own private idaho this... 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