4/5 DOOMED LESBIAN LOVE?
  by Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States)
Gal pals Thelma and Louise hit the road for escape and adventure and the unknown. Are they looking for a new life or running from life? Or both? From the opening shot of an empty desert highway stretching to the horizon, we intuitively know that the end of the road is coming.

Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are terrific as two lost souls trying to take control. At times bitter and angry, this is a feminist manifesto that forces the viewer to ride along on this fatalistic trip to the edge and beyond.

Ridley Scott's superb eye and confident direction give writer Callie Khouri's compact screenplay the emotional sheen it needs to keep the viewer aligned with the protagonists.

We think, if we could only love them, then everything will be OK. We feel the damage and abuse they have suffered and are sympathetic to their dilemma. But it's too late. They have made up their minds to take us over the edge and it is horrible and beautiful. Ahhh, sweet release.

This has been called the first mainstream lesbian hit film. (R, widescreen, 129 minutes)

1/5 Spoiler Warning--Don't read this if you don't want to find out what happens!
  by Christopher Tricarick
Three things in this movie are unbelievably stupid--the two main characters and the plot. Let's see--a girl spends the whole night flirting with a guy, then he gets nasty in the parking lot and--with the help of her friend--she pushes him away. End of story, right? No--friend pulls out a gun and shoots the guy who is no longer a threat to either of them. Ok--temporary insanity--not really self-defense, but they can probably get away with calling it self-defense. Instead, no, they run away. During their "trek" Gina Davis becomes such an imbecile and so annoying the viewer almost wants to commit an act of violence against her. (she sleeps with a stranger and then leaves him alone in a hotel room that happens to contain all of her best friend's money.) Sarandon's character, by contrast, is smart and likable--smart, that is, at least until she decides to take a seven-hour detour around Texas because she does not want to be in a state where something traumatic once happened to her. Okay, understandable, to a point--but no. Someone who is fleeing for her life doesn't have time for that kind of sentimentality. And she has her (albeit moronic) friend to think of too. Anyway, between the two of them they make sure that there is absolutely no way they'll succeed, and sure enough they don't.

A feminist movie? Are people kidding? If I wanted to hate women, and think "after all women are idiots", I'd watch this movie.

And come on. The "women good, men bad" business is a little old by now, don't you think? The absurdity of the male stereotypes in this film is pathetic.

And finally, the story isn't even interesting.

If you want a movie about people rebelling against conformity or whatever, and trekking across America while doing so, watch Transamerica. Not flawless by any means, but the characters are all adults (as no one is here) none of them is a cardboard stereotype (as everyone is here) and the story is interesting and believable.

5/5 A classic of nevermore-to-be-thwarted femininity
  by Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States)
A classic of nevermore-to-be-thwarted femininity

I have been hearing cultural references to this film for years, and finally broke down to see it. I thought that it would be a silly female version of the buddy/road film. But I was mistaken. Eighteen years after its release, "Thelma and Louise" is still a powerful and comic indictment of the swinish side of the American male. Just about every guy in the T&L is a boor -- the loutish, self-centered husband, the non-committing, violence-prone boyfriend, the predatory rape-ready good ol' boy, the betraying hustler, the disrespectful, disgusting trucker and male-dominated law enforcement. Every stereotype of the underbelly of US masculinity is on parade and is deliciously dispatched by the unlikely heroines of the film. Thelma and Louise represent femininity looking for a little respect and freedom, and finding none, blazing a pushback trail through the American Southwest. T&L is very well acted (Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Harvey Keitel and Christopher MacDonald are standouts), fabulously written, and believable. In spite of the serious subject matter, the film is uplifting and often hilarious. A winner.

4/5 Not Baise-moi but...
  by Michael Kerjman (The Earth)
A tragic comedy of two mainly female loving kissing each other and their interactions with a real world on a beautiful landscapes of Grand Canyon and blue-sky US.

There is something in this work.


5/5 "Movies Don't Get Any Better Than This!"
  by Terry Richard (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada)
1991 was an amazing year for movies; everything from "The Silence of the Lambs" to "The Prince of Tides" entertained audiences, but that year one film became a true classic-a film many regard as one of Hollywood's best-"Thelma and Louise".
Written by Callie Khourie, who recieved an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, "Thelma and Louise" tells the tale of two best friends who go to the mountains for a weekend getaway, but a stop at a roadside bar changes their plans and lives forever. Escaping the police, Thelma and Louise encounter many characters on their cross-country journey, as they head to Mexico and a new life. Heavily regarded as one of the best buddy films ever made, the film is really a woman's picture, telling the story of how women are just as good as men, and how men can be arrogant, pompous, and abusive toward their female counterparts. I love this film.
Brad Pitt had his first mainstream role in this, and both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis received Oscar nods for their performances.
The DVD is filled with bonuses; there's four documentaries on the movie, audio commentaries with director Ridley Scott, the two stars, and the writer, and the treasure here are 30 minutes of newly discovered deleted scenes found by the studio.
A wonderful comedy/drama, "Thelma and Louise" never ages...it gets better as the years go by. An ageless film in every sense.