Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Gay/Straight/Gay/Straight/Gay...Uh, Never Mind:
Walk on Water, My Own Private Idaho DVD
3-16-05 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.


























Gay Israeli director Eytan Fox’s independent film Walk on Water, opening this Friday is the best movie I’ve
seen so far this year.  Though the competition hasn’t exactly been stellar, this being the time of year Hollywood
dumps their toxic waste movies into theatres, the film’s so good, works on so many levels and raises such
fascinating issues, that releasing this little miracle of a movie now while the big guns are gearing up for
blockbuster season will hopefully help it gain the attention it deserves.  Don’t be surprised if this terrific multi-
layered character study/thriller ends up on my Top Ten list come next January.

Walk on Water stars Lior Ashkenazi as Eyal, a hit man for the Mossad, the secretive Israeli intelligence agency,
who is charged with tracking down an elderly fugitive Nazi.  Eyal, who we have seen assassinate a target with
silken ease in the film’s opening moments, is clearly frustrated at what he considers a brush off assignment and
demands of his superior, Menachem (Gideon Shemer), “Why now go get the aging Nazi?”  Menachem calmly
replies, “I want to get him before God does” and reluctantly Eyal accepts the challenge.

The Nazi’s grandson Axel (Knut Berger) is visiting Israel to see his sister Pia (Caroline Peters), who’s studying at
a Kibbutz, and hoping to convince her to return home to Germany to celebrate their father’s birthday.  Eyal has
been set up to pose as a tour guide for Axel but from the moment that the tense, by the book Eyal picks him up, it’s
clear that this is not a match made in Heaven.  “Welcome to Israel,” Eyal comments on the drive back from the
airport, “You missed today’s bomb.”  But to his irritation, Axel only seems interested in replacing Eyal’s Bruce
Springsteen CD playing in the car with his own of female singers.  Eyal listens with repressed contempt and is also
just barely polite when he meets Pia.

As he drives his charge around to various landmarks, however, Axel’s youthful, reflective optimism begins to have
an effect on Eyal – especially on the day that he and Axel strip down, cover themselves in mud and float in the
salty Dead Sea for hours.  But during an open air shower afterwards typical straight guy banter about male
genitalia sends up a warning flare for Eyal about Axel.  Sure enough, when Eyal accompanies Pia and Axel to a
nightclub, discovers that it’s a gay bar and sees Axel not only flirting with a man, but a Palestinian, his homophobia
and racism are too much and he leaves.  But Menachem insists he remain on the case and when Eyal returns the
film gets even MORE complex.  The movie, a fascinating character study up to this point, then shifts into high gear,
adding in some remarkable, dramatic twists, highlighted by a climax at the father’s birthday party in Germany.

Fox and screenwriter Gal Uchovsky (his real life lover) add one layer after another to this intelligent, heartfelt
study of gay vs. straight, Jew vs. German, Jew vs. Arab, young vs. old, family loyalty vs. personal integrity, but the
film never seems confusing (even as it switches between Hebrew, German and English!) and doesn’t pander with
simple solutions.  

Some of the set ups are admittedly a bit clichéd (one scene involving Neo-Nazi’s vs. butch drag queens in
particular) and the ending might seem a tad airy fairy.  But the movie earns many bonus points for tackling such an
array of tough issues in the first place and for having the smarts to never lecture and by never leaving the thriller
aspect far behind.  Fox also draws intricate performances out of his leads, especially Ashkenazi as Eyal, who to no
one’s surprise who sees the evidence here, is Israel’s biggest male box office star.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The wait is finally over.  Gus Van Sant’s 1991 masterpiece of queer cinema,
My Own Private Idaho has
finally arrived on DVD.  Lucky for fans of the film, the haunting tale of two street hustlers in Portland, this Special
Edition, director-approved two disc set comes from the Criterion Collection.  The persnickety care that Criterion
puts into their DVD releases seems to me the equivalent of the way certain record albums used to be packaged.  
Sitting with the lyric sheet, pouring over the album credits and photos, and reading the liner notes was almost as
important as the music itself and such is the case with the best of Criterion’s releases.

Criterion also understands the significance of not only recreating as closely as possible the look and sound of a
film's original theatrical release (which they’ve done superbly here – highlighting Van Sant’s color palette for the
film which favors orange and brown) but also the enticement of not just the usual extra stuff like deleted scenes,
director and crew commentaries and bios, but beautiful, extensive booklets like the one they’ve included for
Idaho.  A highlight of the booklet is the interview that Lance Loud did with Gus Van Sant for Interview magazine.  

The second disc, naturally, is going to draw a lot of attention from fans of queer cinema.  It features a fascinating,
newly recorded audio conversation (that should have been videoed) between Van Sant and
Far From Heaven
director Todd Haynes, a separate audio track with
Tarnation director Jonathan Caouette, and a recently done video
reminiscence between producer Laurie Parker and Rain Phoenix (who hung around the set watching brother River
give his greatest performance and later starred in Van Sant’s lesbian themed follow up to
Idaho, Even Cowgirls
Get the Blues
).  Van Sant’s career has been rather hit and miss and Idaho remains his best film which this highly
recommended release so vividly illustrates.  
www.criterioncollection.com
Two stellar efforts from gay directors: it's a good day