Using components of cinematography such as the soundtrack and visual features, Thelma and Louise movie by Ridley Scott succeeded in demonstrating the life of women in the male-dominated world. Set up as a road crime comedy, the film has used various artistic elements to achieve its objective for the viewers and enhance its message. Featuring two male friends Thelma Dickson and Louise Sawyer as the major characters, Ridley succeeding in demonstrating the challenging experiences of women in the male-dominated world and how they strive to overcome the challenges. The film uses cinematographic tools such as the soundtracks and visual elements in its setting to narrate the story.
Narrative
The film features two married friends, Thelma Dickson and Louise Sawyer who are not happy with their marriages. Thelma, a housewife is married to Darryl who sells carpets while Louise is working a waitress in a dinner hotel and dates a musician Jimmy. The two friends are not happy with their abusive partners. Darryl, Thelma’s husband is a chauvinistic man who enjoys dominating her wife, limiting her freedom of expression which he considers as noise. Likewise, Jimmy is continuously on the road, subjecting her partner Louise to constant emotional abuse. The two friends sets off for a road trip to breath fresh air far from their abusive home, and on the way, stops at a roadside bar (Killgalon and Mairead 1). In the bar, Thelma encounters a flirtatious man named Harlan who engages her in a romantic dance. In the course of the dance, Harlan takes Thelma to parking lot and attempts to rape her. Louise who was closely following rescues her friend by threatening to shoot the assaulter. As they leave the scene, Harlan hurl insults at them, prompting Louise to shoot him dead.
In this part of the movie, the endangered nature of the female gender is exposed. The two friends are constantly exposed to abuse by male individuals. At their respective homes, the duo is on continuous emotional and psychological abuse by their chauvinist abusive husbands. Thelma’s abusive husband does not allow her to talk when watching, suppressing her freedom of expression. Likewise, Louise whose musician husband seems better is subjected to a continuous emotional abuse by her ever-moving husband (Yang et al. 3226). While seeking freedom away from home, the duo encounter an even worse abuse, when Thelma is almost raped by another chauvinistic male called Harlan, and forced to turn to gun for protection. It becomes more evident that two female friends who represent the larger women population are vulnerable in the male-dominated and must live by always defending and fight for their freedom.
A frightened Thelma is determined to report to the police but she is called out by Louise who believes their rape story will not be believed, but instead charged with murder. To stay safe, the duo sets for Mexico, however, Louise is against going passing through Texas as she has haunting memories of the state, even though she keeps it anonymous. They then head west where they encounter a charismatic young drifter called J.D. who falls in love with Thelma. Louise on the other hand calls her partner Jimmy and request for her life savings (Yang et al. 328). Surprisingly, the husband Jimmy physically and personally delivers the savings, after which they spend together that night. While together, Jimmy uses the opportunity to propose to Louise but his advances are declined. On the other side, Thelma and J.D spends a night together, engaging in an intercourse. J.D who is a thief breaks a parole and steals Louise life savings and vanish. In response, Thelma robs a neighboring convenience store but she is witnessed.
Besides emotional, physical and sexual abuse, another aspect in the male-dominated world portrayed in the movie that makes the female gender vulnerable is the gullibility and ease of compromise. From the J.D’s encounter and subsequent thievery, it is evident that women are also vulnerable to compromise and male deceit. Despite experiencing a psychological abuse from her chauvinist husband and attempted sexual abuse from Harlan, Thelma again falls for the trap of J.D who dupes her into a fake romance and uses the opportunity to steal her friend’s life savings. Having met J.D for the first time, Thelma was convinced easily by J.D who tricks her with fake romantic glimpses and beds her (Killgalon and Mairead 2). She falls in love easily, giving the new thieving partner the opportunity to steal from them. In addition, the new partner manipulates and her influences her to steal. Thelma who had not stolen before, acquires robbery tricks from J.D and led a robbery on the convenience store, which would later make them the subject of FBI detectives.
The next day, FBI detectives who have been on pursuit surround them following witnesses’ identification of Louise’ Ford Thunderbird convertible. Hal Slocumb the lead detective grills both J.D and Jimmy and unsuccessfully attempts to persuade the female partners who are on the run. Thelma and Louise then bump on a New Mexico state trooper, and fearing their identity will be discovered, Thelma forcefully locks the officer on his car. While still on the run heading west, they encounter a foul-mouthed track driver who engage them in obscene gestures, motivating Louise to shoot him in the foot (Yang et al. 327). The two friends later got surrounded by the Hal-led detectives, but they refuse to surrender and instead run to their presumed death in solidarity.
The last part of the movie demonstrates the endless suffering of women in the world and feminist strength. Surrounded by abuses and challenges from all corners and without a helping hand, majority of women resort to death. However, even in death, the female gender remains unbowed. The two females in the movie Thelma and Louise refuse to surrender but instead choose to stick together and fight on. Even though they face numerous challenges, they stay united and overcome them, depicting a feminist strength.
Auditory
The film uses various auditory elements to promote coherence in its narrative and drive the story forward, enabling viewers to predict future events and evoke their emotional response to the movie. Using different songs to create tranquility for various themes. For instance, Pete Haycock on slide guitar as a theme music helped to prepare the stage for different visual events and transition of various scenes. Another theme song that contributed in shaping the video was the Part of Me by Glen Frey (Yang et al. 326). In addition, other supportive songs which were used in various events as background sounds complemented the scenes and helped in the narrative by shaping emotional responses and rhythm. The movie generally invested in soundtracks in its plot which has helped to shape the scenic tones, moods and contributed to a lasting impact on the overall impression on the viewers.
Visual
The cinematographic work in the Thelma and Louise movie by Ridley was effectively done and succeed in evoking emotional response of viewers. The various scenes were properly edited and portrayed in a coherent manner. The video quality in the movie was up to standard with the viewers’ expectation. The changing of colors during the screenplay were properly done and helped to make the different scenes in the movie real (Yang et al. 327). For instance, introducing dark color to portray the night’s darkness made the scene appear real. In addition, the simulation of the romantic scenes between J.D and Thelma made the scenes to look real and the characters to appear truly romanticized. Another aspect of visual effects in the movie is evident in the costume.
The costumes for various scenes were strategic. For instance, the police costume for the FBI detectives led by Hal made the characters to look as real police officers. The visual colors used in the roadside bar where Thelma met Harlan who would later try to rape her brought the needed visual effect and helped top shape the scene to appear real. Generally, the visual effects in the movie were strategically chosen and helped to create coherence and a realist effect to capture the emotional response of the media consumers.
Works Cited
Yang, Haixia, and Yuetian Lu. “A Turn-Taking Analysis of the Characters’ Personalities and Relationships in Thelma & Louise.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 13, no. 2, 2022, pp. 325-330. Web.