My Own Private Idaho

A film about two male hustlers working the desolate streets of Portland, Oregon seems proof that director Gus Van Sant was not afraid of alienating an average middle American audience. The fact that the film was loosely based on the Shakespearean play Henry IV also adds to its unconventional, art house appeal. The film shares some similarities with Gus Van Sant’s previous 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy which was also set in Portland and dealt with the similar theme of troubled, non directional youth.

The story of My Own Private Idaho follows two young men Mike and Scott who live and sleep on the streets of Portland, selling their bodies to men and women alike. Scott, Keanu Reeves, has adopted this lifestyle mainly as a way of degrading his father who is the wealthy mayor of Portland. Mike however River Pheonix, in an incredibly natural and gentle performance which would turn out to be one of the best of his short career, is hustling purely to survive as he searches the empty roads of Idaho for the mother who abandoned him as a child. Mike also suffers from narcolepsy which gives his character a child-like vulnerability and forces us to invest our emotions in him even more. Mike’s eternal struggle to belong and his endless search for the myth of maternal love is beautifully reflected in shots of desolate landscapes and rolling clouds, a world in which the concept of home is only a faded memory. These memories are replayed in stunted motion like undeveloped photos, haunting Mike in the brief moments before he passes out.  Scott initially accompanies Mike from Oregon to Seattle, to Idaho and eventually to Italy in search of the elusive mother Mike has never known. In one of the films most poignant scenes, Mike proclaims his love for Scott as the two sit around a campfire by the side of the road. This scene, which River rewrote himself, is heartbreakingly honest and affecting as we realise what a tender story of unrequited love this is. Although it is never made clear if Mike is even gay, we can see just how desperate he is for love and care- almost as if he is seeing beyond gender and circumstance all together. This is epitomised beautifully as Mike tells Scott that he could love someone even if he wasn’t paid for it because ‘I love you, and you don’t pay me.’

1991, dir. by Gus Van Sant

The fact that these characters are flawed makes us identify and empathise with them even more, up to the point where all we want is for them to end up in a happier place than where they started. Eventually Scott receives his inheritance and returns to Portland, once again leaving Mike alone to continue his solitary journey. For Mike, there is no way out as this is truly a boy with no background, no clear future and no where to turn except back to the streets with other disaffected young men like himself, or the empty roads of Idaho searching for what so many of us take for granted-home. He even says himself that for him the road will never end...’it probably goes all around the world.’ My Own Private Idaho is a truly profound film, with an immense yet quiet beauty that is as tragic as it is deliciously quirky, disarmingly funny and wonderfully alive with colour and dialogue. So much can be taken from each viewing and for those who are willing to watch the film with an open mind and allow themselves to be captured by its unique style and effortless portrait of one persons search for belonging; this is a film that will stay with them long after the credits roll. It also gave the late River Phoenix (who would die from a drug overdose at age 23) a chance to truly immerse himself in a role and show off his innate and incredibly versatile acting ability. A truly amazing film that breaks my heart every time I watch it, but in the greatest possible way.