At the beginning of the movie, we see Thelma as the typical woman who gets suppressed from society and is made to stay at home and support her husband. We see that she was even scared to ask her husband about going on a road trip. Actually, the fact that she had to ask and not simply tell was already pretty absurd. Nonetheless, Thelma still ends up going on the trip with Louise and ends up doing several over-the-board "crimes" together. It seems that the more they committed crimes, the more likely they do it again. The one moment in the movie that I believe underlies the theme is when Thelma tells Louise that everything "crossed over" and that she cannot go back or else she couldn't live. Ever since this road trip, Thelma really has everything changed drastically for her. She hooks up with guys, makes a robbery, threatens a policeman, and even helps blow up a truck. She is basically forced to act this way because of her long-trapped wild character that is finally allowed to release when away from her prison at home. After experiencing this new self of hers, Thelma knows she does not want to be her reserved old self anymore or else she really couldn't live- which actually could foreshadow the end of the movie when she would rather suggest death than being captured. Being captured to her means being constrained once again.
Thelma made several "innocent" blunders throughout the movie- dancing with Harlan, losing the money...etc. Louise does not seem to have blamed her friend too much besides being quietly upset and trying to fix the problem. Does Louise represent the strong female character in the movie who is already halfway to her "freedom" and trying to lift Thelma out of her state of devastation? At the same time, does she represent who friends really are?
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Claire that the scene after Louise talks on the phone with the police man and Thelma hangs up really captures the main point of the movie. After confirming that Louise isn't going to make a deal with the officer, Thelma tells her that "something crossed over in me, I can't go back, I just couldn't live." Although the escape on the road after Louise commits the murder is a bit over the edge with the events that follow, Thelma is able to really bring out who she is (daring and able to live for the moment). She was so held down by her husband in the beginning by the way she was treated, that the crimes committed on the road were most likely a release from everything she couldn't do while she was with him. Louise tells Thelma that they had been charged with murder, and they had to make a choice to either come in dead or alive. Thelma makes a comment saying "gosh, did he say anything positive at all?" By the end of the movie we see that death is a better choice for Louise and Thelma then to be captured, thus giving them a release from everything that was previously holding them down.
ReplyDeleteI also saw the scene where Thelma realizes that she cannot go back as the defining moment in the film. The events on their trip have brought out a new side of her, a side that has been repressed based on her situation in life. In fact, when she asks Louise if she is going to make a deal with the cops, it was almost a role reversal from an earlier scene in the movie when Louise asks Thelma if she is going to flake out on her and her plan to flee to Mexico. Thelma then asserts that if she were to go back, she "just couldn't live." This line really says it all. Her trip has allowed her to "live" for the first time, in the sense that she is free to act crazy and without inhibition. The freedom from her husband, responsibility, and the law has allowed her to become someone in stark contrast to her former self. Thus, it is not that her craziness is something altogether new. Rather, the circumstances in which she finds herself have allowed her to perhaps become the woman she has always been.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the movie, do the characters undergo a complete role reversal, and if so what is its significance?
I agree with everyone! For about the first half of the film I couldn’t help but hold a strong grudge against Thelma. She kept ruining everything! I am rather surprised Louise didn’t just ditch her and leave her to fend for herself. She portrayed the classic housewife; submissive and lifeless. However, after escaping her husband’s hold over her, the audience slowly sees the true Thelma come out. Everything that she had held in for so long is suddenly unleashed and she realizes that she hadn’t really been “living” before this. When tough Louise finally cracks (after her money gets stolen) we see that the transformation is complete. Thelma takes the wheel and there is no stopping her. By the end of the movie, Thelma has transformed from a reserved, obedient, girly girl into a wild and daring, free woman.
ReplyDeleteThis moment also stuck out in my mind, namely because Thelma literally explains how much she has changed as we're watching her in a very tight close-up. Off the top of my head, that shot is the closest we physically get to any character within the film (that and the close-up on Louise as she responds to Thelma). Filmmakers typically tighten up on the main characters when they're trying to make a point--it's almost as if it beats the audience over the head. "Hey you, this is the important part of the entire movie!" These tight close-ups, when you think about it, are very tight compared to the often-used wide shots of the film, but because we've watched this film for so long (as this moment takes place after the 1:30 mark at least), we have become drawn into the world of the characters. From a technical standpoint, this is the ideal time for a filmmaker to begin using close-ups, as it's not jolting to the human eye. We are psychologically prone to shield ourselves, if you will, from strangers; we don't want them invading our personal space. But once you get to know someone, you allow them to become emotionally and physically closer to you. It's the same in film, unless a tight close-up on a main character is used to purposefully jolt the audience.
ReplyDeleteThinking back, can you think of a moment in Easy Rider where a tight close-up similar to the aforementioned one in Thelma and Louise is used to drive home a main point of the film?
I obviously agree with the posts above but I believe that the significant moment in the film happens not only when Thelma embraces her new life and realizes she can never go back but also at the Grand Canyon scene. The road trip starts out as merely a way to escape their unhappy, male dominated lives for a weekend but it quickly escalates into a run for and from their lives. On the road, Thelma and Louise find an overwhelming sense of freedom they had never experienced and they refuse to let anyone take it away. So with the police closing in on them, the two women drive off a cliff, hand in hand, in order to preserve that freedom forever.
ReplyDeleteI agree...I also agree with Jloh:the moment where Thelma realizes that her life is different is a really dark point in the movie because its as if she has no other choice. Once you get into something that deep, like doing huge crimes, then you really have no way back to your original life. Well, maybe you can, but you will never forget what you have done. On the other hand, its as if she finally got a chance to live her life as well. She was always trapped because of her husband...but she could have made a better experience out of the one chance she got to live her life with total freedom because now, she has a stain on her life in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the most significant "point" occurs through most of the 2nd half of the movie when Thelma finally gets the certain "change" in her life that she set out to obtain. She embraced the hedonistic attitude of being on the road such as dancing with a stranger and getting in too deep with a young man she didn't know that much about (whom aventually robs her.) As the movie goes along from Thelma losing the money to the main characters plunging to their deaths the audience gets a strong sense of change and a hungry for freedom, even if both came from breaking alot of laws and taking a mans life. In the beginning both of the women were simply escaping from their lives that they couldn't stand anymore--thelma the overly controlled housewife and Louise the seemingly scarred waitress head out for something they were longing for--change. From everything they experiance I think that the sum is once you set out on a journey or something like a "road trip" you cannot go back, everything that changes you on that journey will be with you--in their case till the very end. When thelma takes the wheel during the journey after the money was stolen we get a blatent demonstration that Thelma will never go back to who she was becuase she finally realizes she can't and the future is a huge question mark, until her new attitude leads her to choose death instead of taking responsibility for her crimes. Before the journey she would have gone quietly but after her transformation she literally "went out in a blze of glory" with the clear image of freedom as their car freefalls off the cliff. Was there ever really any positive way their journey could have ended or was is doomed from the start? Also, with easy rider and now Thelma and Louis the morbid theme of going out in a blaze of glory seems to tag along to alot of people's definition of a road trip...does that skew anyone's interpretations thus far?
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