Is my own private idaho gay

I feel like this film is not for everyone because of how it is so different from the usual and conventional ways films are structured. The film was a Shakespearean adaptation and sometimes there was switch from modern everyday language to the Shakespearean dialogue. Mikey just wants to be loved and have someone look after him.

Maybe Scott did love Mikey but chose not to because it would be bad for his image? Certainly a huge part of the Idaho surprise for audiences and critics alike was the openly gay context of Phoenix and Reeves as unapologetic sex workers — the film even opens with Mike on the.

Mikey never had any control of anything even if he tried. While Scott also sells his body on the street, he is also the son of a rich mayor and he can turn his back on this life any time and be welcomed back. This life of being a vagabond is a choice Scott can make but not a choice that Mikey can make because it is his life and he has no fallback.

Mikey will forever be at the bottom of society because he was born that way and no one knowing what will happen next in his narcoleptic episodes while Scott will live a life of pretending to have never been associated with the people of the streets. View all posts by Patricia Laudencia.

Before I begin, I just want to say that River Phoenix was one of my first crushes ever as a child after watching Stand By Me that while watching My Own Private Idaho , I felt like tearing up because of how I had to keep remembering that River Phoenix was actually dead and he died having a seizure due to drug overdose and his character, Mikey Waters was a narcoleptic.

My Own Private Idaho was able to touch on the disparity between the rich and the poor as well as talk about the hardships of gay people. I always had a pang of fear every time Mikey had a seizure because I never knew what would happen to him. It follows the relationship of two prostitutes, Mikey Waters and Scott Favor.

The world this film builds is strange and also, really depressing and the film does not hold back from making it the most depressing film on earth. And more than that, it’s an unlikely, loose take on Shakespeare’s three-play Henriad. So Midnight Cowboy meets Chimes at Midnight?

Skip to content. It could be boring or interesting, depending on how the audience sees it. My Own Private Idaho came out in , long before gay marriage was legalized and during the AIDS epidemic. River Phoenix, the original teen heartthrob who was gone from us far too soon, perfectly embodies the isolation and confusion of his position as a gay hustler.

There is one scene where we are in a magazine shop and on the covers are all topless men and each topless man just starts talking about their background of being a prostitute. Yes, Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho is, like Down By Law, a story about an unusual friendship, but more than that it’s an unique gay road movie set all over the Pacific Northwest.

LGBT is still a popular term used to discuss gender and sexual minorities, but all GSRM are welcome beyond lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who consent to participate in a safe space. My Own Private Idaho, a practically modern Shakespeare tale told with Gus Van Sant’s art-house sensibilities, was a benchmark for LGBT cinema.

All in all, this entire film just made me sad and realized how people are born to be privileged enough to have choice on what to do with their lives and on the other hand, people are born not to have a choice at all. When he comes across Scott, that changes and Mikey actually gains attachments and might even be in love with Scott.

Contributing to the New Queer Cinema movement in the late 20th century, Van Sant uses this film to critique bourgeois. Sign me up!. The common defense for the trope is that it allows queer artists to share stories of their identity without legal and social repercussion, however, the use of it arguably has negative effects of queer audience members.

Or maybe, I just hate Shakespearean language. There is a clear contrast between him and Scott. There are flashbacks of a house and his mother. A safe space for GSRM (Gender, Sexual, and Romantic Minority) folk to discuss their lives, issues, interests, and passions.

This film was just sad. The film is primarily set in early s Portland, Oregon and centres around two male hustlers and their journey of self-discovery and family reunion. Being a prostitute, Mikey lives on the streets, has no real friends, and every relationship he has with a person is temporary and for the sake of surviving.

In the end, it was just the story of how two boys passed each other in life. My Own Private Idaho is a independent dramatic adventure film written and directed by American filmmaker Gus Van Sant. My Own Private Idaho might be one of the saddest gay films I have ever seen.

We will never really know Scott anymore after he chose not to recognize the face of his old friends and by turning his back on Bob towards the end of the film, he turned his back on everyone else from the community of outcasts. The nature of his job had to bring him to the scariest places of the city and he had to sell his body in order to live, what possible things could happen to his body while he was asleep.

It took me a lot of time to process whether I liked it or not but I honestly have a lot more appreciation for it having to look a bit deeper into the imagery and seeing the relationship dynamic of Mikey and Scott. My Own Private Idaho continued that trend (as well as Drugstore Cowboy ‘s depiction of street culture, trading drug addicts for male hustlers) and featured River Phoenix as a gay male prostitute.