Starting with the two protagonists of Mike played by Revan Phoenix and Scott played by Keanu Reeves, it is easy to get into the meaning of the film. In the film, Mike suffers from intermittent narcolepsy, and faints whenever memories come. On the highways of Idaho, the clouds are rolling, the snow-capped mountains are looming, the river is rushing, and the fishes are over the water. "I have been appreciating the taste of the road all my life." Mike's world seems to have only the beauty of his childhood, and he keeps searching The image of the mother in that memory, even in the face of the fact that he was the product of the incest between his brother and his mother, he regarded his mother as the only light spot in his life. Fragments of memories are played back like a home video tape, accompanied by the clouds of Idaho. The career of a male prostitute is what Mike deserves. The film unfolds in the memory, waking up in the reality of Mike’s sex trade with a fat old man. Mike’s life is always interspersed with short sex trades. No wonder Scott’s The care and love among friends allowed him to surrender his true feelings without hesitation. Scott, the mayor's son, wanders on the streets as a male prostitute in order to avenge his father. Van Sant made Scott's story an important core of the film. This episode is adapted from Shakespeare's "Henry IV". After Henry IV came to the throne, the country rebelled and the situation was turbulent, but Prince Hal turned a blind eye to him, drinking and having fun with his close friend, the fat warrior Gustav. Scott's resistance to the mayor's father was given the meaning of American street culture by Van Sant. In the small circle of male prostitutes, Bob is undoubtedly Gustav, who likes to brag and boast. He pinned his future prosperity on the noble status after Scott inherited the inheritance. However, like Hal, Scott returned to the right path and kicked Bob away. Bob, like Gustav, had to end in depression.
Speaking of "Henry IV", one cannot fail to mention Orson Wells's "Midnight Bell" in 1965. This work shot by Wells after returning to the United States is also adapted from "Henry IV", Wells I played Gustav. Gustav of Wales is no longer the opportunistic and glib clown described by Shakespeare. Wells has turned Gustav into a victim of an era. He is unable to resist the torrent of changes in this era, and he wants to catch it. In the old knight era where glory and dream coexisted, this kind of effort would end in failure anyway. Master Wells said to himself, to the film industry under the Hollywood studio system, he is the Gustav, the poor man abandoned by the times. Gustav in Van Sant's film is also given a sympathy. Although Bob likes to speak big words, it is undeniable that he is the leader and father of this group. He unites them and makes them feel at home. Bob is the street godfather of Portland, but he can't match the middle-class values. . Scott's biological father and street father, they held the funeral at the same time and in the same place, and the street was calm and fixed on Scott's side, but when they cut to the other side, it became a messy handheld shooting. Van Sant found an American interpretation from Scott (Prince Hal). Tradition and freedom are both necessary for a person’s growth. Just like Kerouac, the wandering in his youth will always find freedom. , But the price of freedom is to make you understand that there is no real freedom.
The road culture in American movies is undergoing a change in the identity of characters in a specific historical period. The two protagonists in "My Own Idaho" are no longer what they used to be. Their loneliness comes from more complex uncertainty and self-doubt about family, morals, beliefs and sexual orientation. Van Sant’s films are always summarized in the category of the “new queer movement”. In fact, the same-sex issue in “My Own Idaho” is not discussed in depth. Men go to bed", and Mike falling in love with Scott is more like a sustenance of some kind of affection. In Van Sant’s debut in 1985, "Deep Night, Love Is Hard to Sing", the grocery store owner fell in love with a young Mexican illegal immigrant. This impossibility of love plus a large number of road trip passages and flowing cloud fragments are very similar. For "My Own Idaho", Van Sant set up the "good brothers" in the previous mainstream Hollywood road movies (such as "Little Tiger", "Scarecrow", "Fulu Shuangbatian", etc.) After expansion, the two male protagonists are not just brothers (Hollywood has always had a tradition of filming male interactions more interesting than between males and females), but now they have become lovers. In those gay road-themed movies after Greg Araki ("End of the Road", "End of the Century"), the concept of new queer really became clear, and these elements seem to be able to learn from Van Sant Found here.
If the "road" and "brothers" elements are the most obvious elements in "My Own Idaho", then some of the hidden elements are even more intriguing. In the movie, Mike and Scott set up a bonfire on the wandering road. At that time, Mike confided in his love for Scott. The voice of the wild wolf appeared in the background. It should be said that this is a very western scene. Mike The night that my mother killed Negative Han was a movie by John Wayne in the open-air theater of the car. Van Sant’s breakthrough in the iconic plot of Western movies was a bold one. It was simply a single-handed ambition to change American traditional culture. In fact, in the 1989 work "Psychedelic Cowboys", Van Sant reformed and innovated the western genre. The drug culture dominated the previous principles and moral propositions, and it has the ridiculous side of the current popular culture.
"Two worlds" is an important setting in "My Own Idaho". For Mike, his reality and the world of memories can only be connected through dreams. He cannot touch the world of peace and tranquility; Court, the noble son and heir are his future. The male prostitute status is just a fragment of cynicism when he was young. He can turn around calmly, but is it really that easy to give up? For Van Sant, "My Own Idaho" was his attempt to get out of the independent film circle. After that, he frequently crossed the boundary between independence and mainstream and started his glorious career. Finally, I have to talk about Rui Fan. He took this film at a popular moment in his career. It is really courageous. He showed the fragile and sensitive character of Mike. Without Rui Fan, there would be no such beauty and melancholy. In Idaho, there would be no such great movie about love and pain. Remember the most heartbreaking scene in the movie? Mike and his client came to the house. Mike showed a childlike smile watching "The Simpsons" on TV. The client came out in the background. Mike reluctantly left the TV. The client began to strip Mike’s clothes. Mike appeared on his face. A painful expression. Finally Mike fell on the highway in Idaho, his own highway (actually Rui Fan was born on a farm more than ten miles away) in the real world, it is impossible to know He was finally taken away by someone, but in that heavenly world, he must be able to walk out of the wasteland to find his warmest home.
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