The French veteran magazine Cahiers du Cinema featured stills from the American film My Own Private Idaho (1991) on the cover of the magazine that year
My Own Private Idaho (1991) is one of the best films by Gus Van San, a well-known director in the American independent film industry. Director Gus van Sant, as a comrade, has long been concerned about this vulnerable group between the same sex in his films. From his first solo work, Mala Noche (1985) to My Own Idaho, to Milk (2008), which won several Oscar nominations and awards, the lens was focused on this marginalized group.
In addition to the particularity of the subject matter, in terms of genre, "My Own Idaho" is also a successful road movie. Two people, a motorcycle, a long, endless road, have to be reminiscent of another excellent movie, The Motorcycle Diarios de Motocicleta (2004). "Searching" seems to be an eternal theme for road movies such as Paris, Texas/ Paris, Texas (1984), Hermaphrodites/Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Survival of the Wild Into the Wild (2007), and King of Highways/Flow of Time Im Lauf der Zeit (1976).
My Own Private Idaho (1991) american Blu-ray edition cover for the movie My Own Private Idaho
Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is looking for not only his mother and hometown that has always appeared in his dreams, but also a genuine love. He meets Scott (Keanu Reeves) and falls in love with him, but Scott can't give him what he wants.
The film begins with Mike Waters fainting and lying on an endless highway, and ends with the same shot, even wearing the same clothes. Mike Waters suffers from narcolepsy (given at the very beginning of the film, which seems to be a hint throughout the film) and will suddenly faint and fall asleep. Lying in the middle of the road, Mike Waters appears small, fainting on the highway in the same position after a fruitless period of searching and rejection, which seems to indicate that his life will continue like this.
Except for the beginning and end, the whole film shoots a lot of empty shots. Roads, fields, rivers, clouds, cabins, jumping fish, and much more.
Dvd cover for the movie My Own Private Idaho (1991).
Some people may wonder why the director wasted film to shoot these scenes that seem to have nothing to do with the film, but in the dream of the protagonist Mike Waters, these are the scenes of his hometown, which he is looking for. Taking a step back, as an independent film, the shooting method does not have to follow the path of mainstream films. In addition, the filming of a large number of empty shots is also common in another film by Gus van Sant, Paranoid Park (2007).
It's not an easy film, although the director uses a brisk tone to show it. Bright, light tunes hummed a serious tune. The use of contrast contrast strengthens the appeal of expression, but it is not without flaws.
The narrative technique of "My Own Idaho" is very artistic, using a variety of modern expression methods to represent the fragmented life of this group of children, such as symbols, suggestions, monologues, dreams and reality, the interlacing of time and space, multi-voice choruses and so on. Unfortunately, it is too artistic, and the application of multiple techniques increases the chaos of the film. Let's divide the film into two parts, with the dividing point being the section where Mike Waters and Scott set out to find Mike's mother.
Promotional photos taken by Revan Phoenix and Keanu Reeves for the film My Own Idaho
The front is a depiction of the big world, that is, about Mike Waters's living environment (which can also be said to be the life of male prostitutes on the street), his hardships in making a living (the guests have strange sexual habits), his friends, their activities, and so on.
The problem lies in this piece, where a lot of imagination and reality are used, multi-voice chorus and other techniques, which makes the film contain more content, allowing people to see the chaotic life of Mike Waters and his friends, but to a certain extent affecting the smoothness of viewing, stopping to think will reduce the attractiveness of the film.
What makes people feel relieved in understanding is in the back, and the touching place is also here, and the spotlight is on Mike Waters, that is, when telling the small universe. In this piece, you can see Mike Waters's obsessive childhood, his untouchable love, his difficulty in finding utopia, and the disillusionment after his dreams shattered. Mike Waters is no longer miles away from people, out of reach.
Stills from the movie My Own Private Idaho (1991).
At the same time, he also saw Scott's cold choice, saying goodbye to the past nearly 4 years of street debauchery, inheriting his father's legacy and returning to high society, completely cutting off contact with his old friends. He was once considered the savior of street children, and everyone waited for him to inherit his property and live a good life. Sadly, this Savior was just imagined, and Scott was not rare. He has everything Mike wants to have, he's the winner, and in the film, he symbolizes reality. Reality and ideals are opposed, and reality often wins more and loses less.
From the perspective of general ethics and morality, this film will involve many social issues. It is also difficult to distinguish between right and wrong in the behavior of the characters in the film, and sometimes they do it wrong, but the reason is not all on them. Complex social problems are left to sociologists to study.
The entire story structure of My Own Idaho can also be summed up simply as one male prostitute falling in love with another male prostitute. Because the male prostitute he was in love with was a heterosexual, and although he also provided sexual services for the same sex, it was only professionalism.
In this regard, the male prostitute Scott, who was in love, was very insightful: "I never dared to be a real model, you know, that kind of clothing model, because I am better at nude photos." 」 But those photographers better not want to eat my tofu, I'm just begging for a living, I like to have professionalism.
Of course, if someone is willing to pay me, I can also sell my soul, for example, occasionally go out on the street to earn some pocket money, or be a cover boy. But I'm well aware that when you start offering free services, it's gay. So, it goes without saying, Scott is just a male prostitute, not a gay, and he doesn't want to be gay, not to mention that he is still a young and debauched prince, and when he turns 21, he will finally say goodbye to all the frivolous years of the past, take off his dirty black leather jacket, change into a logo three-piece suit, and return to the glittering high society.
The movie My Own Private Idaho (1991) American Standard Collection The Criterion Collection Blu-ray Edition Cover
And he was completely different, the male prostitute who fell in love with him, Mike Waters, was fatally torn apart by countless tragedies: his birth mother abandoned him with mental illness, his biological father turned out to be his half-brother, he was congenitally suffering from intermittent narcolepsy, he would fall to the ground unconscious at any time, there was no legitimate occupation to survive by selling spring, there was no home painted with white paint, there was no normal mother, no normal father, no dog.
He had nothing, and on the loneliest and coldest winter night, he could only sleep on the roof alone, shivering under the transparent plastic film.
Mike Waters is just a male prostitute, and even more unfortunately, he is also a gay, a man of the same sex who falls in love with heterosexuals, a man who falls in love with men. "I can love someone, not for money; I love you, and you don't have to pay me." This confession of love is enough to doom him to tragedy: even if he bravely loves someone with all his heart, he will never get any response.
In that scene, when he fell next to the broken garbage heap on the street corner, stiff as a dead man, the man he loved, Scott, sat on the leather cushion of a luxury limousine and slowly drove past him, and the distance was as far and long as being at the end of the world.
The transition from reality to fantasy in Gus van Sant's plays is evident, and his dialogues using Shakespeare's plays in sections are also very risky. This is a Shakespearean play by Gus van Sant. Gus Van Sant was also inspired by Orson Wells Orson Welles' 1965 film Campanadas a medianoche at midnight bells.
The film seems to be a story that happens naturally on a street. Gus van Sant is not interested in the astonishing power of male prostitutes, but in the human element involved. Some of the scenes of male prostitutes soliciting customers in the film have a certain sense of humor. The film explores the theme of the search for "home" that is common to all of Gus van Santt's work.
Poster for the Japanese version of the movie My Own Private Idaho (1991).
Just as Pharmacy Cowboy/Psychedelic Cowboy (1989) depicts a comical and mournful drug-addicted "family," the film depicts another improvised small community——— which inevitably occurs after the collapse of traditional family ideas and creates a sense of emptiness.
After the emergence of the rating system in American films, sex scenes became an inevitable part of movies, but few people made such scenes "good-looking". The sex scenes appear only twice in My Own Idaho, one of which is between the same sex, and the scene is represented by a still picture, accompanied by joyful background music, but also acceptable. Another sex scene is Scott and the girl he meets in Italy who later becomes his wife. It is also represented by a still picture. It is dominated by red tones. Between the switching of each frame, it presents aesthetic beauty and passion.
Director Gus Van Sant (back row center) and the main cast from the film My Own Idaho Own Idaho Private Idaho (1991).
However, the use of still images to express sex is not the first of Gus Van Sant,000, and we can see the same approach in the 1969 Japanese film The Funeral of the Rose and the 1971 Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick's classic Clockwork Orange. Both of these films are classics of cult films, and it is rare to say that Gus Van Sant pays homage to these two films and uses a static frame to show the sex scene.
In addition, "My Own Idaho" and "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Rebel without a Cause" and "Rebel without a Cause" (1955) have many similarities, although the two films were filmed in the 1950s and 90s, such as the problems between the same sex, the family problems of teenagers, and the tendency to leave society. Even Revan Phoenix, the star of My Own Idaho, is seen as the second James Dean, and coincidentally, in both films, the male protagonist likes to wear a red jacket.
Jimmy (James Dean), the protagonist of Rebels For No Reason, has family problems as much as Mike Waters. Jimmy's family seems intact, but his father is a cowardly and timid man, and Jimmy has lacked male education since childhood. Mike Waters, on the other hand, is the product of incest, and his father is also his brother. The lack of patriarchy is one of the reasons for their tragedy.
In Rebels For No Reason, the other two more important characters, Plato (Sal Mineo Sal Mineo) and Judy (Natalie Wood), are also plagued by family problems. Plato is gay, and so is Mike Waters. But to say that Mike Waters is a combination of Jimmy and Plato is inaccurate.
Both films focus on marginalized teenagers, and it's not uncommon today, such as the 2009 film I Killed My Mom J'ai Tué ma mère, where same-sex teens and family issues are the main focus of the film, and posters of Revan Phoenix and James Dean appear on posters in the male protagonist's bedroom.
During filming, many of the film's actors, including Rivan Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, moved into director Gus Van Sant's house in Portland. Apparently their all-night drinking, partying, and music-playing had caused Gus van Sant so much that he had to move to a friend so that he could get a good night's sleep.
The young-deceased Rivan Phoenix and Keanu Reeves co-starred in this gay film full of compassion, and the choreographer took the despair and depravity of teenagers with a casual and open approach, showing a high degree of observability in similar films with the theme of "the same fallen man at the end of the world".
When Revan Phoenix starred in "My Own Idaho," 20-year-old Rivan Phoenix, who had a decade of film experience, played Mike Waters as a male prostitute with narcolepsy. Expressions, movements, and even twitching fingers make it seem like he's Mike Waters.
Compared to Ryvan Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, the other protagonist Scott, is less brilliant, although he later became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.
Poster for the French version of the movie My Own Private Idaho (1991).