THELMA AND LOUISE (1991)

Thelma and Louise was the first movie I ever heard referred to as a "chick flick". Ironically, the term has come to refer to romantic comedies or other types of romance-themed movies. Thelma and Louise was neither, though it was certainly not without humour. At the time, 1991, the film was a kind of wake-up call for chicks. Decades after the women's liberation movement got under way, we still needed to be reminded: you are strong, you are powerful and you don't need to be pushed around by or beholden to a man. No matter how many times I see this film I find myself yelling at the screen, "don't go in there!" "don't have that drink!" "don't talk to him!" imagining the happy and benign time the two women could have had if they didn't make the choices they made along the way.

Directed by a man, Ridley Scott, and written by dynamic female screenwriter Callie Khouri, who won the Academy Award that year for Best Screenplay, it's a story of a girls' weekend gone bad. But it's really so much more. It's about how two friends, played by Geena Davis (Thelma) and Susan Sarandon (Louise), seek to temporarily escape their unsatisfying relationships to spend a weekend together camping. But those intentions get derailed by, of course, men, more from Thelma's impulses than Louise's since the younger woman hasn't had much experience with men other than the suffocating life her husband has given her. It is her desire to explore the world outside his boundaries that send the girls' weekend careening wildly off course. It's a story of women taking care of women and not in some schmaltzy, book club, slumber party, wine and cheese way, but literally in defending one another's lives and souls from the male scum of the world. No matter how many times I see this film I find myself yelling at the screen, "don't go in there!" "don't have that drink!" "don't talk to him!" imagining the happy and benign time the two women could have had if they didn't make the choices they made along the way. But then the film wouldn't be the masterpiece it is, would it? The first time I saw it was in the movie theatre and my husband and I went not knowing anything about it except for the stars and the director. We were so stunned by it, so shocked by the ending, over which I'm still in denial, that we spent several hours discussing the film and all its implications over cigarettes and brandy (though neither of us were particularly smokers or drinkers). Both Davis and Sarandon were nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for their parts, neither being relegated to Supporting Actress status, and it is a situation where I would have liked to have seen both win. It remains on my list of Top Five Movies of All Time (Casablanca, Taxi Driver, 2001 Space Odyssey, Manhattan, and Thelma and Louise, in that order in case you were wondering) for being the groundbreaking and transformative film that it is. Oh, and by the way, this was Brad Pitt's first significant movie role and I think one of his best - six-pack notwithstanding. If it's been a while since you've watched it, do, and let yourself feel empowered all over again by this gold standard of all chick flicks.

Movie reviewed by Georgina Young-Ellis

Back to Movie Night