Many people today complain that Hollywood became “woke”. The process actually began very long time ago and became apparent in early 1990s, when “wokeness” was known as “political correctness”. This coincided with the end of Cold War which switched Hollywood attention toward US domestic issues, including plight of various oppressed or underprivileged segments of society. One of the better films to represent such trend was Thelma & Louise, 1991 action drama directed by Ridley Scott, nowadays best known as one of the most explicit expressions of feminism in American cinema.
The plot begins in Arkansas where Thelma Dickinson (played by Geena Davis) lives with her overbearing husband, carpet salesman Darryl (played by Christopher McDonald). Her best friend, waitress Louise Sawyer (played by Susan Sarandon), talks her into joining her during weekend getaway that is supposed to involve fishing into mountains. Along the way, two women make a stop at the roadhouse where Thelma takes a few drinks too many and catches attention of a man named Harlan Puckett (played by Timothy Carhart). He tries to take advantage of her at the parking lot, but the vicious rape is stopped by gun-wielding Louise who shoots the would-be rapist dead following his defiant remark. When this happens, Louise is as confused and traumatised as Thelma, but also doesn’t want to explain the incident to the police. She takes Thelma to motel where they would try to decide what to do next. Faced with the lack of financial resources, while unwilling to return home, two women ultimately resort to armed robberies. Their journey, which filled them with intoxicating feeling of freedom, takes them towards Mexico and finally gets attention of authorities. Arkansas State Police detective Hal Slocumb (played by Harvey Keitel) tries to bring them in before they get hurt or worse.
Ridley Scott is director with many ups and downs in his filmography, with quality of each title often depending on the quality of screenplay. Scott was able to turn merely good scripts into masterpieces, while underwhelming scripts turned into disasters. Thankfully, script by Callie Khouri belonged to the former category. Originally developed more than a decade before production, it was originally intended for low budget independent film Khouri was supposed to direct herself. However, this interesting combination of road film, action, drama and little bit of dark comedy ended in the hands of Scott. He used it as another opportunity to display his talent for stunning visuals, aided by brilliant cinematography of Adrian Biddle and iconic locations of American Southwest, including Grand Canyon which is featured in the iconic finale. Composer Hans Zimmer also helped with his score, although it was somewhat drowned with the country songs that effectively create cheerful atmosphere which is at times at odds with serious content of the film.
But the real backbone of Thelma & Louise is a script, which was ultimately awarded with Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Thorne in many ways takes narrative structure of Hollywood road films, but she inverts it by having women instead of men as protagonists. Thorne clearly tries to tell this story from women’s perspective and it is easy to argue that such perspective is feminist. Both women are victims of men and male-dominated society – Thelma in present, being stuck in apparently loveless and emotionally abusive marriage; Louise in the past, through traumatic event that made her distrust men even in case of her well-meaning boyfriend, played by Michael Madsen. Men that Thelma and Louise meet are presented as unpleasant, condescending or dangerous – they can use any opportunity to intimidate, insult or sexually and materially exploit women. At the same time, Thorne presents their heroines as ordinary persons with working-class background. The incident that would spiral out of control happens in a believable way, just as protagonists’ reactions seem believable.
A lot of credit for success of the film should go to perfect cast. Susan Sarandon is quite believable and quite effective in somewhat thankless role of a woman who, apart from past traumas, has to deal with the issues of age, briefly but effectively hinted in couple of scenes. Much younger Geena Davis is equally good in the role of repressed housewife who finds new intoxicating freedom. Sarandon and Davis have good chemistry together, creating one of the most iconic “buddy buddy” pairings in history of Hollywood and one of the rare that features female characters. They also help audience maintain sympathy for their characters despite their actions being obviously ill-advised, irresponsible and ultimately fatal. The rest of the cast is also very good, including young and shirtless Brad Pitt as hitch-hiker in what would ultimately become his breakout role and pave his way to the status of greatest male sex symbols of Hollywood. Harvey Keitel is also good in the role of the only sympathetic male character, despite script that doesn’t bother to explain where the experienced and seemingly jaded policeman found such goodness for his heart.
When it was released, Thelma & Louise was greeted well by critics and had more than solid results at the box office. However, it also created a controversy, with some critics arguing that its explicit feminism at times strayed into simplistic misandry. Some in the audience were unhappy with the end which was strangely bleak for early 1990s Hollywood. Khouri and Scott, on the other hand, were clearly inspired by some of the most popular films in late 1960s which featured similar endings, like Bonnie and Clyde or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Greatest influence on Thelma & Louise can be traced to another film from the same period - Easy Ryder, road film classic which also featured bleak ending and which is object of many homages in Scott’s work, including the scene that faces protagonists with hostile trucker (here played by Marco St. John). Thelma & Louise isn’t perfect. Scott drags a plot near the end and the scene with mountain bike-riding Rastafarian seems a little bit too cute to be included in the film. However, all those flaws are minor and Thelma & Louise is not only iconic, but also a very entertaining film that could be enjoyed by audiences that don’t care much about authors’ ideologies.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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