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THE HISTORY OF SOUND ; 2025 // MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO ; 1991

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991)

"It’s night in the desert. Mike (River Phoenix), a teenage hustler given to bouts of narcolepsy, and Scott (Keanu Reeves), a slumming preppy prince, are huddled over a campfire. “I just want to kiss you, man,” says Mike softly. The words and the barely audible sound of his voice, caught between hope and despair, speak to anyone ever ripped apart by unrequited love. For all its flannel and Gore-Tex, the scene is a startlingly naked expression of lovelorn longing. Credit both Gus Van Sant, the director, and Phoenix, his perfect actor, with the heartbreak that floods My Own Private Idaho." — Criterion.com

petiteclover

𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗘𝗡𝗜𝗫 photographed by Abigayle Tarsches on set of My Own Private Idaho, 1991.

nkp1981

Keanu Reeves photographed by Douglas Keeve, 1987

rubenniall

tyger-land

𝙈𝙮 𝙊𝙬𝙣 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙄𝙙𝙖𝙝𝙤 1991

hi-heaux

Welcome back, Keanu and River <3

kathryngoth

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) dir. Gus Van Sant

cinematv

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) dir. Gus Van Sant

finelytaylored

does anyone else see the vision here

smoky-solitude

When Brokeback Mountain came out in 2005, it was allotted two on screen gay kisses and two on screen sex scenes. It has tension and yearning oozing from every interaction. It’s an absolutely phenomenal movie. Yet it didn’t win Best Picture. It became a joke, with people laughing at the most heartwrenching scenes in the movie. When the Oscars invited Ledger and Gyllanhaal to present the 2007 Oscars provided they joke about the movie, like so many others jokes about the movie, Ledger famously said “it’s not a joke to me” and boycotted the Oscars that year. He held his ground in the face of endless homophobia.

Twenty years later, we have Heated Rivalry, one of the most thoughtfully constructed pieces of queer media since Brokeback. It too oozes yearning and tension. It has countless kisses and infamous sex scenes. It’s a phenomenal TV show and it is being treated as such. The only jokes I’ve seen are people calling it porn (and we in the queer community call it yaoi). No one is turning the scenes that make most of us sob and ugly cry into jokes.

Scott kissed Kip and changed the game for queer hockey players, for Ilya and Shane and the other couples in the series.

Brokeback Mountain changed the game for queer media. For Heated Rivalry, yes, but also for Fellow Travellers, Heartstopper, Moonlight, Orange is the New Black, Call me by your name… For so many works queer media that we know and love.

If you haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, please go watch it.

And if you have watched it and you don’t understand, please remember that this was the movie no one thought could be made because of 2 kisses and 2 sex scenes. Then go rewatch it.