Viewed 20 years after the fact, Thelma and Louise seems both more and less radical than it did when first released. Pigeonholed for the last two decades as the quintessential feminist film to ever come out of Hollywood (a title virtually unchallenged by any film released in the interim), Thelma was released at a time when female heroines were starting to seem not only viable, but also as good business practice for bringing in female audiences feeling disenfranchised by the glut of muscly actioners that seemed to dominate the box office, largely stonewalling releases aimed at woman. In comparison with the female heroines of today, Thelma and Louise still seem vital, and the film remains effectively made as a thematic departure for Ridley Scott, but the iconic badge that it has worn for so long seems due less to any profound statements made by the film-makers than to their merely addressing a cultural segment to which so little has been offered.
Bored waitress Louise (Susan Sarandon) and bored housewife Thelma (Geena Davis) have had enough. Bored of their jobs, bored of their aging, and bored of the inadequate men in their life. But instead of leaping directly into a shooting rampage across the southwest, they preface it with a brief vacation, under the context of a girls’ weekend away. Things start out fine, but once Thelma is taken out into a parking lot by a stranger (who intends to rape her), and the ensuing confrontation ends in Louise shooting him, they find themselves on the run from the law. Pursued by able law enforcement officer Hal (Harvey Keitel) and abetted by vivacious drifter J.D. (Brad Pitt), the two women try initially to put their lives back together, but increasingly find that they don’t want to go back to what they had, and instead only want to keep pushing boundaries, no matter where it may lead them.
Released five years after Aliens and the same year as The Silence of the Lambs, Thelma and Louise became the signature film for a resurgent feminism that had long wandered in the wilderness. Rather than using the storyline as a mouthpiece for explicitly political themes, these films put women into roles previously occupied by men alone and examined the growing pains that resulted from the change. While a more complete history of film at the time would be needed to fully appreciate the social significance of Thelma (or determine whether it was really a profound statement or just in the right place at the right time), from afar an approximation must be made based on what came immediately before and in the many years since its realization. What is definitely unique about Thelma is not its gun posturing, nor its anti-men diatribes, but the fact that the resolution that the two characters find is with each other rather than in either a bloody act of defiance or a saddening acknowledgement of defeat. The film’s deservedly famous conclusion (really, still the gutsiest creative decision on the part of the film-makers), in which the two women decide to escape their lives rather than to accept that the rest of them would be under subjugation, represents not a political statement so much as a fulfillment of a friendship’s promise, and that no one, whether righteous or not, would be able to keep them apart.
As big a hit as Thelma was, it seems to have inspired relatively few copycats. The field of female heroines has expanded greatly, opening the door for the likes of Buffy, the Bride, and even Xena, but has settled into the same sort of trends that Thelma looked to reverse. The representation of women in films since has divided fairly neatly into two categories: hypersexualized, depersonalized action heroes (for men) and flighty emotional dependents (supposedly for women). Thelma and Louise are neither. Instead, they are adults who are committed to each other but nonetheless find themselves in a situation far beyond their control. When compared with their gun-toting antecedents, Thelma and Louise seem significantly more vulnerable and more subject to the forces at work around them, but also more human.
In the face of the wrath that came after them, Thelma and Louise actually look pretty tame. They don’t relish their violence, and they never act unless provoked. But since their motivations are always clear and their reactions are always genuine, they never come off as projections of empowerment fantasy, but as people responding in kind to the world around them. Thelma and Louise could have paved the way for an actual revolution in Hollywood, but as is, it is a revolution unfinished, and potentially abandoned.
Bonus Features
There are two audio commentaries, one with Ridley Scott, and another with Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, and Callie Khouri, the film’s screenwriter. There’s also Thelma and Louise: The Last Journey, and original theatrical featurette, deleted and extended scenes (including the ending), storyboards for the final chase, and the “Part of You, Part of Me” music video by Glenn Frey.
"Thelma & Louise (20th Anniversary)" is on sale February 8, 2011 and is rated R. Crime, Drama. Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Callie Khouri. Starring Brad Pitt, Christopher McDonald, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Susan Sarandon.
