Pssst, want to check out My Own Private Idaho in our new look?
Information
- Year
- 1991
- Runtime
- 104 min.
- Director
- Gus Van Sant
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Rating *
- 7.1
- Votes *
- 31,269
- Checks
- 8,808
- Favs
- 593
- Dislikes
- 97
- Favs/checks
- 6.7% (1:15)
- Favs/dislikes
- 6:1
Top comments
-
dombrewer
Strange film, but very watchable. The Shakespeare link seems to have been tagged in later, perhaps when Van Sant realised there wasn't enough going on in the story with River passing out every two seconds. Keanu's very good, surprisingly, and any film with Phoenix is fascinating now, sadly. 13 years 11 months ago -
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Siskoid
I've read that Gus Van Sant combined three unfinished scripts to create My Own Private Idaho, and it shows. There's the story of male prostitutes (River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves) on the road. There's the modern adaptation of Henry IV with only slightly modified Shakespearean verse focusing on the Hal/Falstaff relationship on the streets of Portland. And there's the trip to Italy. This creates some important tonal shifts, with real male prostitutes telling horror stories for the camera, mixed in with Elizabethan delivery, beautifully real emotions, love scenes shot as erotic paintings, a musical number, and flights of surreal fancy. What brings it all together is Phoenix's character. A narcoleptic poet, he dreams of a mother figure and of a farm house in Idaho. This longing for a place to belong (ideally, someone's arms) is what drives the picture, and he keeps waking up in strange situations, having slept his life away. Because he sees the world in poetic terms, it justifies even the Shakespeare stuff. I don't think we're meant to see those scenes as fact, so much as his interpretation of them. It's a world view, filled with contradictions, stories told but not always believed, and moments preserved or lost in memory. 5 years 5 months ago
Friends
Login to see which of your friends have seen this movie!In 11 official lists
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This movie ranks #10 in BFI Flare's The Best LGBTQ+ Films of All Time
BFI Flare's The Best LGB…
10 -
This movie ranks #53 in BFI's 100 Road Movies
BFI's 100 Road Movies
53 -
This movie ranks #59 in Jennifer Eiss's 500 Essential Cult Movies
Jennifer Eiss's 500 Esse…
59 -
This movie ranks #161 in Scott Tobias's The New Cult Canon
Scott Tobias's The New C…
161 -
This movie ranks #319 in The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
319 -
This movie ranks #429 in Mark Cousins's The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Mark Cousins's The Story…
429 -
This movie ranks #590 in The New York Times's Book of Movies
The New York Times's Boo…
590 -
This movie ranks #650 in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films
TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest F…
650 -
This movie ranks #832 in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
1001 Movies You Must See…
832 -
This movie ranks #873 in Jonathan Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema
Jonathan Rosenbaum's Ess…
873 -
This movie ranks #949 in Library of Congress's National Film Registry
Library of Congress's Na…
949