Thelma and Louise Ridley Scott

Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as Louise and Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforeseen circumstances. The supporting cast includes Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt. Filming took place in California and Utah from June to August 1990.

Following its premiere at the 44th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 1991, Thelma & Louise was theatrically released in the United States on May 24. It became a critical and commercial success, receiving six nominations at the 64th Academy Awards, with Khouri winning Best Original Screenplay. Scott was nominated for Best Director, and both Sarandon and Davis were nominated for Best Actress.

Thelma & Louise has influenced other artistic works, and became a landmark of feminist film. In 2006, the American Film Institute ranked it 78th on its list of most inspiring films. In 2016, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Two friends, Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer, set out for a weekend vacation at a fishing cabin in the mountains to take a break from their dreary lives in Arkansas. Thelma, a housewife, is married to disrespectful and controlling carpet salesman Darryl, while sharp-tongued Louise works as a waitress in a diner and is dating easygoing musician Jimmy, who is on the road most of the time.

On the way, they stop at a roadhouse bar, where Thelma dances with a flirtatious stranger, Harlan Puckett. He takes her to the parking lot and tries to rape her until Louise intervenes and threatens to shoot him. As the women walk away, Harlan yells he should have continued the rape, causing Louise to fatally shoot him in a fit of rage. The two women immediately drive off.

At a motel, they discuss how to handle the situation. Thelma wants to go to the police, but Louise fears that no one will believe a claim of attempted rape as Thelma was drinking and dancing with Harlan, in addition to having no evidence of the rape; they would be facing a murder charge. They decide to flee to Mexico, but Louise demands they travel there without going through Texas, as something happened to her there several years earlier which she refuses to reveal.

Heading west, they come across an attractive young drifter, J.D., to whom Thelma takes a liking. Louise contacts Jimmy, asking him to wire her life savings to her. He surprises her by delivering the money in person, and they spend the night together. Jimmy proposes to Louise, but she refuses. Meanwhile, J.D. talks his way into Thelma's room and they sleep together. She learns he is a convicted armed robber who has violated the terms of his parole. The following morning, the women discover J.D. has stolen Louise's savings and fled. Louise is distraught, so a guilt-ridden Thelma takes charge and later robs a nearby convenience store using tactics she learned from J.D.

Meanwhile, the FBI closes in on the duo after witnesses at the bar identify Louise's 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible. Their whereabouts are also questioned by the owner of the fishing cabin after they failed to arrive. Led by Arkansas State Police Investigator Hal Slocumb, the police question J.D. (who was caught) and tap into the phone line at Darryl's house. He sympathizes with the pair's situation, and understands why they did not report Harlan's killing. During a few brief phone conversations with Louise, Hal expresses his concerns and tells her he knows what happened to her in Texas, but is unsuccessful in persuading her to surrender.

Thelma tells Louise she will not go back to Darryl and asks her friend if she intends to cut a deal with the police so she can return to Jimmy. Louise rejects the notion of betraying her friend and promises Thelma they will keep going together. While back on the road, Thelma recalls the incident with Harlan and tries to ask Louise if something similar happened to her in Texas. Louise responds angrily and tells Thelma to never bring it up again.

Later, they are pulled over by a New Mexico state trooper for speeding. Knowing he will soon discover they are wanted for murder and armed robbery, Thelma holds him at gunpoint and locks him in the trunk of his police car while Louise takes his gun and ammunition. Driving further west, they encounter a foul-mouthed truck driver who repeatedly makes obscene gestures at them. They pull over and demand an apology from him; when he refuses, they fire at his fuel tanker, causing it to explode. The women leave him stranded in the desert with the wreckage.

Thelma and Louise are finally cornered by the authorities only a hundred yards from the edge of the Grand Canyon. Hal arrives on the scene, but the women refuse his last attempt to talk them into surrendering. Rather than be captured, Thelma proposes that they "keep going". Both kiss and hold hands as Louise steps on the gas and, as Hal desperately pursues them on foot, they accelerate over the cliff to their certain deaths.

• Susan Sarandon as Louise Sawyer
• Geena Davis as Thelma Dickinson
• Harvey Keitel as Det. Hal Slocumb
• Michael Madsen as Jimmy Lennox
• Christopher McDonald as Darryl Dickinson
• Stephen Tobolowsky as FBI Agent Max
• Brad Pitt as J.D.
• Timothy Carhart as Harlan Puckett
• Lucinda Jenney as Lena, The Waitress
• Jason Beghe as State Trooper
• Marco St. John as Truck Driver

Development

The idea for Thelma & Louise originated in the spring of 1988 when Callie Khouri, then a music video producer, was driving home from work to her apartment in Santa Monica. She spent the following six months working on her first screenplay, which was noted to have drawn inspiration from her own experience as well as her friendship with country music singer Pam Tillis.[3] She had intended it to be a low-budget independent film, directed by herself and produced by fellow music video producer Amanda Temple (wife of British filmmaker Julien Temple).[3]

After shopping the project around and finding no takers, Temple showed the script to her friend Mimi Polk Gitlin, who ran Ridley Scott's Percy Main Productions (later Scott Free Productions). Gitlin in turn showed the script to Scott, who expressed great enthusiasm for the project. He agreed to produce the film and bought the film rights for $500,000. Pathé Entertainment, then led by Scott's friend and collaborator Alan Ladd Jr., came on board as a co-producer and financier.[3]

Scott considered four people for the role of director, all of whom turned down the opportunity. Per Gitlin's recollection, three of the candidates were Bob Rafelson, Kevin Reynolds and Richard Donner. Scott was reluctant to direct the film himself but eventually took on the role, having been persuaded by Michelle Pfeiffer.[3]

Casting

Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster were originally chosen for the leads; both accepted their roles with enthusiasm. As pre-production of the film dragged on, the two eventually dropped out, with Pfeiffer going on to star in Love Field and Foster in The Silence of the Lambs. Pfeiffer would later admit that passing on the film still kills her.[4] Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn then offered to play the leads, but Streep later dropped out due to scheduling conflicts while Hawn was not considered right for the part (Hawn and Streep portrayed the lead duo a year later in Death Becomes Her). Geena Davis (who had been vigorously pursuing the lead role for nearly a year) and Susan Sarandon were ultimately chosen. The two took extensive driving and shooting lessons in preparation for their roles.[3]

Scott personally convinced Harvey Keitel to take on the role of Hal, the sympathetic Arkansas detective. The two had previously collaborated in Scott's feature directorial debut, the 1977 film The Duellists. Davis recommended her ex-boyfriend Christopher McDonald for the role of Darryl, Thelma's controlling husband. Scott wanted Michael Madsen for Harlan, Thelma's would-be rapist, but Madsen was unwilling; he eventually won the role of Jimmy, Louise's boyfriend. Brad Pitt auditioned for the hustler J.D.; however Scott thought he was "too young" for the role so they moved on, the part went to Billy Baldwin. Pitt eventually secured the role after both Baldwin and his replacement dropped out.[3][5] George Clooney,[6] Robert Downey Jr.,[7] Mark Ruffalo,[5] Grant Show,[7] John Mellencamp,[8] Dylan McDermott,[5] James LeGros,[5] and Dermot Mulroney[5] were also considered for the role of J.D. Davis did test scenes with Clooney, Show, Ruffalo and Pitt; her advice to the directors was to choose Pitt.[9]

Filming

Principal photography for Thelma & Louise began on June 11, 1990, and concluded on August 31, 1990.[1] Although the setting for the film is a fictional route between Arkansas and the Grand Canyon, it was filmed almost entirely in the states of California and Utah. The primary filming locations were rural areas around Bakersfield, California and Moab, Utah. The Grand Canyon scenes were filmed just south of Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah.[10] Parts of the film were also shot at Shafer Overlook, Monument Valley, La Sal Mountains, La Sal Junction, Cisco, Old Valley City Reservoir, Thompson Springs, Arches National Park, and Crescent Junction in Utah.[11] Of filming his love scenes with Davis, Pitt said that it was awkward being nearly naked with everybody standing.[5]

Soundtrack

Pete Haycock on slide guitar contributed to Thunderbird, the theme music for the film.[12] In addition to Glenn Frey's "Part of Me, Part of You", which became the film's primary theme song, the soundtrack included songs performed by Chris Whitley ("Kick The Stones"), Martha Reeves ("Wild Night" written by Van Morrison), Toni Childs ("House Of Hope"), Marianne Faithfull ("Ballad of Lucy Jordan" written by Shel Silverstein), Charlie Sexton ("Badlands"), Grayson Hugh ("I Can't Untie You From Me"), B.B. King ("Better Not Look Down" written by Joe Sample & Will Jennings), Michael McDonald ("No Lookin' Back"), The Temptations ("The Way You Do the Things You Do" written by Smokey Robinson & Bobby Rogers), and Johnny Nash ("I Can See Clearly Now").[13][14]

Thelma & Louise was screened out of competition as the closing film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.[15] Theatrical release was delayed due to financial turmoil at MGM-Pathé.[16] The film eventually opened in American theaters on May 24, 1991[1] and was a box office success, grossing $45 million within the country.[17]

Home media

The film was released on VHS on January 8, 1992 by MGM/UA Home Video.[18] It proved especially successful in the home video market; with 380 000 copies being shipped throughout the United States,[19] it became the most rented movie of 1992.[20]

In February 2023, The Criterion Collection announced the film would be joining the collection in May that year.[21]

Critical response

Upon release, Thelma & Louise received largely positive reviews,[22][23] which several publications described as "rave".[24][25][26][27] Janet Maslin of The New York Times had only praise for the film in her review:

Mr. Scott's Thelma and Louise, with a sparkling screenplay by the first-time writer Callie Khouri, is a surprise on this and many other scores. It reveals the previously untapped talent of Mr. Scott (best known for majestically moody action films like Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain) for exuberant comedy, and for vibrant American imagery, notwithstanding his English roots. It reimagines the buddy film with such freshness and vigor that the genre seems positively new. It discovers unexpected resources in both its stars, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, who are perfectly teamed as the spirited and original title characters.[28]

Roger Ebert also praised the film, writing, "What sets Thelma & Louise aside from the great central tradition of the road picture -- a tradition roomy enough to accommodate Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, Midnight Run and Rain Man -- is that the heroes are women this time: Working-class girlfriends from a small Arkansas town, one a waitress, the other a housewife, both probably ready to describe themselves as utterly ordinary, both containing unexpected resources."[29] He added, "This film shows a great sympathy for human comedy", and "Sarandon and Davis find in Callie Khouri's script the materials for two plausible, convincing, lovable characters. And as actors they work together like a high-wire team, walking across even the most hazardous scenes without putting a foot wrong."[29] However, Ebert deducted half a star from his four-star review on the basis of "the last shot before the titles begin. It's a freeze frame that fades to white, which is fine, except it does so with unseemly haste .... It's unsettling to get involved in a movie that takes 128 minutes to bring you to a payoff that the filmmakers seem to fear."[29]

The film also received harsh criticism from those who thought it was biased against men and that its depictions of men were unfairly negative.[30][31][32][33] In response to these criticisms, Maslin and Khouri claimed that Thelma & Louise was being subjected to a double standard, as unethical behavior in male-driven road movies had not provoked a similar level of backlash.[34][35][1] Maslin argued that viewers were simply offended at how "men in this story don't really matter ... They are treated as figures in the landscape through which these characters pass, and as such they are essentially powerless. For male characters, perhaps, this is a novelty, but women in road movies have always been treated in precisely the same way."[34] In response to claims that the film had no sympathetic male characters, Khouri pointed to the character of Hal Slocumb, the Arkansas detective who shows empathy for Thelma and Louise’s situation. Khouri said that Hal represents "the moral sense of the audience".[35] She also said she wrote the script in "a conscious effort to counter" Hollywood's tendency to portray women as "bimbos, whores and nagging wives."[35] Khouri added, "If [critics are] feeling threatened, [they're] identifying with the wrong character."[35]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 86% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Simultaneously funny, heartbreaking, and peppered with action, Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise is a potent, well-acted road movie that transcends the feminist message at its core."[36] On Metacritic, the film received a score of 88 based on 12 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[38]

The film placed second to The Silence of the Lambs as the best film of 1991 in a poll of 81 critics.[39]

Accolades

American Film Institute

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - #78[60]
• AFI's 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains - #24[61]
• AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills - #76[62]

The British Film Institute published a book about the film in 2000[63] as part of a Modern Classics series. On the Writers Guild of America Award's list of 101 best screenplays, it made No. 72.[64]

The final scene, where the title characters embrace before committing suicide by driving off a cliff, has become iconic.[65][1] Numerous homages and parodies of the scene have appeared, including alternate film endings, cartoon parodies,[66] video game "Easter eggs",[67] and as a tragic ending to television series, music videos,[68] and commercials.[69][70] After the film's release, there were reports of a few incidents where people appeared to copycat Thelma and Louise's suicides by driving off the edge of the Grand Canyon.[71]

After watching the film, singer-songwriter Tori Amos wrote "Me and a Gun", the story of her rape several years earlier.[72][73]

Feminism

Many critics and writers have remarked on the strong feminist overtones of Thelma & Louise. Film critic B. Ruby Rich praises the film as an uncompromising validation of women's experiences,[74] while Kenneth Turan calls it a "neo-feminist road movie".[75] Jessica Enevold argues that the film constitutes "an attack on conventional patterns of chauvinist male behavior toward females". In addition, it "exposes the traditional stereotyping of male–female relationships" while rescripting the typical gender roles of the road movie genre.[76]

In her review for the Los Angeles Times, film critic Sheila Benson objected to the characterization of the film as feminist, arguing that it is more preoccupied with revenge and violence than feminist values.[77]

In an article commemorating the film's 20th anniversary in 2011, Raina Lipsitz of The Atlantic called it "the last great film about women" and said that it heralded the achievements of women that caused 1992 to become "the year of the woman".[78] However, she also said that women-themed films have since been losing ground.[78]

In early 2021, it was announced that Khouri was adapting the film as a stage musical alongside Halley Feiffer, with original songs by Neko Case, and Trip Cullman attached to direct.[79] In January 2023, a workshop reading was held starring Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood.[80]

1. ^ Tied with Susan Sarandon.
2. ^ Tied with Geena Davis.
3. ^ Tied with Atom Egoyan for The Adjuster.

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Works cited

• Sturken, Marita (2000). Thelma and Louise. London: British Film Institute. p. 11. ISBN 0-85170-809-9.

• Aikman, Becky (2017). Off the Cliff: How the Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood to the Edge. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1594206719.
• Cook, Bernie, ed. (2007). Thelma & Louise Live! The Cultural Afterlife of an American Film. University of Texas Press. ISBN 9780292794658. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.

• Fournier, Gina (2007). Thelma & Louise and Women in Hollywood. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9780786423132. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2018.

• Thelma & Louise at IMDb 
• Thelma & Louise at the TCM Movie Database
• Thelma & Louise at The Numbers
• Original trailer for Thelma & Louise on YouTube
• Three Routes Through Thelma & Louise, essays by Jessica Kiang, Rachel Syme, and Rebecca Traister at The Criterion Collection