Good Will Hunting and My Own Private Idaho Wikipedia film pages

Good Will Hunting
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Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting theatrical poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
Gus Van Sant
Produced by
Lawrence Bender
Written by
Ben Affleck
Matt Damon
Starring
Robin Williams
 Matt Damon
 Ben Affleck
Minnie Driver
Stellan Skarsgård
Music by
Danny Elfman
Cinematography
Jean-Yves Escoffier
Editing by
Pietro Scalia
Studio
A Band Apart
 Lawrence Bender Productions
Distributed by
Miramax Films
Release dates
December 5, 1997

Running time
126 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$10 million
Box office
$225,933,435
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 American drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård. Written by Affleck and Damon, and with Damon in the title role, the film follows 20-year-old South Boston laborer Will Hunting, an unrecognized genius who, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after assaulting a police officer, becomes a patient of a therapist (Williams) and studies advanced mathematics with a renowned professor (Skarsgård). Through his therapy sessions, Will re-evaluates his relationships with his best friend (Affleck), his girlfriend (Driver), and himself, facing the significant task of thinking about his future.
Good Will Hunting received universal critical acclaim and was a financial success. It grossed over US$225 million during its theatrical run with only a modest $10 million budget. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture, and won two: Best Supporting Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Development
3.2 Filming
4 Reception 4.1 Box office
4.2 Critical response
5 Awards and accolades 5.1 American Film Institute
6 Soundtrack
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
Twenty-year-old Will Hunting of South Boston is self-taught with a genius-level intellect and an eidetic memory, but works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and spends his free time with his friends Chuckie Sullivan, Billy McBride, and Morgan O'Mally. When Professor Gerald Lambeau posts a difficult problem taken from algebraic graph theory as a challenge for his graduate students, Will solves the problem anonymously. Lambeau posts a much more difficult problem and chances upon Will solving it, but Will flees. Will meets Skylar, a British student about to graduate from Harvard University and attend graduate school at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Will is faced with incarceration after assaulting a man who had bullied him as a child. Lambeau arranges for Will to forgo jail time if he agrees to study mathematics under Lambeau's supervision and to see a therapist. Will agrees, but treats his first few therapists with contempt and they refuse to work with him. In desperation, Lambeau calls on Sean Maguire, his estranged college roommate who also grew up in South Boston and now teaches psychology at Bunker Hill Community College. Unlike the other therapists, Sean pushes back at Will and overcomes his defence mechanisms, and after a few unproductive sessions Will begins to open up.
Will is particularly struck by Sean's story of how he met his wife by giving up his ticket to the historic sixth game of the 1975 World Series after falling in love at first sight. Sean neither regrets his decision, nor does he regret the final years of his marriage when his wife was dying of cancer. This encourages Will to build a relationship with Skylar, though he lies to her about his past and is reluctant to introduce her to his friends or show her his run-down neighborhood. Will also challenges Sean to take an objective look at his own life, since Sean has been unable to move on from his wife's death.
Chafing under Lambeau's high expectations, Will makes a mockery of job interviews that Lambeau arranges for him. Will walks in on a heated argument between Sean and Lambeau over his future and it greatly upsets him. When Skylar asks Will to move to California with her, he panics and pushes her away, revealing that he is an orphan and that his foster father physically abused him. Skylar tells Will that she loves him, but he denies loving her and then leaves. He next storms out on Lambeau, dismissing the mathematical research he has been doing. Sean points out that Will is so adept at anticipating future failure in his interpersonal relationships that he deliberately sabotages them in order to avoid emotional pain. When Will refuses to give an honest reply about what he wants to do with his life, Sean shows him the door. Will tells Chuckie he wants to be a laborer for the rest of his life; Chuckie responds that it would be an insult to his friends for Will to waste his potential, and that his fondest wish is that Will should leave to pursue something greater. Will decides to accept one of the job offers arranged by Lambeau.
Sean and Will share that they were both victims of child abuse, and Sean helps Will to accept that the abuse he suffered was not his fault. Having helped Will overcome his problems, Sean reconciles with Lambeau and decides to take a sabbatical to travel the world. When Will's friends present him with a rebuilt Chevrolet Nova for his 21st birthday, he decides to pass on his job offers and drive to California to reunite with Skylar, which he mentions in a letter to Sean.
Cast[edit]
Matt Damon as Will Hunting
Robin Williams as Dr. Sean Maguire
Ben Affleck as Chuckie Sullivan
Stellan Skarsgård as Professor Gerald Lambeau
Minnie Driver as Skylar
Casey Affleck as Morgan O'Mally
Cole Hauser as Billy McBride
John Mighton as Tom
George Plimpton as Dr. Henry Lipkin
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon originally wrote the screenplay as a thriller: Young man in the rough-and-tumble streets of South Boston who possesses a superior intelligence is targeted by the FBI to become a G-Man. Castle Rock Entertainment president Rob Reiner later urged them to drop the thriller aspect of the story and to focus on the relationship between Will Hunting (Damon) and his psychiatrist (Williams). At Reiner's request, noted screenwriter William Goldman read the script and further suggested that the film's climax ought to be Will's decision to follow his girlfriend Skylar to California. Goldman has consistently denied the persistent rumor that he wrote Good Will Hunting or acted as a script doctor.[1] In his book, Which Lie Did I Tell?, Goldman jokingly writes "I did not just doctor it. I wrote the whole thing from scratch."[2] before dismissing the rumour as false.
Castle Rock bought the script for $675,000 against $775,000, meaning that Affleck and Damon would stand to earn an additional $100,000 if the film was produced and they retained sole writing credit. However, studios balked at the idea of Affleck and Damon in the lead roles, with many studio executives stating that they wanted Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. At the time Damon and Affleck were meeting at Castle Rock, director Kevin Smith was working with Affleck on Mallrats and with both Affleck and Damon on Chasing Amy.[3] Seeing that Affleck and Damon were having trouble with Castle Rock, Smith and his producer partner Scott Mosier brought the script to Miramax, which eventually resulted in the two receiving co-executive producer credits for Hunting. The script was put into turnaround and Miramax bought the rights from Castle Rock.
After buying the rights from Castle Rock, Miramax gave the green light to put the film into production. Several well-known filmmakers were originally considered to direct, including Mel Gibson, Michael Mann and Steven Soderbergh. Originally Affleck asked Kevin Smith if he was interested in directing. Smith declined, saying they needed a "good director" and that he only directs things he writes and is not much of a visual director. Affleck and Damon later chose Gus Van Sant for the job, whose work in previous films like Drugstore Cowboy (1989) had left a favorable impression on the fledgling screenwriters. Miramax was persuaded and hired Van Sant to direct the film.
Filming[edit]



 "How'd you like them apples?" The Baskin-Robbins/Dunkin' Donuts, in front of which Will mocked Harvard student Clark
Good Will Hunting was filmed on location in the Greater Boston area and Toronto over five months in 1996. Although the story is set in Boston, much of the film was shot at locations in Toronto, with the University of Toronto standing in for the interiors of MIT and Harvard University. The classroom scenes were filmed at McLennan Physical Laboratories (of the University of Toronto) and Central Technical School. (Harvard initially refused to allow scenes to be filmed on campus, but a phone call from actor and Harvard graduate John Lithgow changed matters.[4]) Likewise, only the exterior shots of Bunker Hill Community College were filmed in Boston; however, Sean's office was built in Toronto as an exact replica of one at the college.[5]
The restaurant to which Lambeau took Sean was Locke-Ober, on Winter Place. It closed in 2012.[6]



 The Au Bon Pain where Will explained his photographic memory to Skylar
The interior bar scenes set in South Boston ("Southie") were shot on location at Woody's L St. Tavern.[7] Meanwhile, the homes of Will and Sean, while some distance apart in the movie, were actually next door to each other[8][9] at the northern corner of E Street and West 6th Street. The rear of Will's house backs onto Bowen Street.
The Bow and Arrow Pub, which was located at the corner of Bow and Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, doubled as the Harvard bar in which Will met Skylar for the first time. The Baskin-Robbins/Dunkin' Donuts featured in the "How'd you like them apples?" scene is located two doors along, one further than at the time of filming.[9][10]
The Tasty, which is the present-day Citizens Bank at the corner of JFK and Brattle Streets, was the scene of Will and Skylar's first kiss.[11] The Au Bon Pain, where Will and Skylar discuss the former's photographic memory, is at the corner of Dunster Street and Mass Ave.[12] Cups of Will's caffeine of choice, Peet's Coffee, are visible on several tables because the product was served at Au Bon Pain locations at the time.
The footage during the closing credits is along the Massachusetts Turnpike in Stockbridge, heading west toward the New York border.
The cast engaged in considerable improvisation in rehearsals. Robin Williams, Ben Affleck and Minnie Driver each made significant contributions to their characters. Robin Williams' last line in the film, as well as the therapy scene in which he talks about his character's wife's little idiosyncrasies, were both ad-libbed. The therapy scene took everyone by surprise. According to Damon's commentary in the DVD version of the film, this caused the cameraman to laugh so hard that the camera can be seen moving up and down slightly.
Director Gus Van Sant says in the DVD commentary that, had he known just how successful the film was going to be, he would have left at least a couple of edited scenes intact that were cut purely for considerations of length. One of these involves Skylar's visit to Chuckie in hopes of shedding light on some of Will's eccentricities that Will himself is unwilling to discuss.
The film is dedicated to the memory of poet Allen Ginsberg and writer William S. Burroughs, both of whom died in 1997.
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
In the film's opening weekend in limited release, it earned $272,912. In its January 1998 wide-release opening weekend, it earned $10,261,471. It went on to gross $138,433,435 in North America for a total worldwide gross of $225,900,000.
Critical response[edit]
Good Will Hunting has received universal acclaim from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes give the film a score of 97% based on review from 69 critics, with an average score of 8/10, making the film a "Certified Fresh" on the website's rating system.[13] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 70, based on 28 reviews, which indicates "Generally favorable reviews".[14]
Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing that while the story is "predictable", it is "the individual moments, not the payoff, that make it so effective."[15]
Derek Adams liked the film, saying "To an extent, the film challenges America's ingrained anti-intellectualism, yet its anti-elitist instincts lead it close to equating academia with a dubious effeminacy. In the end it even falls back on that old cinematic panacea: get in touch with your inner Robin Williams."
Gary Brown says "Despite its coarse exterior, Good Will Hunting proves to be a rather positive and motivational experience."
Jeffrey Overstreet says "... beneath their arrogance and crass behavior, you'll find a lot of hurt and many defense mechanisms raised against a compassionless, manipulative society."
Several scholars have examined the film as a portrayal of residual Catholic–Protestant tensions in Boston, as Irish Catholics from Southie are aligned against ostensibly Protestant characters who are affiliated with Harvard and MIT.[16][17]
[icon] This section requires expansion. (October 2012)
Awards and accolades[edit]
70th Academy AwardsWon: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – Robin Williams
Won: Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) – Ben Affleck & Matt Damon
Nominated: Academy Award for Best Picture
Nominated: Academy Award for Best Director – Gus Van Sant
Nominated: Academy Award for Best Actor – Matt Damon
Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Minnie Driver
Nominated: Academy Award for Film Editing – Pietro Scalia
Nominated: Academy Award for Original Music Score – Danny Elfman
Nominated: Academy Award for Best Song – Elliott Smith (song "Miss Misery")
55th Golden Globe AwardsWon: Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Ben Affleck & Matt Damon
Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama
Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama – Matt Damon
Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture – Robin Williams
Other Major Awards/NominationsWon: Silver Bear for Outstanding Single Achievement – Matt Damon[18]
Nominated: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures – Gus Van Sant
Nominated: Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen – Ben Affleck & Matt Damon
American Film Institute[edit]
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs: Miss Misery – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
Soundtrack[edit]

Good Will Hunting: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture[19]

Soundtrack album by Various artists

Released
December 2, 1997
Genre
Soundtrack, indie rock, acoustic rock, indie folk
Label
Capitol
"Miss Misery," written and recorded for the film by singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, but lost to "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic.
While Danny Elfman's score was nominated for an Oscar, only two cues appear on the film's soundtrack release. Elfman's "Weepy Donuts" was used on NBC's The Today Show on September 11, 2006, while Matt Lauer spoke during the opening credits.
1.Elliott Smith – "Between the Bars" (Orchestral)
2.Jeb Loy Nichols – "As the Rain"
3.Elliott Smith – "Angeles"
4.Elliott Smith – "No Name #3"
5.The Waterboys – "Fisherman's Blues"
6.Luscious Jackson – "Why Do I Lie?"
7.Danny Elfman – "Will Hunting" (Main Titles)
8.Elliott Smith – "Between the Bars"
9.Elliott Smith – "Say Yes"
10.Gerry Rafferty – "Baker Street"
11.Andru Donalds – "Somebody's Baby"
12.The Dandy Warhols – "Boys Better"
13.Al Green – "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?"
14.Elliott Smith – "Miss Misery"
15.Danny Elfman – "Weepy Donuts"
"Afternoon Delight" by the Starland Vocal Band was featured in the film, but didn't appear on the soundtrack album.
References[edit]

Portal icon Film in the United States portal
Portal icon 1990s portal
1.Jump up ^ see Goldman's memoir Which Lie Did I Tell?
2.Jump up ^ Goldman, William (2001). Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade. Vintage. pg. 333. ISBN 0-375-70319-5
3.Jump up ^ Smith's comments on the Mallrats DVD audio commentary
4.Jump up ^ "Then and Now: Revisiting 'Good Will Hunting' – Boston.com
5.Jump up ^ "Then and Now: Revisiting 'Good Will Hunting' – Boston.com
6.Jump up ^ "Locke-Ober restaurant is closed for business" - Boston Globe, October 21, 2012
7.Jump up ^ Dunn, Gabrielle (2010-06-03). "Famous Movie Locations: Woody's L Street Tavern in 'Good Will Hunting' (Boston) - The Moviefone Blog". Blog.moviefone.com. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
8.Jump up ^ "Then and Now: Revisiting 'Good Will Hunting' – Boston.com
9.^ Jump up to: a b 'Behind the Scenery' - The Boston Globe, November 25, 2007
10.Jump up ^ "Then and Now: Revisiting 'Good Will Hunting' – Boston.com
11.Jump up ^ "Then and Now: Revisiting 'Good Will Hunting' – Boston.com
12.Jump up ^ "Then and Now: Revisiting 'Good Will Hunting' – Boston.com
13.Jump up ^ "Good Will Hunting – Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
14.Jump up ^ "Good Will Hunting Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
15.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (1997-12-25). "Good Will Hunting Movie Review (1997)". Roger Ebert. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
16.Jump up ^ Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey. "Revisioning Migration: On the Stratifications of Irish Boston in Good Will Hunting." ALIF: Journal of Contemporary Poetics (32) 2012: 1-22.http://www.academia.edu/1548918/Revisioning_Migration_On_the_Stratifications_of_Irish_Boston_in_Good_Will_Hunting
17.Jump up ^ Herlihy, Jeffrey. "Revisioning Migration: On the Stratifications of Irish Boston in Good Will Hunting | Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2013-09-01.
18.Jump up ^ "Berlinale: 1998 Prize Winners". Berlinale.de. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
19.Jump up ^ "Good Will Hunting: Music from the Miramax Motion". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Good Will Hunting
Official website
Good Will Hunting at the Internet Movie Database
Good Will Hunting at the TCM Movie Database
Good Will Hunting at allmovie
Good Will Hunting at Box Office Mojo
Good Will Hunting at Rotten Tomatoes
Screenplay on IMSDb
Grime, James. "The Real Good Will Hunting". Numberphile. Brady Haran.
Then & Now: Revisiting Good Will Hunting – Boston.com


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My Own Private Idaho
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For the song, see Private Idaho.

My Own Private Idaho
My own private idaho ver1.jpg
Theatrical poster

Directed by
Gus Van Sant
Produced by
Laurie Parker
Written by
Gus Van Sant
Narrated by
River Phoenix
Starring
River Phoenix
Keanu Reeves
Music by
Bill Stafford
Cinematography
John J. Campbell
 Eric Alan Edwards
Editing by
Curtiss Clayton
Distributed by
Fine Line Features
Release dates
October 18, 1991

Running time
102 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$2.5 million
Box office
$6,401,336
My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 American independent drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. The story follows two friends, Mike and Scott, as they embark on a journey of personal discovery that takes them to Mike's hometown in Idaho and then to Italy in search of Mike's mother.
Van Sant originally wrote the screenplay in the 1970s, but discarded it after reading John Rechy's 1963 novel, City of Night, and concluding that Rechy's treatment of the subject of street hustlers was better than his own. Over the years, Van Sant rewrote the script, which comprised two stories: that of Mike and the search for his mother, and Scott's story as a modern update of the Henry IV plays. Van Sant had difficulty getting Hollywood financing, and at one point considered making the film on a minuscule budget with a cast of actual street kids. He sent copies of his script to Reeves and to Phoenix, assuming that they would turn it down, but both agreed to star in the film.
My Own Private Idaho had its premiere at the 1991 Venice Film Festival, and received largely positive reviews, from critics including Roger Ebert and those of The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. The film was a moderate financial success, grossing over $6.4 million in North America, which was above its estimated budget of $2.5 million. Phoenix received several awards for his performance in the film, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival, Best Male Lead from the Independent Spirit Awards, and Best Actor from the National Society of Film Critics.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Development 2.1 Casting
2.2 Principal photography
3 Music
4 Reception 4.1 Critical response
4.2 Awards
4.3 Home media
5 References
6 External links

Plot[edit]
Mike (River Phoenix), a gay street hustler, is standing alone on a deserted stretch of highway somewhere in Idaho. He starts talking to himself and notices that the road looks “like someone’s face, like a messed-up face.” He experiences a narcoleptic episode and dreams of his mother comforting him as he replays home movies of his childhood in his mind.
Later, after being fellated by a client in Seattle, Washington, Mike returns to his favorite spots to pick up potential clients. He is picked up by a wealthy older woman (Grace Zabriskie) who takes him to her mansion where he meets two fellow hustlers also hired by the woman. One of them is Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), Mike’s best friend, and the other is Gary (Rodney Harvey). While preparing to have sex with the woman, Mike experiences another narcoleptic fit and awakens the next day with Scott in Portland, Oregon.
Mike and Scott are soon reunited with Bob Pigeon (William Richert), a middle-aged man and mentor to a gang of street kids and hustlers who live in an abandoned apartment building. Scott, the son of the mayor of Portland, admits to Bob in private that when he turns 21, he will inherit his father’s fortune and retire from street hustling. Mike yearns to find his mother, and he and Scott leave Portland for Idaho to visit Mike’s older brother Richard (James Russo), who lives in a run-down trailer. Along this journey Mike confesses that he is in love with Scott. Richard tries to tell Mike who his real father is, but Mike says that he knows it is Richard. Richard tells Mike that their mother works as a hotel maid; when Mike and Scott visit the hotel, they find she has gone to Italy in search of her own family.
Mike and Scott travel to Italy where they find the country farmhouse where Mike’s mother worked, as a maid and as an English tutor. The young woman, Carmela (Chiara Caselli), who lives there tells Mike that his mother returned to the United States months ago. Carmela and Scott fall in love and return to the U.S., leaving Mike to return home on his own, facing heartache over Scott's leaving him. Scott inherits his fortune.
Back in Portland, Bob and his gang confront a newly reformed Scott at a fashionable restaurant, but he rejects them. That night Bob has a fatal heart attack. The next day the hustlers hold a rowdy funeral for Bob, while in the same cemetery, a few yards away, Scott attends a solemn funeral for his recently deceased father. Mike is back on a deserted stretch of Idaho highway. He falls into another narcoleptic stupor and two strangers pull up in a truck, steal Mike’s backpack and shoes and drive away. Moments later, an unidentified figure pulls up in a car, picks Mike up, places him in the vehicle and drives off.
Development[edit]
The origins of My Own Private Idaho came from John Rechy's 1963 novel, City of Night, which featured characters who were street hustlers who did not admit to being gay.[1] Van Sant's original screenplay was written in the 1970s, when he was living in Hollywood.[2] After reading Rechy's book, Van Sant realized that it was considerably better than what he was writing, so he shelved the script for years. In 1988, while editing Mala Noche, Van Sant met a street kid named Michael Parker who became a source of inspiration for the character of Mike in what would later become My Own Private Idaho.[2] Parker also had a friend named Scott, a street kid like himself. In the script, Van Sant adapted the Scott character to that of a rich kid. The character of Scott was also fashioned after people Van Sant had met in Portland who were street hustlers.[2]
Early drafts of the screenplay were set on Hollywood Boulevard, not Portland, with working titles such as Blue Funk and Minions of the Moon.[3] Reading Rechy's novel had convinced Van Sant to change the setting to Portland.[4] The script originally consisted of two separate scenarios: the first was called Modern Days and it recounted Mike's story; a second one updated the Henry IV plays with Scott's story.[5] Van Sant realized that he could blend the two stories together in the manner of the "cut up" technique used by writer William S. Burroughs.[5] In essence, this method involves various story fragments and ideas mixed and matched together to form a unique story. The idea to combine the two scenarios formed in Van Sant's mind after watching Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight.[5] The director remembers, "I thought that the Henry IV plays were really a street story. I also knew this fat guy named Bob, who had always reminded me of Falstaff and who was crazy about hustler boys". Van Sant realized that Prince Hal in the plays resembled the character of Scott and the sidekick was Mike. His script ended up becoming a literal restructuring of the Henry IV plays.[6] Van Sant got the idea for Mike's narcolepsy from a man who was a guide of sorts when the director was gathering material for the film. According to the director, he always looked like he was about to fall asleep.[7] The film's title is derived from the song "Private Idaho" by the B-52's that Van Sant heard while visiting the state in the early 1980s.[8]
Van Sant showed the script to an executive at 20th Century Fox who liked Shakespeare.[6] Eventually, he toned down the Shakespeare and made the language more modern. Van Sant was also working on a short story called My Own Private Idaho which he intended to film. It was 25 pages long and was about two Latino characters on the streets of Portland who go in search of their parents and travel to a town in Spain. One of them falls in love with a girl and leaves the other behind.[6] Van Sant had another script called The Boys of Storytown, which had the Mike and Scott characters and Mike had narcolepsy. The characters of Hans and Bob were also present. Van Sant wanted to make the film but felt that the script was not finished.[9] While editing Drugstore Cowboy, Van Sant combined the scripts for Modern Days and Storytown with the Idaho short story.[9]
Casting[edit]
River Phoenix as Mikey Waters
James Russo as Richard Waters
Keanu Reeves as Scott Favor
Rodney Harvey as Gary
William Richert as Bob Pigeon
Grace Zabriskie as Alena
Chiara Caselli as Carmela
Flea as Budd
Udo Kier as Hans
Jim Caviezel as Airline Clerk
Brian Wilson as Rock Promoter
Initially, no studio would finance the film because of its potentially controversial and off-beat subject matter. After Drugstore Cowboy received favorable critical raves and awards, studios started to show some interest.[8] However, they all wanted their own versions made and not Van Sant's. This frustration prompted the filmmaker to attempt the feature on a shoestring budget with a cast of actual street kids filling out the roles including Michael Parker and actor Rodney Harvey, who was going to play Scott.[9]
Van Sant faced the problem of casting the two central roles. He decided to send the script to the agents of Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix, figuring that their agents would reject the script.[10] Reeves' agent was amenable to the project, but Phoenix's agent would not even show the screenplay to the young actor.[8] Not to be deterred, Van Sant got the idea for Reeves to personally deliver the film's treatment to Phoenix at his home in Florida.[10] Reeves did so over the Christmas holidays, riding his 1974 Norton Commando motorcycle from his family home in Canada to the Phoenix family ranch in Micanopy, Florida, outside Gainesville.[10] Reeves was no stranger to River Phoenix or members of his family, having worked previously with River on Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death and with his brother Joaquin and girlfriend Martha Plimpton on Ron Howard's Parenthood. After reading the treatment, Phoenix agreed to play the role of Scott. However, since Van Sant had already cast Reeves in the role, they had to convince River to take on the edgier role of drug-addicted hustler Mike Waters. The director promised not to make either actor do anything embarrassing.[11] Van Sant got an offer of $2 million from an outside investor but when he put off production for nine months so that Phoenix could make Dogfight, the investor and his money disappeared.[12] Producer Laurie Parker shopped the script around and, at the time, New Line Cinema was in the process of branching out into producing arthouse films and decided to back Van Sant's vision with a USD$2.5 million budget.[8]
Principal photography[edit]
Phoenix arrived in Portland two weeks before principal photography was to begin in order to do research and Van Sant remembered, "He seemed to be changing into this character".[13] One of the film's directors of photography Eric Alan Edwards recalled that the actor looked like a street kid", and "in a very raw way he wore that role. I've never seen anybody so intent on living his role".[13] Several cast and crew members, including Michael Parker, Phoenix, Reeves and Flea lived together in a house in Portland during filming. A couple of times a week they would play music together. Due to the low budget, a typical day of shooting started at 6 am and ended at 11 pm.[13]
The film was not storyboarded and was made without a shot list.[14] The camp fire scene was originally a short, three-page scene[14] that Phoenix re-wrote into an eight-page scene where Mike professes his love for Scott so that it was more apparent that his character was gay whereas Van Sant had originally made it more ambiguous.[10] Reeves reportedly was not comfortable with this aspect of the film as he said in an interview, "I'm not against gays or anything, but I won't have sex with guys. I would never do that on film. We did a little of it in Idaho and, believe me, it was hard work. Never again".[10]
Eric Edwards shot the time-lapse photography shots on his own.[15] They were not in the script and the film's producer was worried that he was using up too much film. Van Sant originally had the screen go black when Mike passed out but was not satisfied with this approach. He used Edwards' footage as a way of "an altered sense of time" from Mike's perspective.[15] Some executives at New Line were not in favor of the Shakespeare scenes and wanted Van Sant to cut them all out. However, foreign distributors wanted as much Shakespeare in the film as possible.[16]
Music[edit]
 No official soundtrack album was ever released for the film. The songs that play during the film are:
1.Eddy Arnold – "The Cattle Call"
2.Rudy Vallee – "Deep Night"
3.Bill Stafford – "Home on the Range"
4.Bill Stafford – "America the Beautiful"
5.Madonna – "Cherish"
6.Elton John – "Blue Eyes"
7.Jean Poulot – "Bachu Ber"
8.Udo Kier – "Der Adler"
9.Elliot Sweetland – "When the Saints Go Marching In"
10.Lori Presthus – "The Funerals"
11.Conrad "Bud" Montgomery – "Getting Into the Outside"
12.The Pogues – "The Old Main Drag"
13.Aleka's Attic – "Too Many Colors"
14.Madonna – "Cherish"
Reception[edit]
 My Own Private Idaho was first shown at the 1991 Venice Film Festival[17] and received a gala screening at 16th Toronto Film Festival[18] and was also screened at the 29th New York Film Festival.[19]
 The film was released theatrically on September 27, 1991 in 98 theaters. It grossed USD$6.4 million in North America, above its estimated budget of $2.5 million.[20]
Critical response[edit]
 Van Sant's film achieved critical acclaim. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "The achievement of this film is that it wants to evoke that state of drifting need, and it does. There is no mechanical plot that has to grind to a Hollywood conclusion, and no contrived test for the heroes to pass."[21] In his review for Rolling Stone magazine, Peter Travers wrote, "Van Sant's cleareyed, unsentimental approach to a plot that pivots on betrayal and death is reflected in magnetic performances from Reeves and Phoenix."[22] Vincent Canby, in his New York Times review, praised the performances of the two lead actors: "The performances, especially by the two young stars, are as surprising as they are sure. Mr. Phoenix (Dogfight) and Mr. Reeves (of the two Bill and Ted comedies) are very fine in what may be the two best roles they'll find in years. Roles of this density, for young actors, do not come by that often".[23] In his review for Newsweek, David Ansen praised Phoenix's performance: "The campfire scene in which Mike awkwardly declares his unrequited love for Scott is a marvel of delicacy. In this, and every scene, Phoenix immerses himself so deeply inside his character you almost forget you've seen him before: it's a stunningly sensitive performance, poignant and comic at once."[24] Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "When Van Sant shows us speeded-up images of clouds rolling past wheat fields, the familiar device transcends cliche, because it's tied to the way that Mike, in his benumbed isolation, experiences his own life – as a running piece of surrealism. The sheer, expressive beauty of those images haunted me for days."[25] J. Hoberman, in his review for The Village Voice, wrote, "While Phoenix vanishes with reckless triumph into his role, Reeves stands, or occasionally struts, uneasily beside his, unable to project even the self-mocking wit of Matt Dillon's star turn in Drugstore Cowboy."[26]
However, USA Today gave My Own Private Idaho two and half stars out of four, criticizing Van Sant's film for being "nothing but set pieces; tossed into a mix whose meaning is almost certainly private".[27] Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "What plot it has is borrowed, improbably, from Henry IV, and whenever anyone manages to speak an entire paragraph, it is usually a Shakespearean paraphrase. But this is a desperate imposition on an essentially inert film."[28] In his review for The New Yorker, Terrence Rafferty wrote, "Van Sant has stranded the actor in a movie full of flat characters and bad ideas, but Phoenix walks through the picture, down the road after road after road, as if he were surrounded by glorious phantoms."[29]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 84% rating based on 32 reviews.[30] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 77% based on 18 reviews.[31]
Awards[edit]
 My Own Private Idaho received the Showtime International Critics Award at the 1991 Toronto Film Festival.[32] River Phoenix received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival.[33] The actor said, in regards to winning, "I don't want more awards. Venice is the most progressive festival. Anything else would be a token".[34] Phoenix then went on to receive Best Male Lead from the Independent Spirit Awards and Best Actor from the National Society of Film Critics.[35]
Home media[edit]
 In 2005, the film was remastered by The Criterion Collection. It was released on a 2-disc DVD set. The second disc features new interviews, outtakes and more information about the movie. This DVD set is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated 64-page-booklet featuring previously published articles and interviews with cast and crew and new essays by JT LeRoy and film critic Amy Taubin, a 1991 article by Lance Loud and reprinted interviews with director Gus Van Sant, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves.[36] Entertainment Weekly gave the DVD a "B+" rating and wrote, "While you may enjoy watching My Own Private Idaho, whether you choose to view this two-disc Criterion edition in its entirety depends on how much you enjoy watching people talking about My Own Private Idaho", and concluded, "But with all the various interpretations and influences, this is definitely a film worth talking about".[36]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Fuller, Graham (1993). "Gus Van Sant: Swimming Against the Current". Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and My Own Private Idaho (Faber & Faber). pp. xxi.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Fuller 1993, p. xxiii.
3.Jump up ^ Elder, Sean (October 1991). "Young Actors Go Wild with Gus Van Sant". Elle.
4.Jump up ^ Ehrenstein, David (April 12, 2005). "Back to Idaho". The Advocate.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Lyons, Donald (1994). "Independent Visions". Ballatine Books.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c Fuller 1993, p. xxv.
7.Jump up ^ Bowen, Peter (Fall 1991). "His Own Private Idaho". Off-Hollywood Report.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d Greenberg, Harvey (Fall 1992). "My Own Private Idaho". Film Quarterly.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Fuller 1993, p. xxvi.
10.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Robb, Brian J (1995). "River Phoenix: A Short Life". Perennial.
11.Jump up ^ Block, Adam (September 24, 1991). "Inside Outsider Gus Van Sant". The Advocate.
12.Jump up ^ Fuller 1993, p. xxxvi.
13.^ Jump up to: a b c "A Brief Life". Premiere. March 1994.
14.^ Jump up to: a b Fuller 1993, p. xxxiv.
15.^ Jump up to: a b Fuller 1993, p. xxxix.
16.Jump up ^ Fuller 1993, p. xxxviii.
17.Jump up ^ Fuller 1993, p. 105.
18.Jump up ^ MacInnis, Craig (August 21, 1991). "Festival of Festivals fills in its open spaces". Toronto Star.
19.Jump up ^ Holden, Stephen (September 20, 1991). "Film Festival: The Spirit Is the Focus". New York Times.
20.Jump up ^ "My Own Private Idaho". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
21.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (October 18, 1991). "My Own Private Idaho". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
22.Jump up ^ Travers, Peter (October 17, 1991). "My Own Private Idaho". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
23.Jump up ^ Canby, Vincent (September 27, 1991). "A Road Movie About Male Hustlers". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
24.Jump up ^ Ansen, David (October 7, 1991). "Turning Shakespearean Tricks". Newsweek.
25.Jump up ^ Gleiberman, Owen (October 11, 1991). "My Own Private Idaho". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
26.Jump up ^ Hoberman, J (October 1, 1991). "My Own Private Idaho". Village Voice.
27.Jump up ^ Clark, Mike (September 27, 1991). "Half-baked plot mires Idaho studs". USA Today.
28.Jump up ^ Schickel, Richard (October 28, 1991). "Cinema". Time. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
29.Jump up ^ Rafferty, Terrence (October 7, 1991). "Street Theatre". The New Yorker.
30.Jump up ^ "My Own Private Idaho – Rotten Tomatoes" Retrieved 27 July 2011
31.Jump up ^ "My Own Private Idaho - Metacritic" Retrieved 27 April 2013
32.Jump up ^ Scott, Jay (September 16, 1991). "Egoyan wins $25,000 prize – and gives it away". Globe and Mail.
33.Jump up ^ "Russian movie tops in Venice". Montreal Gazette. September 16, 1991.
34.Jump up ^ Green, Tom (October 18, 1991). "Phoenix's stock rising". USA Today.
35.Jump up ^ Corliss, Richard (November 15, 1993). "His Own Private Agony". Time. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
36.^ Jump up to: a b Ross, Dalton (February 28, 2005). "My Own Private Idaho". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
External links[edit]
My Own Private Idaho at the Internet Movie Database
My Own Private Idaho at allmovie
My Own Private Idaho at Rotten Tomatoes
My Own Private Idaho at Metacritic
My Own Private Idaho at Box Office Mojo
Criterion Collection essay by Amy Taubin


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Categories: 1991 films
English-language films
Bisexuality-related films
1990s drama films
Films set in Oregon
Films set in Idaho
Films set in Italy
Films set in Seattle, Washington
New Line Cinema films
Films shot in Oregon
Modern adaptations of works by William Shakespeare
Road movies
Buddy films
Films based on works by William Shakespeare
American LGBT-related films
Films shot in Rome
Male prostitution in the arts
Films about prostitution
Screenplays by Gus Van Sant
Films directed by Gus Van Sant




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