My Own Private Idaho (1991) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in Gus Van Sant’s haunting tale of two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, the wayward son of the mayor of Portland and object of Mike’s desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest from the grungy streets to the open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called home. Visually dazzling and groundbreaking, My Own Private Idaho is a deeply moving look at unrequited love and life at society’s margins.

Cast

Mike Waters	River Phoenix
Scott Favor	Keanu Reeves
Richard Waters	James Russo
Bob Pigeon	William Richert
Gary	Rodney Harvey
Budd	Flea
Hans	Udo Kier
Digger	Michael Parker
Alena	Grace Zabriskie
Daddy Carroll	Mickey Cottrell

Credits

Director	Gus Van Sant
Producer	Laurie Parker
Cinematography	Eric Alan Edwards and John Campbell
Screenplay	Gus Van Sant
Additional dialogue	William Shakespeare
Executive producer	Gus Van Sant
Editing	Curtiss Clayton
Production Design	David Brisbin
Music	Bill Stafford

Disc Features

DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack
Exclusive new audio interview with Gus Van Sant by filmmaker Todd Haynes
The Making of “My Own Private Idaho,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Idaho crew members
Kings of the Road, a new video interview with film scholar Paul Arthur in which he discusses Van Sant’s adaptation of Orson Welles and Shakespeare
New video conversation between producer Laurie Parker and River Phoenix’s sister Rain
New audio conversation between writer JT LeRoy (The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things) and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation)
Deleted scenes
Original theatrical trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
Plus: A 64-page book featuring new essays by JT LeRoy and film critic Amy Taubin, a 1991 article by Lance Loud, and reprinted interviews with Van Sant, Phoenix, and Reeves

From the Current

Gloomy Gus

Oct 21, 2009

It’s been only four years since the last film in his Death Trilogy, but Gus Van Sant is already journeying back to the land of the dead. Variety reports that the director will be teaming up with Bret Easton Ellis on a screenplay about the lives and 2007 double suicide of writer and...

My Own Private Idaho: Private Places

by Amy Taubin Mar 4, 2005

It’s night in the desert. Mike (River Phoenix), a teenaged hustler given to bouts of narcolepsy, and Scott (Keanu Reeves), a slumming preppy prince, are huddled around a campfire. “I just want to kiss you, man,” says Mike softly. The words and the barely audible sound of his voice, caught between...

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