DVD Review: Own your own ‘Private Idaho’ on Blu-ray
Gus Van Sant’s 1991 “My Own Private Idaho” takes Shakespeare’s Hal/Falstaff material and reimagines it (with Keanu Reeves as the Hal surrogate) within the culture of young male hustlers in contemporary Seattle. “Updated” Shakespeare is an entire genre unto itself, but Van Sant’s film is, like several of his other features, sui generis.
Because central character Mike (River Phoenix, in his most complex performance) is narcoleptic, several sequences are brief non-narrative processions of dream images — beautiful, jarring, evocative. The overall style — of both visuals and audio — is a striking blend of realism and dreamlike stylization.
The combination doesn’t always gel: When it came out, I noted that “the tonal inconsistency makes it seem less a well thought out narrative than a grab-bag of whatever neat ideas the director had lying around.” It’s gratifying to learn (from one of the extras on the new Criterion Blu-ray) that I was right: Van Sant took three scripts he was working on and made them into one.
The Criterion disc reproduces the theatrical look accurately and includes a fine roster of supplements, most duplicated from the 2005 DVD release. Because it’s such an unusual film, “My Own Private Idaho” stimulates a number of different readings, so there’s little duplication among the various extras. Filmmaker Todd Haynes (“Far from Heaven”) talks with Van Sant for nearly an hour, accompanied by still images and clips. “The Making of My Own Private Idaho” is a 40-minute 2005 documentary featuring cast and crew. “Kings of the Road” is a 45-minute 2005 interview with film scholar Paul Arthur, discussing the film in terms of Shakespeare, road films and Westerns. Producer Laurie Parker has a 20-minute sit-down with actor Phoenix’s sister Rain.
Added to these DVD holdovers are an hourlong, audio-only discussion between imaginary writer JT LeRoy (actually Laura Albert) and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette (“Tarnation”) and six deleted scenes totaling about 13 minutes. Two of the latter are missing some sound elements, and none are particularly revelatory.
My Own Private Idaho (Criterion, Blu-ray, $39.95)
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).