River Phoenix was the best actor of his generation, even though he had barely gotten started on what should have been an astounding career. Perhaps he was too good; he was scary.

I saw this picture and cried for days. Even now, years later, I hesitate to see it again. Too real; too sad. The condition and fate of the homeless orphan is overwhelming. The cruelty of the world to the weakest among us cannot be forgotten.

I saw this film when it was first released in 1991. I was a teenager at the time, and for that reason, it really touched a sensitive nerve. Now, unlike many films or books that basically trigger a sensitive response in the viewer, what really surprised me about "My Own Private Idaho" was that it wasn't just that: it was also a cerebral movie. So, MOPI might have been the first time that, as a teenager, I felt at the same time cherished and respected as a viewer.
Although fans had to wait a long time for this cult film to be released, the great news is: it was released in Criterion Collection. So, the colors you saw during the film release, the subtleties of the soundtrack, all those little, significant details are here. This film couldn't be in better hands.

Gus is a Genius. When I see this movie I think in the moment he have shoot the sequences. I think he know move the camera and he know to direct the actors. I hope Gus never dies, he is a genius

City youth living on the streets with no cares or obligations, squatting in old buildings, hustling on the side to bring in a little extra cash; drugs, occasionally if they can score some that night. "Whenever, whatever" attitude set to Shakespearian dialogue. Take-out Chinese joints where one can play 80's Madonna hits on the jukebox: narcolepsy, loneliness, time that makes it inevitable that they grow up, unrequited love, barren roads, dilapidated houses in the country-side, Hans, the german dancer, Portland, Seattle, Boise, Roma Italy and revisited memories.

This is one of the most beautifully poignant movies I have seen. For me, the movie is about longing for love, for connection with family, and a search for self love. It transcends gender and convention. The cinematography is beautiful, the script is smart, and Mike's (River Phoenix) portrayal of a young and narcoleptic street hustler is, well, riveting.

Thank you, Mr. Van Sant. Thank you for favoring people like me with a glimpse of the world through a poet's eyes, and a bard's voice.

Early into this movie, you see a dilapidated house floating downward from the sky, ultimately crashing into pieces on a country road. Initially this image seems out of place, but you soon realize how perfectly fitting it really is.
This journey recklessly pulls you through the life of a young junkie named Mike (River Phoenix). He suffers from narcolepsy, and during these episodes you get a haunting glimpse into his childhood. I wondered if these awful moments are possibly repressed memories. They seem to have cast a dark shadow over his current position, and Phoenix portrays this predicament all too well.
Keanu Reeves plays his best friend Scott, whom Mike begins to feel a prevalent romantic attraction for. I got the impression that Mike wasn't really gay, he just was in dire need for some sort of physical love and affection from somebody. They both make money as prostitutes, often performing for men with strange fettishes. The strangest thing is that Scott is the son of the wealthy mayor, and this is his way of rebelling I guess.
Scott's character is based on Prince Hal, son of the king in Shakespeare's play Henry IV. I thought it was cool how Van Sant intertwined his own story with this classic literature.
I think this was one of River's last films, if not his last one. I wonder if he got too wrapped up with method acting for this role. His presence does seem to cry out with a sad desperation in nearly every scene here. Overall, the remarkable emotional depth generated from this movie will really stick with you long after it's over.

This is my favorite Gus Van Sant film. It's an amazingly beautiful work. It annoys me that many critics and some reviewers identify this as a "gay" film, simply because the 2 main protagonists are male hustlers, and Van Sant is gay. This film is beautiful enough for all to get something out of it. The poetry and beautiful simplicity of this film makes it one of the greatest films of the 1990's. Some of the scenes are incredibly lyrical and quite touching. Most films in the 1990's had that smug, "ironic" thing going, but this is a grand exception. Generally, I don't like Van Sant's work. I think a lot of it is overrated, and some of it downright awful (Gerry being his worst film). But I deeply admire this film. It's a sad, painful, haunting, and beautiful film. Its subject matter can be off putting for some, but you need to forget about that. It will prevent you from enjoying a masterpiece....

I know this review gets a little self-indulgent, but if you'll allow me to get autobiographical for just a second, you'll see why I do.

When River Phoenix breathed his last in front of Johnny Depp's Viper Room on Halloween morning in 1993, I think I was just the right age to feel a certain frisson in his passing that wouldn't have been there a year or two either way. My friend and I came home from a snowy night among trick or treaters to graphic news accounts of Phoenix's passing, and for reasons that made perfect sense to us then, we went out and got this movie on video. Ultimately we ended up buying it and watching it shall we say A LOT till about the end of the year, when new misfortunes came along, eventually in the next spring taking the form of Kurt Cobain's suicide, which trumped all previous newsworthy events in our young lives.

Well, recently I got My Own Private Idaho on DVD, motivated more about nostalgia for ninth-grade and a weirdly River Phoenix obsessed fall than out of remaining affection for the movie itself, but you know, after watching it from my perspective of today, this is a lot better film than for all my sentimentality I'd remembered it being. From its re-telling of Shakespeare with a modern boldness unseen by anything else until Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo+Juliet a few years later, to its in-your-face trip into the living hell of junky male prostitutes living homeless in circa 1990 Portland and Seattle, Gus Van Sant's quirky film seems even more an achievement now than it ever did back in the day. In viewing My Own Private Idaho, you get to hear tales of life on the streets as told by real-life hustlers, and you get to see a pre-A-list Keanu Reeves act in his own unique and inimitable style. But above all, to be honest, the ghost of River Phoenix still haunts this movie, and always will. To view it from an all-knowing hindsight and understand that according to so many THIS was the project that introduced the one-time clean living son of hippies to the quick thrill of hard drugs...that hasn't ceased to deliver a punch, even in a more jaded decade such as this one.

If you haven't seen My Own Private Idaho, see it; it's destined to be a classic one day. If it's been a while, see it again. It holds up well and it should tell you something about how much you've changed with time.

Thanks for reading!

Wow I was blown away when I first saw this movie I thought River and Keanu were amazing and I loved the visuals Gus Van Sant did a great job and I highly recommend this film.

A very sad tale of 2 young men whose different orbits collide. We have a dilettante who perhaps craves the experience of life on the street, a missed meal here, an anonymous encounter there, someone who pays attention to him. Then there's the polar opposite. A gay, hustling narcoleptic. Sure, Oprah shows are full of them. Love ensues and the object of desire, the callow youth, takes off into his inherited legacy. The abandoned lover is forsaken. Been there, done that. As a know-it-all youth in Los Angeles I've tempted my demons and seen what kind of guys pick you up in the middle of the night when you are hitching home, on a school night, visiting the boy and family you have a love for. Their sad fumblings at intimacy, my feigned ignorance of what they want, and the wanting to be understood sealed my destiny to make sure that children do not suffer at the hands of adults. Critics? You have no clue.

The cardboard case is worn looking like it fell out of the truck and got run over. I returned it the first time to get a better a case and I got an exact worn looking cover again. I don't think that this is Amazon's fault because all other purchases have been wonderful. I think that there should a buyer beware clause that states that the DVD case will come to you in not perfect condition.

An interesting film that looks at the lives of two street kids and their travels to find a true home and adoration. The cast is wonderful with River Phoenix (Mike) giving a heartbreaking performance as a nomad in search of his mother, and the deep longing for love and acceptance from a slumming rich kid, Scott (Keanu Reeves). The direction is mellow and passive in rich oranges and pastels with shots framed on the subject matter in bare form. The film never bows down to a perfect ending nor does it make victims or violators of the characters. It was a breakthrough art film that has aged well and avoided stereotypes immersing itself in the human characteristics everyone shares.

Look, that part where the hustlers and low-lifes hang around in their abandoned building and quote Shakespeare and jump around making theatrical gestures, that part's just terrible. Especially when the Shakespearean lines are punctuated by profanity, come on, that's just a sign of a bad screenplay. Sure, you can use a seedy setting to illustrate a Shakespearean theme. But actually lifting whole passages just creates an air of artificiality, it forces the symbolism and looks really silly. Some years ago, I knew this guy who really wanted to be a film maker, more than that, he believed in art and wanted to make thoughtful, meaningful art films. But the thing was, he had nothing to write about, so he'd just take bits and pieces from Shakespeare's plays or other far superior stories, and then he'd move them to a modern setting and add lots of trendy pop culture references. That's what this reminds me of, even when the actors caper around and recite the lines, it's like a film student's idea of what Shakespearean acting is like.

Well, so much for my attempts to avoid turning into an insufferable film critic. But in my defence, this is a big part of the film. If you take out the references to Henry IV, that's like half the dialogue. Which is a pity, since the rest is actually pretty good. The part where they all sit in a breakfast joint and two of the guys recount their sleazy exploits is right on. They don't try to play the story for its shock value, they speak very matter-of-factly, like they're speaking half to themselves. The writing is very convincing, it's like all the best parts of Drugstore Cowboy. The mumbled campfire confession by River Phoenix's character is powerfully understated, even though the film doesn't really set up his attraction to Scott.

Actually, much like Drugstore Cowboy, the strength of the film really isn't in the dialogue, acting, or cinematography. Keanu Reeves can barely read his lines, but he has a face that's absolutely perfect for the role of Scott. It's a handsome face that always carries this smug, self-satisfied expression, completely oblivious to anybody else's feelings. When Phoenix's character makes that mumbled confession, Scott just looks bemused, and even his sympathy has a half-bored tone. I don't know if it was supposed to come across this way or not, but you can read his whole personality in that expression.

Phoenix, too, is perfectly cast. He barely has any lines, and maybe that's a good thing, since his own face says much more than the screenplay. In keeping with his character (the film helpfully defines narcolepsy in the beginning), he always has a heavy, sleepy look. He hunches his body like he wants to curl up and make himself invisible. This, more than anything else in the film, shows his character's helplessness. But he's not overly sympathetic, as can be seen from his hostile posture in the presence of just about anybody else. He's someone who hates himself and, by extension, everything around him, and thus lost all interest in life a long time ago. Maybe it's only logical that the one person whom he says he loves should be a man who identifies himself as heterosexual, despises his friends, and has no remorse about abandoning them.

Also like in Drugstore Cowboy, the camerawork is not especially prominent, although the scenes of Idaho look desolately pretty. The scenes are usually filmed at short range, so most of the rooms look really small and it's impossible to really get a feel for the setting. The one time when Van Sant hits upon an effective gimmick is the part at the beginning where he shows the covers of various [...] magazines animated with the film's characters. It's artificial, and it features a declarative monologue by Keanu Reeves, but it is also a very concise and complete exposition of his character, and his face on such a magazine is a fitting metaphor for his personality. Also, during the sex scenes, Van Sant finds a way to convey the point without dwelling on it, by showing very quick montages of still images of people entwined in various positions and suchlike.

But the symbolism doesn't really hold much water, either in the Shakespeare quotes or even in the film's central theme of the protagonist's quest to find his mother. The one scene that could develop his backstory, where he brings Scott to visit his brother, plays out like a bizarre tangent to the rest of the film. Although this sub-plot provides an occasion for the campfire monologue, it's kind of hard to see why Scott even bothered to tag along all the way to rural Idaho. (The chance to go to Italy, which comes up later on, would probably appeal more to his type.) And the opening shot of the protagonist with his mother is, well, kind of simplistic, as she repeats the stock phrase, "It's going to be all right." And, I don't know, but I just don't see how Phoenix's character really wants to find her, it's more like her absence provides him with a reason to drift aimlessly rather than the other way around.

So, I'd say this is a conflicted film. It still has all the good parts of Drugstore Cowboy, but there's a lot of diversions now too, and they only grow from here. In the end I probably would only recommend it for one of River Phoenix's few dramatic roles.

Neither fabulous performances by the late River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, as well as creatively framed cinematography - including the live-talk of the porn mag stars - could save this impossibly flawed Van Sant movie of rebels without a cause. I literally snored through moments of the the movie, and wasn't even intrigued, as a viewer must be, by the grueling sadism of the minor characters, let alone the journey of the main characters. What journey? A journey straight to hell. The best parts of the film are its title and the shots of the long roads of desolate Idaho, echoing the desolation of the characters; and of teaming Portland, Oregon, just another busy industrial city with its dens of iniquity and ridiculous gratuitous violence.

I enjoyed seeing actor Phoenix's depictions of the brain disorder narcolepsy, dropping dead asleep in his tracks, a metaphor for the lost dead soul of Phoenix. If only Gus Van Sant could have made debauchery intriguing, instead of tormenting, and left the viewer to contemplate, "Why on earth?" Instead, My Own Private Idaho was merely tiresome, and waiting for the viewer to cry, "Enough already!" And turn off the 1993 video

Influenced by European observational filmmakers like Antonioni and Bela Tarr and the elastic conventions of the American 'road movie,' Gus Van Sant represented the cinematic side of the artistic zeitgeist sweeping the Pacific Northwest in the early nineties. While later films like 'Even Cowgirls...' and 'Gerry' caught aspects of his typically offbeat humor and poetic style, 'Idaho' is his peak, with the late River Phoenix rising to the challenge of the role of Mike the narcoleptic hustler with a remarkably intuitive and vulnerable performance. Keanu Reeves has less of the burden as his fellow hustler and best friend Scott, but his silences communicate each step in the gradual breakdown of their friendship quite eloquently. A movie to watch when you think of the friends you couldn't wait to see after summer breaks, and how it all eventually evaporated.

I'm not sure why this movie recieved such critical praise and audience approval. Let me start off by saying, this movie is written & directed by
Gus Van Sant. Van Sant is a great director, but there's times when his writing just falls flat. The movie "Elephant" is a good example, that movie tried to be important and display a message and didn't succeed. This movie seems to have no motive, not a single scene is significant (which usually doesn't matter to me), but it's not boring which is why I'm giving it 4 stars. I wouldn't buy it, but it's an all right movie. Also, nothing is really standout in this movie. The performances aren't anything to praise, the writing is so-so, but the directing is good. The late River Phoenix plays Mike, a narcoleptic street hustler who's (basically) gay. Keanu Reeves plays Scott, another seemingly gay street hustler who's awaiting a large inheritance he'll get on his 21st birthday. This movie has been called a "road movie" by a couple people. This isn't a road movie. In fact, Mike and Scott are probably on the road for a combined total of 10 minutes. Also, at one point in the movie Scott meets a young girl and falls in love with her (or so it's implied) and Mike seems jealous. But the movie never comes right out and says it. I need to add, this movie is in
The Criterion Collection. I despise The Criterion Collection, because there's few movies I've seen in that collection that I enjoyed (I did like The Silence of the Lambs, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas). Overall, this movie's OK but it is massively overrated. I have to give credit to Gus Van Sant for coming up with a weird way of shooting his sex scenes though.

GRADE: C-

Cast:
MIKE WATERS River Phoenix
SCOTT FAVOR Keanu Reeves
RICHARD WATERS James Russo
BOB PIGEON William Reichert
GARY Rodney Harvey
CARMELLA Chiara Caselli
DIGGER Michael Parker
DENISE Jessie Thomas
BUDD Flea

Story: Story about two street huslers, Mike and Scott, who sell themselves to men or women, in other words, rent boys. Mike keeps dreaming about his mother who abandoned him as a child and suffers from narcolepsy. Scott is the son of the mayor and only does what he does to embarass him. Together they go on an adventure to find Mike's mother, travelling from Idaho all the way to Italy.
Opinion: I have only seen this once and I wasn't really into the movie the way I thought I could be. The only reason I rented it was to see River Phoenix performance. The way he played his character was very believable but I can't say the same for Keanu Reeves. But Reeves has grown up and has improved by a long shot. My tip is to watch reruns of this movie to fully understand the story.
You'll either really hate this movie because of the dialogue and/or the techniques used, or really like it. If you're a fan of River Phoenix, I strongly suggest you to watch it because his acting is incredible. There's a chance you'll be confused whether you liked it or not because this isn't a film that you will understand the first time played. Watch it again, maybe your opinion might change.
There's alot of nudity in this movie but they're frozen when they are. I was a little uncomfortable when watching those scenes but they didn't run for long.
If You're still not sure whether you'll like this movie or not, just rent it at a video store. Make sure it's a DVD because the video version that I borrowed was really bad.

Those long takes on Idaho farmland and back roads -- pretty, but ultimately boring. You see: film is not a photograph. Film contains action, story, and human pathos. We get one of those in My Own Private Idaho. Gay street people are predictable, but in real life their clients are Joe Fag anybody, not these theatrical versions of Truman Capote or Dieter from Saturday Night Live. So, are we looking at a satire on street life or a serious look at street boys roaming Portland, Oregon. Are we to believe America has nothing to offer, but cheap sex and bad drugs? Come on!

River Phoenix played himself, a boy sleepwalking through life. He has a famous father to spark his career. Oh, that's too easy I guess. He died pretty much as the slacker he really was. Keanu, another Hollywood legacy, he seems to be 22 years old whether he plays a seventeen year old or a thirty-five year old. I liked him as a dentist in Thumbsucker way more than this non-believable street boy with a city mayor for a dad. Come on!.

Look, if you're going to do weird, see any David Lynch flick. He's so much better. Sorry Gus.

I bought the Criterion Collection DVD of this because I loved River Phoenix before it was a cliche.... (if it is one).

Nevertheless, I saw this in the theater when it was first released, and my opinion hasn't changed: Phoenix is as good as you've heard and the film absolutely has it's moments--- many wonderful moments.

Then there's Keanu.

Who tried to marry this guy to Shakespeare? He's way out of his league with this kind of material. And these sections of the film, especially the group exchanges in the broken-down tenament house, seem badly edited, those conversations unclear in terms of point and plot--- and I've seen the movie countless times.

It's a shame Van Sant went down that road (the characters, specifically Keanu, breaking in and out of classical speech, which simply doesn't work), because there are many things about this picture that are really terrific... So view it with this in mind.

...and this: after the first couple of viewings of this hauntingly-odd picture, the flaws just seem to melt away and dont matter so much.

And you can almost always tell a (potentially) good flick when it manages to inexplicably capture the zeitgeist of its era; in fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen one that evokes the very-late 80s/very-early 90s as vividly. (So did "Midnight Cowboy" for ITS era, so maybe male hookers is all that's really required. Go figure.)

Even Keanu gives a better performance in the "normal" (non-Shakespearean) scenes than usual. And, as with every single River Phoenix movie ever filmed, this one is chock-full of eerily prescient moments of doom: like River seizuring on the road, sidewalk, etc...

Just watch it for River Phoenixs performance.

This film tries too hard to be sublime and just ends up confusing and stupid. Don't bother.
Keanu Reeves has not improved much over the years, either.

I tend to enjoy Indie films. Many of them break away from standard Hollywood fodder which can make for a refreshing change whenever watching one on the silver screen or cuddling up on the sofa to check out a movie you know very little about.

But this one's a bit beyond that, which demands some praise ...and caution.

This film is basically about two young men, Scott, played by a very young Keanu Reeves who likes to break out into stints of Shakespearean dialogue in the telling of this modern day tragedy. Scott comes from a wealthy family but acts like a homosexual vagabond just to pi$$ them off.

Mike, played by River Phoenix, gives an excellent performance as a homeless, narcoleptic, male prostitute who's in love with Scott but can't seem to make their relationship happen. Scott constantly comes to his rescue whenever sleep forces itself on Mike.

Against these characters Portland, Oregon lives, they travel around, looking form Mike's mother, who'd abandoned him as a child. Mike has never gotten over the trauma of this and anytime he's asked to have sex with a woman, his mind reels back to images of his mother and he goes into one of his narcoleptic spells (stress-related).

*****************************************************************************

There seems to be no specific plot given to the story. We're thrown around the film as if someone has opened up a photo album and are making us stare at pictures of their family vacation. That is to say, this film is choppy like that.

Story flow is tossed to the wind in favor of snappy dialogue, excellent filming (the panoramic shots of open spaces are breathtakingly beautiful), and some great acting.

But after finishing the film (I was able to finish watching it) I wondered about its message. What was the point of showing us these damaged people? What were the film makers trying to get across to the audience?

These are pretty important questions, and I feel that Gus Van Sant (Director) didn't answer them.

Very good movie in a very nice package, the extras are quite interesting. Go for it.

I just cannot believe that there are so many great reviews for this movie. I had a very hard time keeping my eyes open because it was so boring. River Pheonix was pretty good in acting, but you just get so sick of him suffering from cezar after awhile. I guess he has an issue with his mother, so every time he encounters some stressful moments, he goes into this cezar which happends a lot throughout the movie. Another problem I have with this movie is that, it seems like all the other male characters are given directions to kiss and do other things with eachother. Keenaue and River seems to avoid having to do this, so good for them to just collect their checks for being in this movie, when others had to do more of the work to make it more believable.

The item was sent in a very timely manner, was packaged very well, and I was very happy with it upon opening it. Thank you very much, everything was top-notch!
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to review.
~SS*

This is still one of my favorite films of all time and the film that sparked my interest in cinema as more than just a passing interest.

The movie begins half hearted and detached, like the characters themselves, and culminates into an emotional downpour that climaxes during the campfire scene, which to this day is some of the most intense acting I have experienced (River). The two characters (River and Keanu) move from being detached emotionally and sexually, perverse, to intimate and close, to once again, detached and separate. The movie leaves you with an overwhelming feeling of despair over the things in life which lead us away from all that is pure and intimate (power/social status and money). This pattern of association then dissociation embodied in the character Keanu plays is offset by the purity of River's character who stays true to his sense of self, and ultimately suffers, and possibly disappears from existence at the conclusion of the film. The schism inherent in the American aristocracy is exploited in full depth. The wealthy lie with the poor as it conveniences their need, but turn their backs in fair weather. Deep political satire in Shakespearean jest, as true today as it ever was...

"Have a nice day."

My Own Private Idaho, a drama loosely based off of William Shakespeare's "Henry IV", parts one and two is a hearty look into the lives of some boys out on the street. What comes from Shakespeare's play is the concept of a young man avoiding following his father's footsteps as a government leader by keeping disreputable company and then abandoning his friends after inheriting his father's fortune, picking up a wife in a foreign country, and starting a political career. But that's not the only focus of the film, you see. The two main characters in the story, Mike (River Pheonix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves), are observed as their relationship crumbles once Scott leaves the hustler lifestyle. My Own Private Idaho isn't about being a male prostitute, though, even if there is some great documentary-like pieces of their lifestyle scattered within.

I thought it was very well-rounded and had some wonderful characters, especially Mike, the homosexual narcoleptic searching for meaning. He was often unpredictable and gets the viewer truly engaged in the film, or at least he got me into it. The settings and transitions were rather haunting, as well. There are re-occurring themes of being on the go and oblivion perfectly expressed by the scenes of Mike laying in the middle of a completely deserted road in Idaho. He keeps telling himself how familiar it all seems...so familiar.

Well-acted and scripted and brilliantly directed (with fine use of colour, recurring motifs and bold credits), Idaho possesses a rare, dream-like quality. The music too is excellent, particularly in the perfect first and final scenes. You'll never listen to The Pogues' "The Old Main Drag" without thinking of this movie and of its central figure: Mike appearing from the left of the frame with only a black bag and a stopwatch, of the fireside scene, and of the final line: "This road will never end. It probably goes all... around...the world..."

Whatever you think about Keanu Reeves, River Phoenix, Gus Van Sant, or Portland, this is an intelligent, thought-provoking, and inspirational film of the 1990s. Though some may not be able to appreciate it (just don't "get it"), I highly recommend My Own Private Idaho to those looking for something with a different scope on life.

Having just seen this movie once 14 years ago, it's a more enjoyable experience to watch it again, because I can understand and relate to this movie better than I did when I was a teen. This film is very similar to the recent Mysterious Skin, except it's not sexually daring enough, but it succeeds as a great "coming of age" gay drama. This movie belongs to River Phoenix, beause he gets to deliver the more heavy duty sexual and emotional scenes, while Keanu Reeves often times seem very fake dued to his mediocre undertrainned acting skills. Udo Kier was very good in a supporting role, he played one of the two hustlers(Phoenix and Reeves) client.

The film chronicles the street life and friendship of Mike(Phoenix) and Scott(Reeves), and how they gradually fade away from each other's life at major pivotal points. Scott is about to inherit a lot of money and business from his dying father and he must abandon the street life by his 21st birthday, and return home to become a good son so he can redemn his status. Meanwhile, Mike is falling apart emotionally, and he continues to turn tricks on the street and abuses cocaine. He's depressed and longed to find his mother who had abandoned him when he was an enfant. His father tells him that someone else is his biological father, and gave him the information of his mother's whereabout. He would journey across the state and all the way to Italy in hoping to find her....

This film has one memorable whimsical and sexy moment when Mike and Scott fantasized about being on the cover of some porno magazine covers along with numerous other sexy hustlers on various covers, they start to talk on the covers. The Shakespear style group scenes didn't feel right for this movie, since the individual scenes were more captivating. I was very touched by Phoenix' emotionally impacting performance.

Second only to "Starnge Brew" as my favorite modern skewed interpretation of classic Shakespeare, "My own Private Idaho" is something very rare and entirely special.

It is, in a word, Unique.

It explores a pretty much previously ignored or at least unexplored culture of street hustlers in Portland - one of those early Nineties Mecca's for disenfranchised youth - with an eye for reality while using a number of completely original devices to propel the story.

To compare it to some films of similar theme:

It's a bigger story than "The Basket-Ball Diaries" in scope and execution.

It's not even remotely as bleak as "Kids" despite the fact that the protagonist and his fellows are leading the most desperate and precarious lives you can imagine.

In the end you feel like perhaps you have watched something worth watching for once.

when i first started watching the bonus features dvd, i was disappointed. The behind the scenes video was ok, but i guess i had been hoping for more. The interview with rain and the producer felt awkward. But then i listened to the 2 hour interview with van sant. It was exactly what i had been hoping for - an insightful look at the process of making movies that give actors freedom, working with small crews, blocking, etc. Even though it is audio only it is a godsend for filmmakers who like Van Sant's work.

I thought River Phoenix did a very good job acting. Keanu Reeves was his usual terrible self. I didn't like the direction in this movie. At one point they're in one location and a second later they're in Italy. Then there's this crazy man named Bob who makes no sense and yet he takes up 10% of the film. The scene where Phoenix is cleaning the man's apartment is disturbing and lasts too long.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

My Own Private Idaho is the story of two men in their 20's who are living in the streets of Portland Oregon. Both of them are prostitutes, Mike is gay, and Scott is bi-curious. Mike is in love with Scott but Scott does not want to pursue a relationship.

The film has some good acting but some very graphic content making it inappropriate for children under all circumstances.

The DVD has some nice special features also.

Disc 1 contains the film with a theatrical trailer.

Disc 2 contains an interviews with director Gus Van Sant and Paul Arthur, a new making of documentary, a video converstion between River Phoenix's sister, Rain, and Laurie Parker, an audio interview with JT LeRoy, and deleted scenes.

The film is intended for mature audiences only

Well, here's a nice treatment of a weird classic. Brilliant and bizarre, "Idaho" is both deliberately and incidentally campy. Its extras are terrific, and its visual poetry receives terrific color and clarity.

The story of a pair of young hustlers, which opened the mainstream arts to the very subject of male prostitution (the film "Johns," the novel "Sarah" etc.), seems to be passing the test of time. How quirky is this film? An early scene features oral sex being performed by a stocky aging john on a handsome but drowsy Mike Waters (River Phoenix). We learn about Mike's narcolepsy, a condition which has him fainting into sleep at moments of stress. This gives Gus Van Sant's tendency toward abstract cinepoetry full reign, and he depicts Mike's dreams of shooting stars and salmon swimming upstream, of houses crashing to the road. Mike, the trailer park product of his mom and brother, is loveless and lost and seems not to mind disappearing into his lush dreams full of symbols of seeking home.

Then there is Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), a slumming aristocrat who enters the world of hustling as a gesture of rebellion against his father, the staunch and proper mayor of Portland. He becomes Mike's guardian angel and companion in the hustling trade and then his partner on a vain search for Mike's mother.

Along the way, some pretty colorful characters crop up. Back when Twain wrote Huck Finn, picaresque meant escapes and scrapes, chases and searches having to do with violence and action. Since sex is the new violence, road pictures like "Idaho" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien" feature erotic rather than pugilistic encounters. The coked-out Bob Pigeon playing Falstaff to Scott's Prince Hal. The clean and clownish Daddy Carroll, who's erotically stimulated as Mike tidies his apartment dressed as a little Dutch boy: "Scrub little Dutch boy...faster!...harder!" A German performance artist who dances with a lamp before engaging Scott and Mike in a little light S&M. Strange but funny scenes that make hustling look sort of entertaining.

But the less famous cast, including real street kids from Portland, are caught in their hang-out spot discussing the dangerous and less savory aspects of selling one's body.

Van Sant clearly adores the quirky individual and the poetically rendered wide open space. He uses music very well here, as is necessary in a strangely plotted hallucinatory film. Folk western yodeling fills the opening scene with ethereal beauty as Mike walks alone on black ribbons of empty potato-belt highway. A crooned Rudy Vallee love song "Deep Night" makes an ironic comment on the shallow liasons of prostitution. Madonna's "Causing a Commotion" bubbles in the background as a red-headed hustler describes being beat up by his john. These song choices, stylistically all over the place, nearly define the term off-beat.

This 1991 film catches famous director Van Sant in the midst of a transition between gay art film of the Jarman/Fassbinder/Cocteau/Pasolini variety where boy-love is celebrated and satirized to his mainstream pictures like "Good Will Hunting" and "Finding Forrester" where it's sublimated and coded.

In a way "Idaho" is a beautiful mess--a cinematic carnival with talking centerfolds (Keanu Reeves!), confessions of incest, gritty street kids...cribbing Shakespeare(!), clouds in swirling slow motion, utter theatricality, utter naturalism (Mike's moving fireside chat with Scott), and a futile quest with no pay-off but the journey itself. To me, that's pay-off enough.

Gus Van Zant's films have been incosistent to say the least. It borders on sheer shameless commercialism (Good Will Hunting and Pyscho), of which he parodies so well in "Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back", and on abstract objectivism (Gerry, Elephant).

Essentially a treatise on true love and friendship. But throw in a few interesting elements (gay prostituition, narcolypsey, hillbilly yodelling, bumpy Pacific Northwest roads and highways), and a couple of teen idols (Keanu and River), this makes a wholly new original film.

"My Own Private Idaho" speaks of lost dreams, loneliness, the heart-aching yearn to be and feel at home that could only be reached through the sub-consciousness of one's fantasies and dreams. Phoenix's character, Mike Waters, whose narcolypsey provides a convenient plot device to feature his inner most desires as well as an excuse for voice-over narration. Not that I mind, since you don't come across many movies whereby the main character suddenly collapsed and fall into a deep sleep.

This movie displays the most impressive utilization of Shakespearan text transplanted into contemporary context. Who could have thought that degenerate lowlives like street hustlers, drug dealers or even Keanu Reeves could spout out such lyrically beautiful lines so effortlessly, when one expects ghetto lingual fraca.

This little indie film that was released way back in 1991, was at last given a breathe of life, in the form of DVD, courtesy of Criterion Collection. Featuring an astonishingly new transfer, this film never looked any better in any other home video format. Not to mention the bucket loads of extras on the 2nd disc! I am personally overwhelmed. Once again, Criterion has proved itself as the benchmark leader in setting the standard for all DVD releases to follow.

Existence originates from a biological father and mother that conceive offspring which they nurture into childhood and later adolescence. Eventually this teen turns into an adult who often is a reflection of what the child acquired or missed during the years of parental rearing. Thus, existence is the accumulation of what the parents have provided for their beloved child. My Own Private Idaho depicts Mike Waters' (River Phoenix) existence, as it shows that he desires to experience fond childhood memories. 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.

The story opens in a remote location in Idaho, along a rarely traveled highway, where Mike stands and waits for someone to pick him up. This moment has symbolic value to Mike's existence, as he seems to be stuck somewhere in his own development while he waits for someone to save him from his isolation. Yet, no one comes to his rescue as his narcolepsy takes control of him and puts him asleep.

For much of the film Mike seems to be asleep while dreaming of his mother and his youthful years. Dreams generated through his narcolepsy create an imaginative haven of warmth and motherly care. In essence, the narcolepsy gives the impression that it is a defense mechanism for Mike, which appears to be triggered during stressful situations. The narcolepsy also has a symbolical value as it shows his innocent search for motherly affection and his vulnerability, which can be compared to a child's defenselessness to exposure unless someone is taking care of the child.

Despite the condition that Mike possesses, he drifts around in Seattle making his living as a male street prostitute that sells his body to those who want to buy his company for a few hours. The few hours provides a small opportunity for him to receive some form of affection, which he desperately needs. When an older woman picks him up for the services that he provides he has a narcoleptic attack since the woman reminds him of his mother. Two young men that are also visiting this woman carry Mike out. One of these men is Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves) with whom Mike eventually falls in love.

The second time Mike meets Scott is in the arms of him, as Mike is recovering from a bout of narcolepsy in Portland. In Portland the audience gets to meet a wide range of characters that all have a dark and muddled past from which they all seem to try to escape. One of these characters, Bob Pigeon (William Richert), brings to mind Charles Dickens' Fagin from Oliver Twist who is the leader for a group of young thieves, which is cleverly woven together with a Shakespearean touch. The combination of Scott and Bob brings to mind two infamous characters, Prince Hal and Sir John Falstaff, from Henry IV. This scene seems to be out of place, yet it somehow the director Gus Van Sant pulls it off and makes it credible.

Scott, the son of the wealthy Mayor of Portland, provides a similar image, as Prince Hal does in Henry IV. First he is supportive of his friends, as he set out with Mike to find his lost mother whom he has not seen for many years. Along the journey they begin to drift apart, as Scott begins to embrace his roots in the aristocracy of Portland. Mike is left to his own device, as Scott turns his back to the world in which he learned about belonging, human cruelty, and love.

Van Sant gives the story an artistic touch through Shakespeare, wonderful mise-en-scene, and how he frames each scene, which provides a vision that travels on a path between slumber and consciousness. Emotions drift with the characters' actions, as they help in building a mutual foundation that rests on their unstable backgrounds. Backgrounds without nurturing love and affection seem to leave people in a state of sadness, melancholy, and despair while trying to find their own existence through others. Van Sant delivers this notion together with several other ideas to the audience in a complex, dark, and disconnected tale of belonging, love, rejection, and much more, which leaves the viewers in deep contemplation.