Thelma & Louise (1991)

“All this for us!?”

Thelma (Gena Davis) & Louise (Susan Sarandon) exude so much charisma & vulnerability, they make it impossible not to fall in love with them. First time screenwriter & producer Callie Khouri was working as in music videos while writing the script, but when a mutual put her in touch with director Ridley Scott, they worked together to flesh out the design & tone of the film. By using a few subtle details, we get a sense of both women’s personalities through their dress, what they say & what they don’t say. As they go deeper into their journey, traveling through incredibly filmed landscapes, they evolve into something new.

Because it was so rare to see a movie featuring two ‘strong’ female leads, the discourse around the film’s release was all over the place. Promises were made (and broken) to produce more movies about women, while critics criticized the film as both anti-feminist (cuz the women don’t make ‘smart’ decisions) & misandrist (because the men behave like men, I guess?). Still, using the female gaze to tell an americana-stlye road trip story is still a unique choice, even 30 years later. The story presents a full spectrum of male personalities (played by newcomers, like Brad Pitt & Michael Madison, and veterans like Harvey Keitel), but the focus stays on how the women react to these men. They are always viewed through a female lens. When talking about the film in 2006, Gena Davis quipped “if you have a problem with the men in the movie, you’re probably identifying with the wrong character.”

The beauty of Khouri’s script, which won her an Oscar, is that these women understand each other without having to explicitly explain their feelings or their trauma. And while the film’s final moments will always make me cry, this story is full of humour. As they come to understand the rules of this world, rules that still haven’t really changed, they choose to reject it all. There is power & joy in the way these women rebuff the system.