THELMA & LOUISE [1991] movie review

It became a sort of inevitability for me to watch THELMA & LOUISE [1991] tonight. Many factors pushed me toward watching it all week. I guess there was no other movie that could get a message across to me like I knew this one could.

I do not know if I ever watched THELMA & LOUISE properly. I certainly knew the ending, well the very, very final scene anyway. As the movie went on I could guess what was going to happen next, so I must have seen it, not just heard of it. I wondered what it would be like to watch the movie fresh, without knowing one of the most shocking endings in a modern Hollywood movie.

The first surprise of this rewatch was that Ridley Scott directed the movie. I would never ever have guessed that. He directed it with skill and craft though, the camera never in a common position, never framed without careful forethought. Everything was always gritty and sweaty on the screen, people, cars, landscape.

Has there ever been a movie before or since starring two redheads? That was the second thing that occurred to me in the first minute of the movie. I forgot what a rare beauty Gina Davis (Thelma) was, and Susan Sarandon’s (Louise) own uncommon beauty.

The two women just want a weekend to escape from their regular lives, and get that, and much, much more. Things go bad when Thelma is about to get raped by some yocal at a country bar, but since for some reason Thelma impassively packed her husband’s gun, Louise put it to the guy’s head and when he still did not shut the hell up, she shot him out of an anger and frustration we only later could understand better.

Thus, they had to run and try as they might could not avoid meeting more men that tried to take advantage of them, including a young Brad Pitt who was a very polite thief, which he admitted himself.

Things escalate slowly but steeply, so that by the time Louise talks to a reasonable police investigator played by Harvey Keitel, it is too late to turn themselves in.

This all takes place in the most dramatic scenery on Earth for a road trip, the American west, in particular the desert and rock formations of Utah and Colorado, though in the movie they refer to Arkansas and Oklahoma only, and maybe Arizona.

Knowing the ending did allow for me to see the many clues that would lead up to the shocking decision Thelma and Louise make, that was actually not that shocking as they state many times about how great it feels to be free and that going back to whatever their lives were is not something they wanted ever again. They knew they would never get to fairly tell their story.

By the time their famous chase across the desert has them leading a dozen cop cars to the edge of the Grand Canyon itself, to the viewer and Thelma and Louise it was very apparent they could die on their own terms, or by the hands of the cops. It is Thelma who suggests it, who had always been the more timid of the two, but not after all they experienced.

They kiss goodbye, Louise floors the gas pedal, in a quick cut scene they clasp hands, then they are in the air.

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS [1968] movie review

I continue my Godzilla marathon with a title that has always stuck in my mind, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS [1968]. Although the title was well remembered, it seems I remembered nothing of the plot which involves aliens (seemingly all beautiful females) from a small planet between Mars & Jupiter deciding they want to take over Earth. They have a good plan involving controlling Godzilla, but they seem to have learned nothing from history as we all know Godzilla simply cannot be controlled! [Read more]

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN [2002] movie review

I found that CATCH ME IF YOU CAN really showed the dualistic nature of the universe. Leonardo DiCaprio as the very young, but very crafty con man, charming man, check forger extraordinaire and Tom Hanks as the very dedicated, very serious, very devoted FBI agent in charge of check fraud. It occurred to me that such people, such masters of their craft, need each other in order for either one of them to even exist. One needs to run and be chased, the other needs to chase and catch, but not catch too easily or too quickly. [Read more]

« Previous Page