Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis star as female outlaws trapped in a patriarchal world in a film that remains a biting outlier
Thelma & Louise has lost none of its bite, even after 30 years.
When the film was released in 1991, it unleashed a wave of controversy that seemed to take its cast and crew by surprise. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon appeared on the cover of Time magazine, under the coverline “Why Thelma & Louise Strikes A Nerve”; the particular nerve that it struck was much debated. Was it, as some critics felt, a thoughtlessly violent movie that saw two
Women committing terrible crimes in the name of “empowerment”? Were they “acting like men” under the cover of feminism? Or was it in fact misandry, unfair to men, because it portrayed all of its male characters as awful? (Never mind that they are not all awful; it’s a pre-hashtag #NotAllMen). Were they role models? Was it a feminist parable? Was that ending, one of the few that has truly earned the overused adjective “iconic”, perfect, or a cop-out? In The Last Journey, a 2002 documentary about the making of Thelma & Louise, Sarandon addressed all the noise, and said: “Films at their best should challenge your perspective.” This is film at its best.