My Own Private Idaho is a 1991 American independent film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Henry IV part I and II, and Henry V. Van Sant 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 an 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. After he sent his script to Reeves, and Reeves showed it to Phoenix, both agreed to star in the film.
Mike, a strwwt hustler, stands alone on a deserted stretch of highway. He starts talking to himself and notices that the road looks “like someone’s face, like a fucked-up face.” He then experiences a narcoleptic episode and dreams of his mother comforting him as home movies of his childhood play in his mind. Later, after being fellated by a client in Seattle, Mike returns to his favorite spots to pick up clients. He is picked up by a wealthy older woman who takes him to her mansion, where he finds two fellow hustlers she also hired. One of them is Scott Favor, Mike’s best friend, and the other is Gary. While preparing to have sex with the woman, Mike has another narcoleptic episode and awakens the next day with Scott in Portland Oregan.
Mike and Scott are soon reunited with Bob Pigeon, a middle-aged mentor to a gang of street kids and hustlers who live in an abandoned apartment building. Scott, the son of the mayor of Portland, confides to Bob that when he turns 21, he will inherit his father’s fortune and retire from street hustling. Meanwhile, Mike yearns to find his mother, so he and Scott leave for Idaho to visit Mike’s older brother, Richard. Along this journey Mike confesses to Scott that he is in love with him, and Scott gently reminds Mike he only sleeps with men for money. Richard tells a story of a man he claims is Mike’s father, but Mike says that he knows it is Richard. Richard informs Mike that their mother works as a hotel maid; when Mike and Scott visit her workplace, they learn she went to Italy in search of her own family. At the hotel, they meet Hans, the man who drove them to Portland, and prostitute themselves to him.
With the money they receive from Hans, Mike and Scott travel to Italy. They find the country farmhouse where Mike’s mother worked as a maid and English tutor. Carmela, a young woman 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 US, leaving a brokenhearted Mike to return on his own. Scott’s father dies, and Scott inherits his fortune. Back in Portland, Bob and his gang confront a 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 father. At the end of the film, Mike is back on the deserted stretch of Idaho highway. After he falls into another narcoleptic stupor, two strangers pull up in a truck, take his backpack and shoes, and drive away. Moments later, an unidentified figure pulls up in a car, picks the unconscious Mike up, places him in the vehicle, and drives away.
