Some films capture the zeitgeist. Others create it all by themselves.
“Thelma & Louise” falls into the latter category. The 1991 film sparked plenty of debates about feminism, freedom and female empowerment.
Here’s just one take on the film and its controversial ending:
“They achieve what the existentialist philosophers call transcendence. Having once experienced what it is to make their own choices, speak with their own voices, and take responsibility for their own actions, they are unwilling to relinquish that freedom. And they choose freely and with full awareness of the meaning of their choice not to relinquish it. It is an extraordinary resolution that ennobles Thelma and Louise–the characters and the film. And it is a stinging indictment of this society that the choice they make is the sane and reasonable one.” – Linda Lopez McAlister
Is she right?
WWTW wasn’t impressed by the film back then, but I’m eager to re-watch the movie when it makes its Blu-ray debut Feb. 8. I was in my early 20s when I first saw Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis raising heck and leaving befuddled men in their wake. I suspect seeing it with fresh, more mature eyes will give me a broader – no pun intended – perspective on the film.
Screenwriter Callie Khouri made the talk show rounds after the film’s release, and it seemed like she had a bright career ahead of her. Instead, her Hollywood output has remained modest. She penned the underrated “Something to Talk About” (1995) and directed 2008’s misire “Mad Money.”
What are your memories of “Thelma & Louise,” and does the film have legs as a movie of consequence?
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Since I don’t come at this as a feminazi type, I saw the movie with less importance. I thought it was a fun romp that wasn’t anything other than a female fantasy type situation. I was in my 20s, also, and having re-watched it a time or two over the years, (mostly to see Pitt at his prime), I still don’t get the supposed deep importance of the movie. Maybe you have to want to see the deeper message to get it?
What are my memories of “Thelma and Louise”? Mostly, it’s a shirtless Brad Pitt. Seriously though, I never understood women who cheered this movie. Both characters behaved so stupidly. Nevertheless, I have to admit Geena Davis was funny as a housewife surprised to discover she had a hidden talent for crime.
I can’t stand Susan Srandon, she has ruined more movies for me than any other actor next to Sean Penn.
My memories of the movie are of wondering what the heck was wrong with Texas (details of the past trauma would have been nice) and of thinking this was another highly hyped movie that disappointed, although Ridley Scott’s cinematography was breathtakingly beautiful. A movie of consequence? Only as another stepping-off point for asking why, to a certain, once-influential demographic in the mid to late 20th century, a woman’s liberation had to involve death. It’s probably still too early to get into that objectively, though.
I love that “the existentialist philosophers” in the quote; that’s not even what transcendance is, even in Sartre (the only one who really talked about it). His “transcendance” isn’t taking control of your own destiny, it’s experiencing the subjectivity of another for-itself being, essentially grasping another not as an object but as another for-itself being. Which sounds great, until you remember how he treated his mistress. Here’s a hint: Simone Beauvoir (said mistress) is largely responsible for the kind of feminism that says men are the only ones allowed any autonomy or value—only men are treated as beings-for-themselves (in Sartre’s terms), while women are treated as objects. To paraphrase Pat Buchanan, “Speak for yourself, Simone.”
And seriously, what other existentialists does this movie have anything to do with? Certainly not Heidegger or Camus or Kierkegaard. I’m pretty sure if Thelma and Louise were to come to grips with the concept of non-being through angst and trembling (Heidegger) or leap to faith (Kierkegaard—unless that’s what driving off the cliff is supposed to be?), it would’ve been a much different movie—and I can’t escape the notion that Camus would’ve had them stay in their lives at the beginning of the film (he tended toward the Stoical sort of existentialism).
Existentialism does not mean “there are no rules, follow your bliss”, folks.
A perfectly great Ridley Scott road movie ruined by its feministic fantasies.
I went to see this movie based on the utterly deceptive trailer, which made it out to be a wacky buddy/road comedy. The gal I was dating and I were struck dumb when the rape scene came out of nowhere, and the mood lasted for us for the rest of the movie. We never went out again…
I would pay good money to watch a movie about Americans of the class presented by Louise Sawyer and her friend Thelma coming to grips with “the concept of non-being through angst and trembling.” A suggestion for the soundtrack: Tanya Tucker’s “Some Kind of Trouble.”
I taped a special that Showtime aired way back in ‘92 or ‘93. It was called “When Thelma met Louise”. It’s a half hour long and has interviews from the cast and Gloria Steinem. Would anybody happen to remember this and have it on tape?