If Shakespeare Directed Brokeback Mountain...

My Own Private Idaho (1991) is a New Queer Cinema film that takes a stylized, almost fantastical response to the gay community's persecution and exile from society during the AIDS epidemic.  It has a lot of common tropes with other queer films, such as the abstractly, sensually-shot sex scenes and a hateful or misunderstanding old father.  However, the film introduces these tropes in a somewhat new fashion, a fashion that works...and doesn't work.

One particular scene is when the character Bob "Pigeon" comes back to town and goes back to a house that an elderly woman owns to sleep and do drugs.  Scotty (Keanu Reeves) wakes Bob up, only to have Bob find that he was robbed of his cocaine.  Bob angrily storms out through the halls of the house, yelling at the top of his lungs in a very grandiose and humorous fashion.  The camera takes a few moments here and there to cut to the protagonist, Mikey (River Phoenix), snorting Bob's cocaine.  Bob does not even question Mikey; he instantly blames his assistant and the elderly woman, who hilariously replies off-screen, "Don't worry, Bob, we'll get your coke!"  He then gets caught up in long-winded, Shakespearean couplet exposition about how he used to be a good guy, but after he met Scotty, he became a dirty, old, fat thief who stalks coke lines and gay bars.  During this part, Scotty is responding to his accusations with rhyming couplets as both men are strolling through an unfinished part of the house.  The uncovered wooden beams and floor and bland glass windows help mimic the look of a stage play, complete with incredibly hammy acting.

This scene was interesting for two notable reasons.  The first one is the (likely intentional) comparison between New Queer Cinema and Shakespearean plays.  Both are about grandiose, fantastical analyses of society and often include shots at politics.  They also both explore the idea of "forbidden love" and how the lovers get around those borders.  The other reason this scene peaks the audience's interest is because of the way the Bob "Pigeon" character is portrayed.  Most other queer films, such as The Trip, Maurice, Bad Education and Torch Song Trilogy often want the audience to feel sympathy with the good-looking, usually young men.  But here, the movie tries to play on pathos with the older, fat, sweaty and obnoxious character; this is a character type that is usually the villain and sometimes goes hand-in-hand with the misunderstanding father character.  Bob is here to remind the audience that not all gay men look like Abercrombie and Fitch models.

The only thing that sort of killed this otherwise amusing scene was all the exposition.  It only half-way works because this is a call-back to Shakespearean plays, but it is really annoying since many other scenes beforehand included dialogue and monologues that were nothing but exposition.  Generally, it is better to show the audience what happened rather than have a character just spell it out in paragraphs.