Thelma & Louise is a crime-drama directed by Ridley Scott starring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt. Screenwriter Callie Khouri came up with the idea that would be a staple of road trip crime movies and an iconic women on the run flick which perfectly captured the feminist sentiments at the time but that still maintains some relevance 34 years later.
The plot involves Thelma, a hardworking housewife whose husband shows no respect for, and Louise, a witty and sharp single waitress, two friends who embark on a trip to a fishing cabin for a weekend vacation but things get ugly when a man tries to abuse Thelma and Louise saves her by shooting the perpetrator. Both women now have the police on their trail as their misadventures accumulate until a breaking point.
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A very defiantly feminist text that while certainly not being the first fiction feature length movie to present feminist ideas it was one of the first highly popular films to actually break certain tropes and stereotypes and directly confront mundane patriarchal ideas in society, having women break their bond to the male-dominated civilization.
The film works with the characters of the two main ladies and their development is fueled by their dynamics and interactions, their friendship. Louise has toughened up living by herself in a harsh patriarchal world while Thelma has only known how to live under the wing of a man who doesn't even appreciate her and is controlling. The film presents the situations these leading women live in without falling into caricature. Throughout their journey and after the inciting incident Thelma becomes harsher and develops a sharpness and daringness previously missing while Louise softens up and learns to open up and feel comfortable around her friend. Both helping each other and discovering a new facet they previously were forced not to find.
This story takes place in the hot and cruel American desert, where several freeway movies and outlaw stories in western cinema took place, this time the historical misogyny of such landscape and genre is inhabited by modern day women who, tired of being tied to a sexist civilization and society, escape it to find new things about themselves while on the run from uniformed men of the law who want to punish them for it, but we never feel compelled to call them criminals, neither does the movie, as their crime is not one of viciousness but of frustration and circumstance.
With beautiful cinematography by Adrian Biddle, repetitive but fitting and somewhat emotional musical score by Hans Zimmer and a very solid direction by Ridley Scott, the film shines in the vast majority of aspects and reveals itself to not be dated at all in the ways most movies that touch upon social issues could get. Carried also by the astounding acting of Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. This is one of those movies where you get to inhabit the world of the characters and through their point of view you gain empathy, accompanying them on their struggles.
While not that well rounded, it is a movie that stands the test of time and has as much of an edge now as it did back then, helped out by the caliber of filmmakers and performers that give it a certain quality.
