Directed by Gus Van Sant. With River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert.


My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 independent film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1. My Own Private Idaho Gus Van Sant's often-beautiful 1991 film stars River Phoenix as a narcoleptic, Seattle male prostitute and Keanu Reeves as the rich friend who agrees to help him find his mother. It probably goes all around the world. Mike Waters: I'm a connoisseur of roads. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. My Own Private Idaho (1991) is an independent drama film directed by Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Under the Bridge). In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. My Own Private Idaho is a wistful, delicate hybrid, a movie that does more than it could possibly seem to be doing at once. Scott, who finds a wife in Italy by accident … I've been tasting roads my whole life. Oct 8, 2012 - Explore idahoshakes's board "Idaho Shakespeare Amphitheater", followed by 125 people on Pinterest. In addition to this scene in My Own Private Idaho, the death of Mayor Favor at the end of the film draws comparisons with both parts of Shakespeare’s Henry IV in that Scott is now the respectable and wealthy leader that his father wants him to be, and he has successfully carried out as successor to his father’s legacy of governmental service and a heteronormic lifestyle.
It is the promise of America, chronically out of joint with reality, especially for its most vulnerable inhabitants." Mike and Scott both engage in relations with men, but in a purely transactional manner: they’re marks, clients, boys to be used and consumed by men for fleeting moments of escape. Amy Taubin in a review reckons "“My Own Private Idaho” is an imaginary place where one is locked in the arms of love—that is, both protected and free.

This road will never end. 2004 Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. In My Own Private Idaho, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves portray a pair of teenage prostitutes, each more victim than vulture. “My own private Idaho” is a film that was inspired by Shakespeare’s Henry IV, and no element epitomizes this in the movies as much as Scott’s character does. James Franco April 10, 2013 12:54AM (UTC) Excerpted from "LIVING WITH SHAKESPEARE: Essays by Writers, Actors and Directors". Two best friends living on the streets of Portland as hustlers embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way. Phoenix is a narcoleptic, Mike, who dozes off at dangerously inopportune moments as he searches endlessly for his long-lost mother; Reeves is a blue-blooded runaway, Scott, who turns tricks as an act of rebellion against his father. It stars River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, Flea, Udo Kier, Jim Caviezel, Brian Wilson, and Grace Zabriskie. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer & Jess Winfield. Idaho Theater for Youth—Dreams of a Bird Woman by Mark Rosenwinkel. Shakespearience—The Taming of the Shrew. My Own Private Idaho. Prince Hal and Scott’s backgrounds, their relationships with their family and their associations with members of a lower class are all symptomatic of these similarities. Contents[show] Story The film follows two street hustlers, Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves), as they embark on a journey of personal discovery that takes them to Mike's hometown in Idaho and then to Italy in search of Mike's mom. See more ideas about Idaho, Shakespeare and Shakespeare festival. Directed by Gus Van Sant: Elephant (2003) Finding Forrester (2000) Psycho (1998) Good Will Hunting (1997) To Die For (1995) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) My Own Private Idaho (1991) Both men are queer, but queer in ways that elide the explicit homosexuality on which this movie’s reputation is often pinned. I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, co-production with Boise Contemporary Theater and Portland Stage Company.