Thelma and Louise: English essay
Freedom. What are we prepared to do, to obtain such a fluid and elusive notion, will we have the courage? Do we already possess it? Are we trapped in it? Or must we kill ourselves to achieve it? – In the case of Thelma and Louise, the last option was to be the culmination of their spirited journey towards the upheaval of their notions of inner-peace and freedom.
At first Thelma and Louise are trapped in peace, living in a democratic world, no wars, and no worries with only the chains of submission in a modern world to hold them back. Both tired of mediocrity, they set on a journey to free themselves from their lives, one more than the other. Through this journey Thelma and Louise discover what happens, when the pre-mentioned chains are broken, one thrills, the other chills, as Louise discover that the life she’s been running from, actually was what held her content and comfortable, and while Thelma on the other hand, for the first time in her life she allowed her lungs to breathe at full capacity. Thelma and Louise, as the bunch from Sam North’s novel “The road movie” set out on the road to find redemption, for the lives they’ve been living.
“Thelma and Louise” is a classic road trip movie directed by Ridley Scott, a director well-known for his ability to create a movie with one scene, looking with interest in Thelma and Louise’s changes, two clips springs to mind, one who showcases Thelma’s rise and one which counter like-wise showcases Louise’s fall.
In the start Thelma and Louise, have the mutual feeling of Louise being the leader, which falls naturally to her, since she’s used to boss her customers at the local diner. Thelma is escaping her submissive husband, and while still in that state of mind, it’s in her natural pattern to follow, and not to lead.
Which is way Louise is an interesting character to take such charge, having in mind her leading skills never truly have been tested, and that she might seek comfort of knowing that she is above Thelma, which probably also is the foundation of their friendship. Grasp and grip is what she desires, and those two are out of the equation, when the girls, still in Arkansas, visit a nightclub, where a man quickly seduces Thelma out of Louise’s sight. Later the two girls meet again in the parking lot outside, Thelma ill-companied with the man and with Louise with a drawn and loaded gun. The situation escalates and the clipping, filming and scope allow the viewers to feel the drama, the action and the insensitivity of the scene, where Louise kills both the man harassing Thelma, but also the Louise she knew herself as, from there on she would never be the same.
As Louise’s grip loosens more and more on Thelma, Thelma evolves gradually to a more spirited and more spontaneous character. Things however go from bad to worse, as they get hold of some much needed money, but then meets a cowboy who steals them, but not however without teaching Thelma a thing or two about robbing, and this skill was to be the springboard into the next level in Thelma’s development. The scene is both an aesthetic breeze with time as it is a correlation to Thelma’s individuality. Thelma comes storming out of a road shop yelling for Louise to start the engine, she robbed the store, and as Louise has a hard time comprehending the situation, Thelma joyfully tells her how she did it. This marks the moment where Thelma takes charge and unintentionally proclaims herself as the one to tell the other what to do, she is now free from any chain.
However there was a surveillance camera which recorded everything, and as we hear Thelma tell about her virgin rob in childish enthusiasm the screen switches to the actual recording of Thelma robbing the store, and while the viewers cheer for Thelma’s rejuvenation, the screen once again switches, but not back to Thelma and Louise, but to the police showcasing the dire seriousness of a woman threatening innocent civilians with a gun for the mire prospect of simple coin. This scene attack human morals and reveals how easy it is to influence and affect the mind through simple implied sympathy from the director. We thought we saw a flashback of Thelma’s robbing, but we actually witnessed something near a flash ahead, which really plays a good trick on the feeling of a consensus between time and place, since it through three clips tells a significant development in the plotline, a development that could have required a lot of explanation for the viewers to comprehend, but it was solved with clever cinematic mechanics.
Thelma and Louise is together a pair who proves not only their individual journey, but also a collective move for females travelling the world. As explained in “Women and Journeys” this has not always been the case. Moving further into the 21th century women and men equally travel the world’s four corners, showing that humans have moved into a new world, where the modern society travels safely without the fear of homely boundaries, which historically, was the difference between why the man was allowed to travel and why the woman was held at home. All this has changed, and the future is yet to enfold itself for the world to see.
Thelma and Louise reached a point where reality and hopes where at a cliff, literally. Freedom has its price, and the more you want, the more you have to give. The film succeeds in its attempt to interpret this notion, since Thelma and Louise we’re cornered between two choices, one, face ones consequences, or, two, escape from reality, and take the tour into the cliffs abyss of oblivion, meaning you cut off all strings attached to the world’s surface. In the case of Thelma and Louise, once again, the last option was to be the winner, sacrificing their lives. Although Thelma and Louise died for their believes, something lived on, the ideal of freedom. Nothing is true and everything is permitted, ideals never die.