My Own Private Idaho (1991)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

My Own Private Idaho (1991) – G. Van Sant

I did not know (but iMDB trivia tells me) that this film was pieced together from three separate scripts that writer-director Gus Van Sant had been working on.  For example, one was focused on transposing Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Parts I and II) and Henry V to the modern day world of street hustlers (using the same strategy that Orson Welles used to excerpt from the Bard to focus on Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight, 1965) – this explains the occasional but not complete use of poetic dialogue at certain moments in the film.  Van Sant also uses other stylistic innovations when and if he feels like it (such as having the gay magazine cover stars come to life and speak to the camera or interspersing Super-8 footage of Mike’s past) rather than consistently. Mike is a young hustler with narcolepsy and a long lost mother (and absent father), played by River Phoenix.  We follow his experiences on the street, on dates, and with the other hustlers, principally Scott, played by Keanu Reeves.  Scott is the son of the mayor, slumming it as Hal once did before he receives his inheritance and takes up his proper place in society.  Both are confederates of Bob, the Falstaff character, played by William Richert.  They love him but they tease him and Scott ultimately abandons him (as Hal does Falstaff).  Mike is along for the ride (as this is a kind of road movie), returning (one supposes) to the street after Bob and Scott depart, perhaps nursing his love for both.  So, there’s a good dramatic arc but also a lot of rawness (emotional and sexual), some comedy (courtesy of Udo Kier’s travelling salesman Hans), and some evocative landscapes in the great Northwest accompanied by steel guitar.  Van Sant’s career subsequently has had its ups and downs but this film is clearly a high water mark in any career.