Thelma and Louise
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Template:Infobox Film Image:Thelma and Louise.jpg Thelma and Louise is a road movie from 1991 conceived and written by Callie Khouri, co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Geena Davis as Thelma, Susan Sarandon as Louise, and Harvey Keitel as a sympathetic detective trying to solve crimes that the two women find easier and easier to commit. Michael Madsen plays Louise's boyfriend and Christopher McDonald plays Thelma's controlling husband. Brad Pitt (in his first significant role in a major Hollywood film) plays a robber on parole who befriends Thelma on the road. The film was released on May 24, 1991.
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Plot
The film follows the women as they head out in Louise's green 1966 Thunderbird convertible for a two-day adventure which starts horribly but then sees them change from victims of circumstance into icons of feminism.
While she is drunk, a man attempts to rape Thelma in the parking lot outside a bar. However, Louise shoots at the attacker, killing him. Subsequently, the two women are concerned that the authorities won't believe Thelma and they decide to evade the law.
Louise is determined not to reach Mexico via Texas, which the audience laters discovers because she was raped there and the attacker wasn't convicted.
During their travels, they encounter a young bank robber (Brad Pitt) who gives them tips on how to conduct successful bank robberies then seduces Thelma only to steal Thelma and Louise's savings. This shortage of cash results in Thelma and Louise conducting armed robberies.
Another character they encounter is a revolting sexist truck driver, who they pull over to demand an apology from. He refuses and they shoot his truck, which explodes.
In the end, Thelma and Louise are cornered between the Grand Canyon on one side and the police. They drive into the canyon. The film ends with a series of photos of their weekend.
Trivia
- The film shares plot line and visual elements with other road movies, particularly the 1979 movie Messidor by Alain Tanner.
- The freeze frame at the end of the film - Thelma and Louise are NOT seen falling into the canyon - is reminiscent of a similar way to end a film: George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
- Khouri won an Academy Award for a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Scott, Davis, Sarandon, cinematographer Adrian Biddle, and film editor Thom Noble also won Oscar nominations. The film also won Scott nominations for a César Award for Best Foreign Film and a DGA Award.
- The British Film Institute published a book (ISBN 0851708099) about the film in 2000, as part of a Modern Classics series.
Cast
- Susan Sarandon as Louise Sawyer
- Geena Davis as Thelma Dickenson
- Harvey Keitel as Hal Slocumb
- Michael Madsen as Jimmy
- Christopher McDonald as Darryl Dickenson
- Brad Pitt as J.D.
- Stephen Tobolowsky as Max
- Timothy Carnhart as Harlan
- Marco St. John as Truck driver
Trivia
- Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn wanted to make a movie together and one of the scripts they considered was Thelma and Louise.
- Cher was offered the role of Louise, but turned it down.
- In the sequence where Darryl slips and falls over the builder's supplies as he was leaving for work was unscripted, as Christopher McDonald genuinely lost his footing. Despite this he remained in character and yelled at the workmen and drove away. Ridley Scott apparently liked the result, and so it remains in the film.
- Fito Paez composed a song called "Dos dias en la vida" (Two days in life), featured in the album "El amor despues del amor". the lyric talking about the movie.
- Singer/songwriter Tori Amos wrote Me And a Gun after watching this movie, being stirred to write about her own experience with sexual assault and telling no one about it for 6 years.
External links
fr:Thelma et Louise pt:Thelma and Louise ru:Тельма и Луиза (фильм) sv:Thelma & Louise tr:Thelma ve Louise (film)