Thelma and Louise

7 July 2013

Thelma and Louise 1991

• Director: Ridley Scott
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Brad Pitt, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher MacDonald
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Susan Sarandon – White Castle, Anywhere but Here, Dead Man Walking, Little Women, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Client, Romance & Cigarettes, The Exonerated, The Banger Sisters, Igby Goes Down, The Cradle Will Rock, Earthly Possessions, Lorenzo’s Oil, The January Man, Bull Durham, The Witches of Eastwick, Compromising Positions, Atlantic City
• Geena Davis  Beetlejuice, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Fly, A League of Their Own, Hero, The Accidental Tourist, Tootsie
• Brad Pitt  – Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Babel, Troy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Fight Club, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven True Romance,
• Harvey Keitel – Moonrise Kingdom, Reservoir Dogs, The Piano, Smoke, Lulu on the Bridge, Cop Land, Clockers, Pulp Fiction, Sister Act, The January Man, The Last Temptation of Christ
• Michael Madsen – Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Donnie Brasco, Mulholland Falls, The Doors, Racing with the Moon
• Christopher MacDonald – Broken Flowers, The Man Who Wasn’t There. The Perfect Storm, Requiem for a Dream, Quiz Show, Grumpy Old Men
• Why bought: Like it!
• Seen: Two or three times. Now: May 10, 2013 

            Ridley Scott said in the extra DVD feature that this is probably a comedy.  Well, he should probably know, so it probably is and I probably thought so the first time I saw it.  It was quite a sensation when it came out. I mean – women who fight back?! Who shoot men and become fugitives?! That’s pretty…funny.

Guys probably think it’s a little scary. At least guys like the husband, the truck driver, the cop (not Harvey Keitel, the one in the trunk of the car) and the would-be rapist. And twenty odd years after the movie was made there are more of those around than ever.

It is, in fact, great fun to watch these two ditzy babes transform into gun-totin’ chicks and putting a few macho guys in their place. They still get screwed though. By gorgeous young Brad Pitt. By the whole cop machine (well, they were criminals after all).  Even good guy cop Keitel referred to them constantly as “girls” (a deliberate choice of words by the write, I assume), and macho sweet boyfriend Madsen couldn’t help.

That outlaws don’t survive, and it would be absolutely impossible for rebellious shoot ‘em up women to succeed in…what? All they wanted as this point was to get away. How realistic was it to think that Mexico would let them settle down?

Well. You know the ending. It’s a memorable one.

By now you probably think I hate the  film. I don’t. I love it.  It makes me terribly sad. It’s a tragedy. But I love it.

  

5* of 5