Here this is inflected specifically towards issues of power and gender. The road movie and the Western are genres which explore the relationship between the individual and society, and related issues of freedom and justice. The sense of forbidden territory is increased by the fact that to an audience familiar with Hollywood films such spaces are gendered: in both the road movie and the Western this is a predominantly ‘male’ space.Įncounters along the road with a series of men are used to explore, as Hal Slocumb trenchantly puts it, all the ways women can be ‘fucked over’. The first sequence (Thelma being bullied by Darryl in her dimly lit kitchen, and Louise waiting tables in a diner) resonates with ideas of entrapment because of its juxtaposition with the opening shot. It connotes not just the wide open spaces of the American West, but the freedom and self-determination coded into the myth of ‘the West’ and popularised by Hollywood. The opening shot of the desert road stretching ahead to the hills is iconic of both the road movie and the Western and encourages particular generic expectations. 8 Subsequent critical debate even found its genre contentious: road movie, buddy movie, Thelma and Louise (1991) 521 screwball comedy, rape-revenge narrative, Western? This strange generic mix, the unlikely pairing of Khouri and Scott, and the ‘feminist’ issues mapped onto a mainstream Hollywood film, provide a framework for understanding the paradoxical and controversial response to the film. Critical acclaim followed with an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the screenplay, and three further Oscar nominations.7 The American popular press were equally fascinated by the film: Time magazine carried the headline, ‘Why Thelma and Louise strikes a nerve’. An immediate hit with audiences, it made $45 million in the US and £4 million in the UK. 6Ĭonsidering all these factors, the film’s reception was surprising. She is also ambivalent about the film’s status as a feminist text: ‘the issues surrounding the film are feminist. And that was a decision made by the male director and the male actors who played them.” 5 “When you read the script you’ll see that in Thelma and Louise, the male characters were portrayed in a way that was more caricatured on the screen than on the page. 4 While this suggests Scott ‘watered down’ the script’s feminist credentials to secure a mainstream audience Khouri herself has commented that, if anything, he made the male characters less sympathetic than her originals: Scott was aware the subject matter needed careful handling if it was to succeed with a mainstream audience: ‘I thought it should be really humorous and then you didn’t ostracize two thirds of the audience’. 3 Two strong female leads, an array of unattractive male characters, a generic mix of Western and road movie which were generally considered ‘male’ genres and were not in fashion, plus a downbeat ending – certainly not reassuring ingredients for box office success. You’d be amazed how many directors turned it down’. had floated around for ages and fallen through the net …. Ridley Scott had power in Hollywood due to the success of Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982) and his decision to direct the film made it a viable proposition. In the pragmatic business world of Hollywood the script stood no chance without an accredited director behind it. I walked over to the car and said, ‘I’d like to shoot you in the fucking face’.” 2 Then he said, ‘I’d like to see you suck my dick’, and I just lost it for a second. I’m ignoring him, which is what you’re supposed to do in that situation. “I was walking down the street, when this old guy in a car starts talking to me. … that’s another one of the things I’ve never seen dealt with in a film, the anger women feel about the way they’re talked to.” 1Īnd inspired by an incident which resonates within the film’s narrative: I wanted to write something with strong women in it. “I wanted to write about two normal women …. Callie Khouri’s first screenplay was prompted by dissatisfaction with the way women were portrayed in Hollywood film: Released in 1991, Thelma and Louise cost MGM a modest $16.5 million and was a rather unlikely bet for a mainstream Hollywood film. The rest of the films follows their panicked dash across the backroads of the southwest attempting to flee law, order and patriarchy. The two women flee, believing that Thelma’s drunken behaviour on the dance floor will make their sexual assault claim untenable. A quick stop at a bar leads to trouble when Thelma is accosted by a local man. Thelma is a neglected housewife who ditches her bullying husband to spend a weekend fishing with her friend Louise, a hash-house waitress who drives an impeccably maintained 1966 Thunderbird convertible.
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