What I love most about "Thelma and Louise" is that it is not simply a road movie (that most beloved genre), a feminist parable or, as critics exclaimed back then, "toxic feminism." The latter is a foolish assessment because these two energetic young women on the lam are not anymore toxic than if they were a pair of males on the run. The first two descriptions are most apt to describe "Thelma and Louise," a basic friendship movie in the guise of road movie cliches that are somehow less cliche-ridden based on its feminist context. It basically puts a whole new spin on the road movie as allegory and has more nuanced ideas about how women see themselves.
Thelma (Geena Davis) is the ditsy, innocent type who abides by her regional manager husband who sells carpets, Darryl (Christopher McDonald), yet she is desperate to step out and be somewhere else, at least for a weekend getaway. That chance arrives when her best friend, Louise (Susan Sarandon), a waitress, is ready to go on the road trip to go fishing! Once they stop at a Texas-like bar/restaurant along the way and Thelma has a good time dancing with a supposedly charming smooth talker, Harlan (Timothy Carhart), the situation escalates to sexual assault and Louise ends it killing the guy with a gun. Now, Thelma and Louise are on the loose though nobody initially suspects them of the crime. The rest of "Thelma and Louise" is the twosome on the road, evading police, massive trucks and leering truck drivers. When Louise gets some money from her boyfriend (the always terrific Michael Madsen), she is determined to go to Mexico knowing she's ultimately the one that pulled the trigger and will not give herself up at all to the authorities. Thelma is simply going along for it but her malleable nature erodes when she chooses to have sex with a polite drifter and ex-robber, J.D. (Brad Pitt, in a star-making performance). When J.D. steals Louise's money, Thelma gets an idea from J.D's confessions to rob a gas station and she does. There is not a care in the world for these women who choose to live freely and not be dependent on men to sustain themselves.
Louise is also going through changes. Many scenes show her looking at herself in bathroom mirrors or rearview mirrors, as if she is trying to shed the woman she was and become more independent in her nature and way of being. At one crucial point, she gives up her watch and rings to some old bystander - time and attachment to shiny accoutrements are no longer necessary. When she sees an older woman through a storefront window, Thelma decides to abandon lipstick and eyeshadow - perhaps maintain an earthy look. One amazingly potent scene shows Louise looking at the desert during sunset, knowing an eventual change is coming.
"Thelma and Louise" was accused of being a misandrist film where all men are chauvinistic pigs and the women are simply objects of ridicule that need to know their place and fulfill men's needs - at least, according to the male characters in this film. That is not entirely the case with all the men here, especially Louise's boyfriend who does erupt in violence for a brief moment before apologizing. There's Harvey Keitel as the good, sweet-natured cop who wants to bring them in but knows, deep down that even if their predicament is their fault, he knows it is far more complicated than that. The rest of the men are powerless against Thelma and Louise and that includes the unredeeming Harlan - I will not say he deserved his fate but he should've known he had it coming. Darryl is something of an egghead who realizes he has no control over Thelma at all. There's also a highway cop who, for whatever reason I cannot fathom, asks Thelma to sit in the front seat of his car and asks her to remove her eyewear (my parents had thought he said underwear when they first saw the film) - this results in him being forced into a trunk which leads to a Rastafarian biker scene that has to be seen to be believed. The foolhardy J.D. uses his charms and almost gets away with it, never assuming that Thelma would hold up any store - he can, it turns out, one-up the women.
Ultimately, "Thelma and Louise" is a female empowerment statement that can still carry a dangerous charge 35 years later (Men clearly are more threatened by this film than women). It is not a female empowerment fantasy but rather about women seeking their own place in a male-dominated world without their help. The final emotional powerhouse of a sequence can quicken the pulses of most men and women but it can also demonstrate that Thelma and Louise's choices over their fate are their own. Most liberating.
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