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Directed By
Gus Van Sant
Written By:
Gus Van Sant
Cast:
River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William Richert, Rodney Harvey, Michael Parker, Flea, Udo Kier, Grace Zabriskie, Tom Troupe, Chiara Caselli, Chiara Caselli
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My Own Private Idaho (1991)
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Movie Review by Jesse
January 12th, 2008
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Gus Van Sant's Masterpiece. Phoenix is Amazing!
One of the most perfect films I've ever seen. Masterfully written and directed by Gus Van Sant, My Own Private Idaho is one of the most essential films from early 90s. It's a film about hope, friendship, longing and heartbreak. All credit for the success of this film goes to not only Van Sant, but to star River Phoenix, also. He's the perfect actor for this film and he proves this in many scenes.
Van Sant used many different filming techniques for this film and blended them all together to create a brilliant collage of realism. Documentary styles, dream sequences, wide-angled track shots and a standout soundtrack contribute to this film's visual appeal and narrative. The narrative, which is completely seen through Mike's (Phoenix) narcoleptic consciousness, is what makes this film so unique. Mike is a troubled person who has a bad past and isn't currently looking forward to a good future either. The film's sharp editing makes Mike's confusion of past from present and dreams from reality evident and important in the progression of the film.
Filled with symbolism and metaphorical meanings (the falling barn, the salmon, the tableau sex scene, the smiling road, etc.) this film can be hard to dissect, but when understood it's such a beautiful film that you can fall in love with very easily. Phoenix's performance is true and very strong. He evokes emotions that an actor can only dream of. When confessing his feelings for Scott at the campfire, the mixture of hope and fright that you hear in his voice is saddening. He's a character you can't help but feel bad for and watching his heartbreaking journey for the rest of the film makes it that much harder to let go of his character.
It's with the last scene of the film where Mike is alone in the desert on the same road as the beginning of the film where the emotional impact finally hit me. Scott is gone, living a life of his own and Mike is in the middle of a empty street staring at the horizon, abandoned. He falls to the road in another bout of narcolepsy. A car drives up to his body and stops. Two people get out and walk over to his body to only steal the shoes off of his feet. They drive away. A next car drives up and stops. A person gets out and picks up Mike placing him in the back seat of his car. The car drives off into the distance and this is the last we see of Mike. The sad part is that Mike was alone, abandoned and weak. He's picked up by a stranger and taken away. What faces his character is what's left up to the viewer to determine for themselves. Seeing as how Mike's luck kept wearing out through the film and he kept plunging into worse and worse situations, I can only imagine what might become of him.
A film that has more important meanings in its narration and character analysis than any other film I've seen in a long time, My Own Private Idaho is a disturbing tale, but is also a tale that inspires and brings out hope. I love this film and I think everyone should see it for themselves to generate their own interpretation of the events. One of my new personal favourites of all-time.
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