Thelma & Louise (1991)

I have had Thelma & Louise sitting here, just waiting to be watched for... I don't know how long. I've heard a lot about it and have heard that people have even done essays based on its themes and yes, I even know the ending. But I've never experienced it for myself. Beyond some basic facts, I don't know the details. All I have in my head is a vision of a shadow, but not the person. I may be able to see their silhouettes in the fog, but I don't know who they are. Well I'm quickly running out of time, and there are a few movies I wanted to make sure I see before the year is out and this was one of them. So was it as crazy and wild as I had originally thought? My thoughts after the jump.


I'm sure most of you know this already, but here's a brief recap on the story of Thelma & Louise. The two best friends are planning a weekend away of fishing and having fun at a co-worker's cottage. Before they even get there, however, things go from fun to frightful in a flash when Thelma is nearly raped. Before they know it they're on the run from the law for murder, armed robbery, and a host of other crimes. How this waitress and house wife became felony fugitives on the run to Mexico is all part of the story.

No longer afraid to even touch a gun, they're now quite familiar with it

Easily the most stand-out part of this film are the characters and acting. Although I recognized the actors, I quickly forgot about them and only saw the characters of the story. Well, all except for Brad Pitt. He's just a little too odd in this. He's so thin and skinny, and I'm not used to seeing him portray a youngster, let alone a cowboy, so that was a little weird. But the stars of the film are easily Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon). I recognized Geena Davis the most, knowing her from Beetlejuice and I remember she had a bit part in Tootsie. She easily stole the show for me, having such a large evolving character arc, even more so, I believe, than the Louise character. She starts off as this very timid house wife, too afraid to ask her husband for permission to even go on the weekend trip. The start of everything is when she's had enough, and simply leaves him a note and takes off for some well deserved fun.

A young Brad Pitt makes a shirtless appearance as J.D.

Similar to Brad Pitt's character, there are many others who show up for relatively brief moments in the overall film. Michael Madsen plays Louise's boyfriend who doesn't pay her the closest attention, but when he gets the feeling that he might never see her again, realizes he has more feelings that he realized. Harvey Keitel plays Hal, a police officer who wants to bring in Thelma and Louise safely because he realizes there's probably more to the story. And my favorite character-actor Stephen Tobolowsky (of the Tobolowsky Files podcast) appears as the federal officer put in charge of the investigation once the girls start crossing state lines.

While there are so many characters (and I only mentioned a few that I really liked) they all have very minor roles, and even screen time, when compared to Louise and Thelma. This movie is really about their friendship, their bonds to each other, and also being their own person, and finding out about who they really are. Turns out one of them is a really good at holding people up at gun point!

There's no escape from the cops, but they're determined not to get captured

This was a good movie about strong characters and good times. It also has a lot of really good landscape shots as they travel across the country, which are some sights I wouldn't mind seeing for myself some day. I know I've been pretty vague for most of this review, but that's because I feel that so much of the movie comes from just seeing the characters go through everything, and how they slowly change as a result of it all. The people they start out as are quite different from the pair at the end of the film, that's for certain! If you haven't seen Thelma & Louise I say check it out. It's a pretty good crime movie about being on the run and driving across the United States of America. It's a film that says even when you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, you can't let that stop you, and you just have to keep going for all it's worth!