My Own Private Idaho - DVD - 1/4/10

After the success of "Drugstore Cowboy" Gus Van Sant was able to turn his attention to a project that had been dear to his heart for many years. The result was "My Own Private Idaho" which takes, at least in part, the story of Shakespeare's Henry IV and retells the it with Portland rent boys in place of royalty.

The result is a, now, notorious and magnificent film. The beautiful but flawed River Phoenix stars alongside Keanu Reeves as Mike and Scott respectively. Mike is a narcoleptic down and out while Scott is the heir to an incredible fortune. Together they sell their bodies, steal and hang out with the other outsiders populating the back streets and abandoned hotels of Portland.

At times Van Sant takes wholesale sections of Shakespeares script but, unlike his shot for shot remake of "Psycho", he adds elements all of his own to leave us with something that is quite unique and never anything less than fascinating.