My Own Private Idaho

Synopsis
Feature film. A story about street hustlers that incorporates a reworking of the Hal/King Henry/Falstaff triangle. Some of the dialogue is taken from Henry IV Part 1.
Language
English
Country
United States
Medium
Film
Technical information
Colour / Sound
Year of release
1991
Duration
104 mins; 9,356 feet

Credits

Director
Gus Van Sant
Producer
Allan Mindel
Cinematographer
Eric Alan Edwards; John Campbell
Screenplay
Gus Van Sant
Music
Bill Stafford
Art Direction
Ken Hardy
Cast
Keanu ReevesScott Favor (Prince Henry (Hal))
Wiliam RichertBob Pigeon (Sir John Falstaff)
James Russo 
River PhoenixMike Waters (Poins)
Wiliam Richert 

Additional Details

Production type
Fiction Films
Plays
Henry IV Part 1
Subjects
Drama
Keywords
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

General
Van Sant has stated that it was seeing Welles’ CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT which inspired him to make the film. The Henry IV segments were shortened in the editing process because Sant said they ‘were becoming like a movie within a movie’.
Reviews
Reviewed in Sight and Sound (April 1992), p 55. ‘Imitation as Originality in Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho’ Almost Shakespeare: Reinventing his Works for Cinema and Television edited James R. Keller and Leslie Stratyner (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co, 2004). Tony Howard in his essay ‘Shakespeare’s Cinematic Offshoots’ in Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film edited by Russell Jackson (Cambridge: CUP, 2000) comments ‘Unfortunately Van Sant experimented by making his embarrassed cast paraphrase their Henry IV-based scenes in pseudo-Elizabethan dialogue; this is the worst of both worlds’.

Production Company

Name

New Line Cinema

Distributor (Hire)

Name

BFI Film Bookings Unit

Email
bookings.films@bfi.org.uk
Web
http://www.bfi.org.uk/about-bfi/help-faq/film-bookings External site opens in new window
Phone
020 7957 8938 / 8935
Address
21 Stephen Street
London
W1T 1LN

Distributor (Sale)

Name

Entertainment in Video

Phone
020 7930 7766
Fax
020 7930 9399
Address
108-110 Jermyn Street
London
SW1Y 6HB
Name

Retail outlets

How to cite this record

Shakespeare, "My Own Private Idaho". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/14717 (Accessed 26 Nov 2024)