In this loose adaptatn of Shakpeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay htler afflicted wh narlepsy. Stt Favor is the rebell son of a mayor. Together, the two travel om Portland, Oregon to Idaho and fally to the ast of Italy a qut to fd Mike's tranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and dgs, eventually attractg the attentn of a wealthy benefactor and sexual viant.
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WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO’
In this loose adaptatn of Shakpeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay htler afflicted wh narlepsy. Stt Favor (Keanu Reev) is the rebell son of a mayor. Together, the two travel om Portland, Oregon to Idaho and fally to the ast of Italy a qut to fd Mike's tranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and dgs, eventually attractg the attentn of a wealthy benefactor and sexual viant. * is my own private idaho a gay movie *
And picture the actors dog whout teasg their gay fan bas wh nods and wks, and whout any sense of an ch for progrsive street cred. ” In 2016, a straight actor plays a gay character and gets pots for bravery: aclas for dog right, butt taps om his lleagu for rpectg the character’s “humany, ” and a chance to nfirm, by bnt of irony, that he really isn’t gay.
Playg gay characters hadn’t yet bee the pole or profsnal thg for actors, particularly those pale, slenr charmers of the gnge era, to do. In 2016, when the threats to gay life have bee subsumed beneath performanc of pole polics and the needs of the middle class, ’s helpful to remember a movie like this, full of people like the, who nont wh who they are whout givg a chance to tell them who to be.
* is my own private idaho a gay movie *
"In 1991, even 14 years before Brokeback Mounta, the nventnal Hollywood wisdom was that was reer suici for a leadg man to be intified as gay, " Gav Edwards, thor of Last Night at the Viper Room: River Phoenix and the Hollywood He Left Behd, tells BBC Culture. The homoerotic tensn mounts as Van Sant ptur the moment of tellg your bt iend you are love wh them wh the same theatril tensn as guns beg drawn a Wtern. Registerg as a reverential artefact their filmographi, My Own Private Idaho took s stars to plac where Hollywood wouldn't take s heartthrobs: to polil and artistic exprsn wh dg-dazed homosexual htlers.
In this regular lumn, we’ll look at pictns of queers cema and ask, Was It Good For The Gays? While Van Sant’s breakthrough feature, Dgstore Cowboy (released 1989), did not feature any gay them, his but feature, Mala Noche (released 1988), was revolutnary that picted gay characters and relatnships an apolil way. My Own Private Idaho ntued that trend (as well as Dgstore Cowboy‘s pictn of street culture, tradg dg addicts for male htlers) and featured River Phoenix as a gay male prostute Portland who falls for his -worker of sorts, Keanu Reev.