The LGBTQ movie pandemic lock down marathon continues…with Gus Van Sant’s 1991 masterpiece, “My Own Private Idaho”, which I’d seen many times before, but again, not in several years. And just like today’s other entry (“Edge of Seventeen”), I was surprised how much I’d forgotten of this film and I feel I noticed things that I never had before…perhaps because I’m seeing it so far removed from previous viewings? It probably doesn’t hurt that I watched it on a huge TV.
“My Own Private Idaho” was the first gay themed movie that I actively sought out. It was the first movie that I rented once I had a drivers licence and could get an account at a video store (Blockbuster). At the time I was incensed that any movie with LGBTQ material was flagged by Blockbuster as something that could only be rented by people 17 and older regardless of content…and yet I was also grateful as it made such properties easier for me to find, and I rented many other such films which had a lasting impression, even if they didn’t join the collection I’m enjoying now. Years later, I was hired at Hollywood Video and during my interview I mentioned my disdain for Blockbuster for this very reason, which impressed my new manager (DJ).
As for the film itself it was (and remains) for me a haunting, eccentric collage of tones and quirks which exhilarated me as a film fan, even as it sometimes frustrated me as someone yearning to see representations of my own experiences; something that’s faded with time and more satisfying portrayals. Having said that, the campfire scene in which River Phoenix’s sympathetic, narcoleptic street hustler Mike Waters confesses that he loves Keanu Reeves’ gay for pay Scott Favor – and that he wants to kiss him, was a breakthrough moment for me as a gay film fan, and for the actors as well – it’s cited in nearly every review I’ve read of the film…and I watched that part repeatedly.