"My Idaho" is also called "The Unruly Sky", and I can't tell which one I like better, because "My Idaho" is more profound and "Unruly Sky" is more poetic. I watched this film at first, for Keanu and for Van Sant's terrifying poetry.
Van Sant has always liked to focus on the rolling roads and flowing clouds, and "My Idaho" is also poetic to the extreme. The sex scenes in the film are also very special and poetic. "My Idaho" is Mike and Scott's Idaho, their decadent and free life, their frivolous and passionate soul. For Scott, his Idaho is more of a state of existence that has been pursued but given up. Scott finally left Mike, abandoned that crazy youth, and Fat Bob's death completely cut him off from his past life. Scott may be happy, but his happiness has become cloudy, and although he has not left Idaho, he has lost forever the free Idaho that he shared with Mike.
For a gay movie, the same-sex feelings in "My Idaho" aren't as fiery or superficial. But at the end, the far-off sight of Scott and Mike at the funeral scene is extremely heart-wrenching. On one side is Scott, who has returned to the mainstream society and will inherit his father's large inheritance, on the other side is Mike, who has a chaotic future and a chaotic life; on the other side is the formal and solemn funeral of Scott's father, and on the other side is the funeral of Bob's crazy depravity. Such a strong contrast has shown the gap between Scott and Mike. Scott's eyes were complicated, and Mike was even more crazy. Their shared Idaho was shattered, leaving Mike alone to struggle. (Should Scott struggle too)
Whenever Van Sant aims at the long road, I can't help but think of Kerouac's "On the Road", the same madness, the same confusion, the same persistence, the same pain. It's just one more about sullen love, one more about broken dreams. Mike in the film suffers from narcolepsy, in which he has unexplained convulsions and then falls asleep. Every time he had a seizure, a childhood scene with his mother would come up. Maybe it's Mike's desire, maybe it's Mike's temporary escape, but he must be deeply immersed in this memory, which is extremely painful and unable to extricate himself. Broken childhood and broken love make this seemingly unruly but fragile man even weaker under the domination of fate. Thinking of the fate of Mike's actor Phoenix in reality, it was even more sad to watch this film.
At the end of the film, Mike falls ill again where he started, and his property is stolen. He was left with nothing again, and hit the road again. Take the road he calls "full of ups and downs and endless"...
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