It is heartbreaking. Yes of course the image is read through the death of River Phoenix. It is also read through the life and joy of Keanu Reaves. It is, additionally, read through the soundtrack – of a cowboy, north-west… American. Definitively American. Maybe that’s why they look so tired and fucked up.
What am I seeing therefore? Bravery. Sandwiches. Incest. Discovery.
Love. Trust. Brothers. And finally a money as out.
It is heartbreaking.
The actors are of course both beautiful and in their prime – so it might be said. (Avoidance of doubt, Keanu Reaves maintains his prime.)
There is a fantasy in beholding them – because they are both physically beautiful. They are not children; they are young men. This is significant. This is not a teenage, adolescent fantasy; they are young men. Disheveled, wild, confused. Styled but what the heck. Later. Have a nice day.
I wanted to be River Phoenix in this film. I was 18. That might express me.
I just know I’ve been stuck on this road sometime before…
This image captures the film: it includes the end.
I often watch this film and it kills me each and every time. There is a point beyond which we conventionally label tragedy. The point of death is hard. It goes beyond/beneath the thinking. There is a glimmer of hope at the end of it.
I feel that with classical tragedy, by which I mean Greek, that we already have that and know that – we have assimilated that.
This on the other hand dares to touch its toe one step beyond.