Reel Escapades

The transcript discusses the film Thelma and Louise and its portrayal of empowered women breaking free from societal constraints. It questions whether the film truly lives up to its feminist reputation and explores the balance between empowerment and reinforcement of stereotypes. The transcript also discusses the controversy surrounding the film and its impact on viewers. Overall, it examines the themes of female agency, liberation, and the rejection of the male gaze. Welcome to Real Escapades, where we delve into the depths of cinema to dissect a hidden layers and untold stories behind our favorite films. I'm your host, Katrina, and today we're taking a closer look at the iconic 1991 film Thelma and Louise. So, guys, I actually couldn't believe it, this was my first time ever watching this film. Yes, I wasn't born yet, but this film is definitely one of my new favorites. It's often hailed as a feminist masterpiece and a groundbreaking portrayal of these women who are empowered and are breaking free from society and patriarchy and everything that binds them down. But my question is, does this film really live up to this reputation? So we're going to keep listening and we're going to find out together. After we see Thelma almost get raped, these two women, Thelma and Louise, embark on their journey of self-discovery and liberation after this traumatic experience. They take control of their own identities in this male-dominated world. They both have terrible men in their lives. Does anyone relate? Anyways, these women, Thelma is with her husband, who is abusive and seemingly has to make rugs every Friday night. So we immediately know he cheats on her. And Louise has a flaky musician boyfriend who does not want to settle down. So we both know that immediately, these men in their lives are not doing them any good. And are in fact, which we learn, denying them their freedom in society. We see Thelma and Louise go against this male-dominated world. But are they only doing it because of this almost rape? Is their defiance against oppression empowering? And does this film go far enough to portray female agency? I think the film kind of navigates a balance between both the empowerment of women, but also a reinforcement of stereotypes. I feel like Thelma and Louise are definitely empowered female protagonists who find their freedom in power, but it also represents them as these possibly flawed individuals who are now resorting to violence and crime to find this freedom. While some people can view women in this moment, Thelma and Louise, as maybe so emotionally driven rather than taking a rational approach, we can also see how this argues against female strength or female vulnerability. What would you do in this moment? Would you have shot this man for your friends when he almost rapes her? We have to think about his response. We have to think about why she did this. We have to think, wasn't she just going to walk away until he showed that he was not sorry whatsoever? Did he push this action upon her? These are all questions we're going to answer. In Ann Putnam's article, The Bear of the Gaze in Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise, she talks about how these female protagonists reject their status as objects of the male gaze to take this power and this gaze for themselves as females, and they enter their own narrative in this way. This is a story, she says, of what happens when female protagonists reject their status as just being objects of viewing and of visual pleasure, as we see in so many of these films we've watched throughout our semester. These females are this view, and they're just this visual pleasure for a male audience with this male gaze. Putnam says that these women make their own narrative. They turn against this male gaze. They have the power of the gaze for themselves. This gives them power. This gives them a presence to show their flow of action. They can enter whatever flow of action they choose, and we see this throughout the film. I was shocked by many of the actions by these women. For example, when Thelma, she started off as such a shy, girly character, and I really never saw her becoming so empowered by Louise, but throughout the film, we see this. We see this in a circumstance when a cop is about to pull them over and get them in trouble for everything and being on the run, and I really was not expecting her to pull up a gun next to his head, so this is a moment where we see this female protagonist reject their status as objects. No, these men are not going to take away our power. We're going to take away his power, and in a comedic way, we see them lock him into his own trunk, and I think that was something that shows this female strength as this representation of this female strength. The film gives the audience this permission and this acceptance that we can root for these women. Even though they are committing crimes and violent acts, we can root for them, and we're rooting for them because they're going against this male-dominated society, but is that okay? I definitely think it's okay. I'm rooting for them the whole time, even though we see this crime and this violence, but where does this crime and this violence come from? Where is it caused? By a man. We see in Heller's article in the F Word, Power and Gender in Thelma and Louise, she includes these aspects of rape and revenge. There's oppression, and they're going against this. This is sexual violence that Thelma experienced, but they're not just going against the sexual violence. They're going against the tyranny that dominates them on many levels across a range of contexts, and that's what Heller says. It wasn't just the physical violence. It was the verbal abuse as the woman walked away. That's when the shooting occurred. She said, you watch your mouth, buddy, Louise said to his corpse. They responded with violence to his words more than that physical abuse. It's clear that the liberation is more than just from this one act. It's from many instances of similar situations occurring to women in society. Throughout the film, we see this feminism presented. We know their friendship and their love for one another as women. We see this womanhood. We see this togetherness. We also understand that this also means that they'll respond to these men who abuse and oppress them together. They'll stand together, and they'll stand tall. We're going to shift into that now. We're going to talk about how Thelma and Louise was seen by audience members in 1991 when it premiered and how it actually caused this widespread debate and controversy. When this movie was released in 1991, many saw it as having so much feminist themes, but others saw it as condemning this glorification of violence. In a 1991 interview, Sarah Sarandon shared, Suggested that this picture could be subtitled, The Revenge of the Women. Is it an anti-man movie? No. I mean, I think real men won't be the least bit threatened, and cool guys aren't at all. It's about self-determination. It's about finding freedom, and I think anybody can relate to that. It's never been kept under in a job or because they're a minority of some kind. It's pro-humanist, and yes, it's true that the female parts are the bigger parts, which in 99% of films these days is not true, so that's kind of shocking, but one of the things that really worried me was to make sure that it wasn't a revenge film, and in the film, I take complete moral responsibility for my actions. As Sarandon says, it's never supposed to be a revenge film, but many people viewed it as that during this time, and it was very controversial, but it also garnered acclaim as a cultural touchstone for many generations of viewers. It was kind of a portrait of America and how women were struggling to find their own individuality and freedom, but we see this femininity and this liberation as we see the women go on their journey, and their journey is caused by this male domination, and they see the truck driver who is extremely rude and disgusting to them. They trick him, and it's quite the comedic addition to the movie. We see that the women are only looking for him to apologize, and he won't, and then they blow up his entire livelihood and his truck. Was this fair? I know some people might not think this is fair, but in this moment, I was so happy. I was rooting for these women as they took out this male behavior. They called it out. They said, would you speak like that to your sister? Would you speak like that to your mother? Would you speak like that to any woman? And why do you think you'll get lucky on the side of the street by us women? The women have never felt freedom like this in their lives. Even Thelma states this during the movie as they're sitting in the car. In Roger Erbert's 1991 article, which is a review as the movie came out, he mentions how this cop has this empathy for the woman, and he's the only one who wants to help them. Erbert states, but it takes on a peculiar momentum of its own, especially as Thelma and Louise begin to grow intoxicated by the scent of their own freedom, and with the discovery that they possess undreamed of resources and capabilities. This is something women never had in society, and they only had this kind of resources and capability and freedom and joy. Not exactly joy as they're running away, but they do feel this kind of relief to get away from these male figures in their life that are holding them down and abusing them and treating them as if they don't matter. Erbert also states how Ridley kind of showed this sympathy for humans in the film, especially these women. Ridley really helps the audience to understand what's going on for these women, what they're feeling, what they're going through, and why they need to do what they need to do. In an interview with both Susan Salmoron and Gina Davis, she states, Maybe you'll explain to them, but it was huge. It was like massive. We were on the cover of Time magazine in like five seconds about why it strikes a nerve and like very negative editorials, oh my God, now the world is ruined, the women have guns. See, I don't remember the negative stuff at all. That's crazy. A lot, a lot of things. Now it's all about romanticizing suicide, and it's a man-hating movie, it's all about putting men down. Well, we thought we were kind of doing a Butch Cassidy, you know, kind of a romantic, or Jules and Jim, or something like that, not making some kind of statement. I think it's so interesting how so many people in society saw this as a negative editorial and a negative view of this film, yet it had such critical acclaim. But for the first time, I think a film was going against this male power in society, and it was making a statement that a woman can have power too. And I think the form of the power with weapons and criminality, definitely through people in society, but I think the message more goes to show femininity and friendship and standing up for other women in a way that does not need to be violent, but turned violent due to men's actions in this film. And also due to men's inability to vocalize their apologies in terms of situations that should not need an apology, that they should just be able to interact with women in a way that is not degrading, and is not abusive, and is not scary. I think that over the years, there's going to be many different interpretations of any film or any movie, but as time has went on, there has been changing attitudes towards gender, power, and autonomy in societies and in our world. And some may view Thelma and Louise as a feminist film, but others will still critique it for having possibly these issues of criminality and intersectional issues of race and sexuality and class. But I want to explore how this film may resonate now with audiences, as it resonated in a bad way then. How does it resonate now in terms of this newfound ideas in social justice, in society, and gender equality? I found an interview 25 years later, and Susan Salmoron and Gina Davis reunited to discuss the legacy and the influence of pop culture in 2007. So Sarandon shared, to be able to do a film with another woman was a big deal that it wasn't a competitive nature. It was two women working together and creating these feminist ideas. But now in society, we must think, how would this film play out if Thelma and Louise were Hispanic or Asian or African, if they were younger, if they were older, if they were poor, if they were smart? Would these factors alter how people see this film and their behavior in the film? Does this film advocate for violence and suicide? Would the feminist ideas in the film be as strong without the violence in the film? This is one of my favorite films in a while, guys. And I think it's still a complex exploration of female empowerment and something I'd like to do even further research on, because I think there's still this debate, as we saw in our class, about if it's feminine or not, and how this film influences popular culture both then and now. If we revisit this classic, we need to further understand these ideas of gender equality and social justice. These are such spurring ideas now in society. So I think if we continue to see the movie for both its achievements in femininity, but also its shortcomings, as every film will have both. But that's all for today's episode. Thanks all for joining me. I hope you join next time as we uncover more hidden gems and untold stories from the world of cinema. Until then, happy watching, and thanks for listening to Real Escapades. See you next time, guys. Let's keep going.