Thelma and Louise is a movie projecting stories of two women who live stereotypic lives. The lives have been wonderfully projected through the plot of the movie by the director Ridley Scott. The movie is a very interesting piece of work claiming lifelong changes that can occur in blink of eyes.
The movie was released in year of 1991. The movie is recognized as a legendary mark defining the role of movies in enhancing and highlighting the societal issues. The movie, Thelma and Louise talks about female empowerment and issues of womenās lives. This paper aims to provide an overall analysis of the movie. Elements of the movie that shall be discussed in the paper are symbolism, theme, characters, plot, critical reception and costume.
Thelma and Louise is a title of the movie that itself illustrates two characters of the movie. The character of Thelma has been played by Geena Davis projecting a life of a housewife whose husband liked to control her through putting a lot of pressure. The stronger control of husband namely Darryl on her led to an evident change in the behavior of Thelma. The character of Thelmaās husband has been played by Christopher McDonald. The character of Thelma has been molded in a paper in such a way that her behavior becomes goofy and carefree.
The second character is of Louise who is a waitress at a restaurant. She does not like the fact that she was serving people and had no life of her own.
The character of Louise has been played by Susan Sarandon who is Academy award winning actress. The character of Louise represents all those women who are tired of living their lives doing home chores and working round the clock. Detective Hal Slocumb character is a very significant one the movie played by Harvey Keital. Detective Hal pushed the story towards its end chasing both the women.
Following the strong cast of the movie, the role of J.D. has been played by Brad Pitt who robs all the money and gives a new direction to the story. Another very important character of the story is Timothy Carhart who meets Thelma in the night club and tries to rape her (Scott).
The main storyline of the movie starts by illustration of lives of two women who are frustrated from their daily routines. Thelma being housewife and Louise being a waitress plan vacation for two days holidays. The two women planned to go for fishing. When they begin their journey towards the mountains, they fall prey of a very horrible situation. They become a prey of such a situation when Thelma met Harlan Puckett in a night club. She dances with Harlan while they both were drunk. Harlan tries to rape Thelma in the parking lot.
Louise shoots Harlan while saving Thelma and also because she gets angry about Harlanās action of actually considering Thelma a fun source. Louise tried to inform police about that but she does not inform because Thelma was drunk and that police would have blamed the women for the issue. As a result of the incidentās consequences of anxiety for being caught up by the police, Louise plans to run to Mexico as an escape from the fear of actually being caught for the murder she committed (Scott).
On their way to Mexico, both the women meet a very handsome man named J.D. Thelma starts to admire J.D. and becomes involved with him sexually. Later on, in the movie it s revealed that he was a thief as he runs with the money that belonged to Louise. J.D. runs with the money that was actually lifelong savings of Louise. Thelma feels ashamed of herself for actually falling for a fraud person. Such an incident makes the women fearless and stronger as they develop the feeling for men as frauds (New York Times).
The women could not run from police for long and finally come across with the incident of police chasing them. Detective Slocumb chase them near Great Canyon but the women rather decide to commit suicide. The movie ends with the act of suicide attempt of both the women as they drive off the cliffs in their car (New York Times).
The underlying theme of the movie justifies the claim that women are not to play a role of damsel all the time. It has always been projected through movies that only men can be heroes and only they can perform the stunts of shooting bullets on the opponents. The movie Thelma and Louise projects the role of women performing stunts of shooting bullets. The theme of the movie reflects the journey that is undertaken by the two women as a result of their misery (New York Times).
The movie, Thelma and Louise has managed to enhance the significance of the role of women. This is evident from the scene where a truck driver comes to both the women and talk to them with sex appealing gestures. The women tell him to apologize to them for trying to be intimate with them.
The truck driver refuses to apologize to the women. Thus as a result, both the women shot bullets and burst the tires of the trucks. Shooting bullets on the trucks cause deadly explosion. This scenic example from the movie illustrates that the movie justifies the claim that women can act strong and tough if they are treated in a wrong manner. The two women lead a journey towards Mexico because they were not happy with the fact that men played with him all their lives (Scott).
The setting of the movie is more in the locations of Great Canyon and Mexican roads that exactly in comprehend the storyline. The setting greatly refers the symbolism of the movie that is their journey. Among different symbols, the thunderbird convertible in teal color, Louieās car explains the journey of the two women. Moreover, costumes of Thelma and Louise are very casual and mobster like. The women wear very less jewelry in the course of the movie and are shown in jeans most of the time (Scott).
Most of the viewers had reviewed that the movie has no new storyline as similar accounts have already been accounted. Similar movie accounts that have been released so far include Mortal thoughts released in the same year, Pink Lightning etc.
The film has raised the question of neo-feminism, it states that the movie projects women who are strengthened and sustain a journey to take revenge from what wrong men had done to them. The question that comes to the minds of audiences is whether women need to be strong the way they have been shown in the movie? The reception of the movie made the movie a blockbuster of the year of its release (Scott).
Through a brief review of the movie Thelma and Louise, it comes to our understanding that movies can greatly contribute in the overall enhancement of women issues in a society. The movie has been a blockbuster in the following years of its release. The movie, Thelma and Louise is considered as an all time famous movie of the era as itās a funny yet powerful movie.
Works Cited
New York Times. “Thelma and Louise Review.” New York Times 24 May 1991: www.movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D0CE1DA1F3CF937A15756C0A967958260 Thelma and Louise review.
Thelma & Louise. Dir. Ridely Scott. 1991.