My Own Private Idaho - Criterion Collection
starring: Chiara Caselli, Mickey Cottrell, Tom Cramer, Sally Curtice, Matthew Ebert
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Mike is a narcoleptic street hustler haunted by his idyllic memories of childhood and obsessed with finding his mother and scott is a runaway rich kid whos on a personal crusade to find the meaning of life biding his time until her inherits an estate.Studio: Image EntertainmentRelease Date: 05/27/2008Starring: River Phoenix Keanu ReevesRun time: 104 minutes
Amazon.com:
Mapping the spaces between fortune and degeneracy, Shakespeare and street cant, Europe and the Pacific Northwest, and gay and straight, My Own Private Idaho is the 1991 masterpiece by director Gus Van Sant. River Phoenix gave the most generous and memory-searing performance of his tragically shortened career as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic street hustler in search of his mother. His best friend, Scott, played by Keanu Reeves, is a son of privilege who fosters plans of rejoining the moneyed world of his father after gallivanting with assorted urchins and ne'er-do-wells. The beautifully symmetrical story that emerges between the two is one of friendship, yearning for lost time, and sexual identity conveyed with a poet's eye for landscape. The camera lingers on abandoned houses in golden fields and time-lapse clouds, providing what T.S. Eliot called "the objective correlative"--external representations of interior emotional states. We're treated to striking iconic sequences like a barn falling from the sky and still-life scenes of carnal entanglement. The supporting cast is a rogues' gallery that includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Udo Kier, director William Richert, and a variety of "nonactors" pulled literally off the street to provide documentary veracity to a film that gleefully careens into riffs on Henry IV. It's beautiful.
What's also beautiful is the Criterion Collection's treatment of the film's DVD debut. The director-approved transfer successfully conveys the warmth of the film's palette of oranges and browns, and preserves the whimsical atmospherics of the yodeling country music soundtrack. Many members of the original crew contribute their fond memories to the documentary features, which include a conversation between Phoenix's sister Rain and producer Laurie Parker. There are also two lengthy audio-only conversations--one between Van Sant and Velvet Goldmine director Todd Haynes, and another between author J.T. Leroy and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette about their experiences on the street. The deleted scenes mostly suggest alternate endings that Van Sant wisely left on the cutting room floor. A superb example of a beloved film on DVD. --Ryan Boudinot
Stills from My Own Private Idaho (click for larger image)
Mike is a narcoleptic street hustler haunted by his idyllic memories of childhood and obsessed with finding his mother and scott is a runaway rich kid whos on a personal crusade to find the meaning of life biding his time until her inherits an estate.Studio: Image EntertainmentRelease Date: 05/27/2008Starring: River Phoenix Keanu ReevesRun time: 104 minutes
Amazon.com:
Mapping the spaces between fortune and degeneracy, Shakespeare and street cant, Europe and the Pacific Northwest, and gay and straight, My Own Private Idaho is the 1991 masterpiece by director Gus Van Sant. River Phoenix gave the most generous and memory-searing performance of his tragically shortened career as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic street hustler in search of his mother. His best friend, Scott, played by Keanu Reeves, is a son of privilege who fosters plans of rejoining the moneyed world of his father after gallivanting with assorted urchins and ne'er-do-wells. The beautifully symmetrical story that emerges between the two is one of friendship, yearning for lost time, and sexual identity conveyed with a poet's eye for landscape. The camera lingers on abandoned houses in golden fields and time-lapse clouds, providing what T.S. Eliot called "the objective correlative"--external representations of interior emotional states. We're treated to striking iconic sequences like a barn falling from the sky and still-life scenes of carnal entanglement. The supporting cast is a rogues' gallery that includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Udo Kier, director William Richert, and a variety of "nonactors" pulled literally off the street to provide documentary veracity to a film that gleefully careens into riffs on Henry IV. It's beautiful.
What's also beautiful is the Criterion Collection's treatment of the film's DVD debut. The director-approved transfer successfully conveys the warmth of the film's palette of oranges and browns, and preserves the whimsical atmospherics of the yodeling country music soundtrack. Many members of the original crew contribute their fond memories to the documentary features, which include a conversation between Phoenix's sister Rain and producer Laurie Parker. There are also two lengthy audio-only conversations--one between Van Sant and Velvet Goldmine director Todd Haynes, and another between author J.T. Leroy and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette about their experiences on the street. The deleted scenes mostly suggest alternate endings that Van Sant wisely left on the cutting room floor. A superb example of a beloved film on DVD. --Ryan Boudinot
Stills from My Own Private Idaho (click for larger image)
 The Cast |  River Phoenix |  Keanu Reeves |
 Keanu and River |  Udo Kier |  Gus Van Sant |
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Please Help
Please help me to understand one point of the movie. I had met and had a couple of drinks with Keanu around the making of the second Matrix in Sydney. Unfortunately I didn't remember to ask him the end scene when the car arrived to pick up River from the road after he had his Narcolepsy episode. WHo was it????? Can anyone help?
Rating: - River & Keanu make a great team - a classic!
I'm a major River Phoenix fan. He was the finest actor of my generation - simple as that. He had that rare ability to make you feel...in every film he did. IMO, this is some of his greatest work. You can almost touch his vunerability - that's how powerful it is. You forget your watching River...he totally becomes his character Mike. And of all the Keanu Reeves movies I've seen, I thought he did some of his best acting here. He and River were a great team. They had done a film before this together ... Read More
Rating: - charlotte lmp
This was an independent movie which was visually beautiful but a bit hard for me to understand. It was one of the beautiful River Phoenix's last roles and he was so great in the character, almost too natural and brilliant.
Rating: 
- A Movie Like No Other That I Never Tire of Watching
I had bought the original version of "My Own Private Idaho" on VHS a number of years ago. (It was probably within a year or two of first seeing it). Essentially, it describes the lives of teens and young adults struggling to survive on the streets of an area (which I, of course, am forgetting now) in Oregon.(More than anything, the focus is on young men who are gay or heterosexual trying to survive as street hustlers, having sex with strangers for money. It's gritty, intriguing-there are numerous ... Read More
Rating: - Keanu and River's Excellent Adventure
I used to be a film critic for KALX in Berkeley, and I interviewed Gus Van Sant for his movie, Mala Noche. It was a low budget black and white art film based on a semi-autobiographical novel by a writer who was kind of obsessed with young Mexican immigrants. In the interview he told me that the writer visited the set but he made the cast nervous. With edgy material like that, I never expected Gus to break through to the main stream, but Drug Store Cowboy did pretty well, and then he got a chance to ... Read More
- Please HelpPlease help me to understand one point of the movie. I had met and had a couple of drinks with Keanu around the making of the second Matrix in Sydney. Unfortunately I didn't remember to ask him the end scene when the car arrived to pick up River from the road after he had his Narcolepsy episode. WHo was it????? Can anyone help?
- River & Keanu make a great team - a classic!I'm a major River Phoenix fan. He was the finest actor of my generation - simple as that. He had that rare ability to make you feel...in every film he did. IMO, this is some of his greatest work. You can almost touch his vunerability - that's how powerful it is. You forget your watching River...he totally becomes his character Mike. And of all the Keanu Reeves movies I've seen, I thought he did some of his best acting here. He and River were a great team. They had done a film before this together ... Read More
- charlotte lmpThis was an independent movie which was visually beautiful but a bit hard for me to understand. It was one of the beautiful River Phoenix's last roles and he was so great in the character, almost too natural and brilliant.
- A Movie Like No Other That I Never Tire of WatchingI had bought the original version of "My Own Private Idaho" on VHS a number of years ago. (It was probably within a year or two of first seeing it). Essentially, it describes the lives of teens and young adults struggling to survive on the streets of an area (which I, of course, am forgetting now) in Oregon.(More than anything, the focus is on young men who are gay or heterosexual trying to survive as street hustlers, having sex with strangers for money. It's gritty, intriguing-there are numerous ... Read More
- Keanu and River's Excellent AdventureI used to be a film critic for KALX in Berkeley, and I interviewed Gus Van Sant for his movie, Mala Noche. It was a low budget black and white art film based on a semi-autobiographical novel by a writer who was kind of obsessed with young Mexican immigrants. In the interview he told me that the writer visited the set but he made the cast nervous. With edgy material like that, I never expected Gus to break through to the main stream, but Drug Store Cowboy did pretty well, and then he got a chance to ... Read More
