Thelma & Louise

The 1991 road trip film, Thelma & Louise, remains as an iconic piece of pop culture not only for its overt female empowerment (which was becoming very popular around the time of its release), but also for its overall strength as a flick, with many of its lines, characters and scenes still being referenced to this day. Performing well at the box office, receiving extremely positive reviews from critics, becoming the most rented movie on V/H/S of 1992, and being nominated for most of the high-calibre awards at the Oscars like Best Director, Screenplay and Actress (although strangely missing Best Picture), Thelma & Louise was an unassuming yet monumental film and thanks to its strong execution and backing, is still enjoyable to watch all these years later.

While preparing for a weekend vacation, a sharp-tongued waitress named Louise (played by Susan Sarandon) is thrilled that her meek housewife best friend, Thelma (played by Geena Davis) was finally able to get away from her controlling infantile husband, Darryl (played by Christopher McDonald) for their trip (although Thelma later reveals it was only because she didn’t ask him). While stopping at a roadhouse bar, the inexperienced and overly sharing Thelma faces a cruel dose of reality when a sleazy bar dweller tries to rape her, forcing Louise to step in and shoot him dead. Not being willing to go to the cops in fear that they won’t believe their claims, Louise plans to flee to Mexico, which Thelma reluctantly but eventually agrees to as she has nothing to return to. While they make their trek across the horizon, Detective Hal Slocumb (played by Harvey Keitel) is attempting to track down both women in order to prevent their sentencing from getting more severe, which is hard since the further they go, the more crimes they commit in order to reach their destination. Feeling a sense of vigorous freedom while on the run, these best friends will be forced to shed their past identities, come to grips with deeply buried regrets, and continue heading into the unknown, even if it could lead them to a fatal end.

Thelma & Louise is a very well-constructed film that doesn’t offer any astronomically new ideas or feel as daring nowadays due to a larger margin for diverse stories and perspectives but lacks any strong problems that hold it back from being a very enjoyable, kinetic, and emotionally engaging experience. With wonderful atmosphere and ambience elevated by the rich and characterful environment, a killer soundtrack and score, two incredible leading performances from Sarandon and Davis, and scripting and direction that really brings the best out of what is on paper fairly straightforward material, it’s no wonder this resonated with so many.

The idea originated back in 1988 when the film’s screenwriter, Callie Khouri (who would win the film’s only Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) drew inspiration from her own experiences and friendship with country music singer Pam Tillis when constructing this story, and while initially intending it to be a low-budget independent film she’d personally direct, it was eventually delivered to Ridley Scott after being picked up by Mimi Polk Gitlin (who ran Scott’s production company then named, Percy Main Productions). Scott was very enthusiastic about the project, and while initially trying to find others to direct (with options including Richard Donner, Bob Rafelson, and Kevin Reynolds), he took on the role himself, which might seem like an odd, even risky choice. Scott was known at the time for his more visually-aweing and angsty action flicks, but he managed to surprise by making this movie full of life, bustling with energy and chaotic thrill, and sombre enough in its messaging and complicated leads to result in a thoroughly well-rounded flick. While it can be hard to fully pinpoint how Scott’s direction influenced this movie in the long run, the scripting by Khouri truly shines, managing to take what is on the surface a fairly standard road trip story that goes haywire, and making it a very connectable tale that cleanly builds upon itself.

The way it mirrors a lot of Western tales through the lens of a contemporary environment and a female viewpoint, allows for a lot of fresh perspectives and twists on recognisable tropes, and everything from the dialogue, the personality of the leads, the ensuing chase that erupts between them and the law, even the aesthetic, environment, visuals and music, reflect this kind of wanderer narrative and delivers it in a sense that allows for a lot of crazy antics that can lean towards a more comical, over-the-top presentation, but also offers plenty of quiet contemplative moments that ground the leads in a way that still makes them very endearing and relatable. It goes at a good pace, no scene feels wasted, the themes explored surrounding the rampant misogyny throughout the western landscape and the uneven treatment women face all throughout society is well executed, most of the actors get the assignment and work with the material very nicely, the film is rich in personality thanks to the colorful cast and very engrossing landscapes, and the ending is such a perfect bittersweet note to end on that it clearly explains why its lasted so long.

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis were by far and away the most memorable, applauded and long-lasting aspect of this film, so it’s funny that they weren’t the initial choices. The two leads were originally going to be played by Jodie Foster and Michelle Pfeiffer, but both had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts (Foster in particular left to be in The Silence of the Lambs which would get her the Oscar for Best Actress over both Sarandon and Davis in the same category), and then were replaced by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn (who also dropped out due to scheduling conflict), finally allowing Sarandon and Davis to take the parts, and they really feel like the right choices. While both had successful careers at the time, neither felt necessarily high profile, which brought a lack of assured confidence to their performances which in turn made them feel more authentic as people who spiral as their situation gets more and more crazy. Davis has comfortably played this type of seemingly docile woman being shaped into a more hardened and confidant person many times over, and pulls it off effortlessly once again, and Sarandon’s more pronounced and showy demeanor not only makes for good contrast against Davis, but is at her strongest when she just has to emote, as her broody glances and ponderous stares say paragraphs without needing more context. They share very natural chemistry, play out fairly standard character development in a very believable way, and are able to portray traditional femininity just as strongly as they can more contemporary feminine strength and determination, they’re both phenomenal.

Most of the supporting cast aren’t as complex or well-written as the leads, which is fairly common in a lot of road trip flicks where they’re mainly used as mood or location setters, but there’s a strong sense of irony surrounding how some critics reacted to this film in particular. While many were pleased with the direction, themes and characters regarding the women, some weren’t a fan of the negative portrayal of men in this film (who range from either being incompetent sex-hungry idiots, or disgusting creeps and rapist) and complained that there wasn’t a single ‘positive male figure’ in the movie. While this is very easy to mock for how hypocritical it feels (as the flipside where women in road trip films can be nothing more than chew toys to be gawked at was never criticized), the one time it’s actually detrimental to the film is on the one man who actually is portrayed as good. While Harvey Keitel is meant to act as the one person trying to help these women out of the situation, he’s given so little agency, personality or motivation, that he only feels like a plot device rather than a role that offers genuine support. With that said, the rest of the cast like Christoper McDonald, Michael Madsen and an early Brad Pitt cameo, while certainly portrayed in an over-the-top sense without much depth, add onto the colorful nature of the film and make for memorable side characters.

Being a film all about trekking through the rural American west, the movie knows to present the environment in a way that calls back to classical films but offers a more modern and analytical look that tackles aspects of personhood and society while also feeling very lively and colorful. The environment is just as much a character as the two leads, with it quickly exiting the familiar clutter of suburbia for a more widespread, sweaty and dangerous locale that has the potential to tear someone down (especially women) but can be quite freeing and even beautiful with the right vantage point. This is captured very nicely through the cinematography by Adrian Biddle, which does a fantastic job spotlighting the grungy, cramped and masculine-exuding energy of any bar or police scene, but also the sweeping and tranquil vibe of any scene featuring a majestic rock formation spread throughout the dry yet earthy desert environment. It’s an environment that strangely isn’t showcased in film that often, but it really works with this premise and is presented in a very nice fashion.

The soundtrack is also fantastic, adopting a nice mixture of edgy country rock and 90s female ballad which smartly combines both attitudes this film is trying to emulate and blending them in a way to show that while different in sound and style, they can provide the same kind of euphoric excitability. This is further pushed by the very cool-sounding score handled by the ever-impressive Hans Zimmer, with a piece that has a sweeping symphonic quality that captures the spacious energy and mindset you get when out soul-searching, but also slips in a hint of an electric guitar to really sell that thrilling sense of power these two women are feeling in this new state of mind, it really balances out the movie very nicely.

Thelma & Louise may not have garnered as many rewards as it probably could’ve for its time, but for the kind of movie it was and during a time when treating women equally was still a little up in the air (it still kind of is even to this day), it’s delightful that it not only did well from every angle, but is still viewed as a great movie all these years later, which it achieved through the use of ambient imagery and locations, very colorful performances, two incredible leading characters, and a very solid script. More modern films may dive a little deeper into these real-world problems with more grit and there are a few ticks that could be picked at upon closer inspection, but none are enough to take away from the ride this movie takes you on.