Thelma & Louise: 30 Years Later

Rewatched recently. It holds up really well, although if it were released today it would be torn apart as an example of “white feminism.”

It's not a film I'd ever bother to revisit. Bit too frau for me.

I loved it when I first saw it during its first release.

However, beyond the performances of Sarandon & Davis it really has stood the test of time watching when I re-watched it last year.

I was in San Francisco and met a guy at MOBY DICKS....He had just bought the vhs (or maybe dvd) ...Went to his fancy house in the castro and watched it..

I rewatched it recently and was relieved to see it held up. Beautifully shot. Geena is a force! Brad is irresistible. Sad and wild and enraging.

I hated it when I first saw it. Moral of the story: ladies, when confronted with a bad situation, drive into the Grand Canyon! Alas, they didn't take Brad with them and we were subjected to Ape-Face's subsequent career.

Will always be one of my greatest experiences at a theatre. Me and my 3 friends wanted to go to the movies but we all wanted to see different ones. So I went to T & L, one went to Backdraft and the other Hudson Hawk. Our choices say a lot about us, lol. While I was watching the movie, suddenly someone left the theatre and the light knocked me out of the movie. I felt like I had been in the theatre for a long time, in a good way. Like I had gone on this journey with them. It was a great feeling. Loved this film ever since.

Great film. Love Harvey Keitel.

I love the soundtrack. Glenn Frey's Part of You, Part of Me. Wild Night by Martha Reeves. And The Ballad of Lucy Jordan by Marianne Faithfull used spectacularly in the film.

Excellent movie.

If made today, it would have to star some acting trans nightmare like Laverne Cox and a sassy Asian.

It would gross five dollars at the box office but Hollywood would be pleased with itself… as it kills itself to please tiny minorities on Twitter.

R9 No Looking back by Michael McDonald is my favorite track from this film.

I hope no talentless hack in Hollyweird comes up with the "brilliant" idea to remake this movie.

I always wonder if it would have been better without Sue Sarandon.

Sarandon may be a DL un-fave but she was great in this film.

Harvey Keitel also gives a lovely supporting performance.

Love Jason Beghe's short scene.

2 sorority sisters out on a wild weekend. Over rated and rather trite really.

I will no longer watch it, and neither should you.

They didn't include Michael McDonald on the soundtrack CD. Don't know why... Kelly Willis' "Little Honey" was funny.

Great film. Gets a little slow at the hotel where Gina hooks up with JD but otherwise, just a great, fun film. And both women were excellent in this.

I didn't like it then, so I won't watch it now.

Susan Sarandon's voice (Southern accent?) was grating. She was also "acting" all the time.

Gina Davis is always good at quirky characters and I liked how she kept drinking from those mini bottles.

Brad Pitt looked hot, but looked like he came from a trailer.

Geena Davis was really great. Sarandon was just ok IMO.

I watched it recently there is one scene that had me lol. They are driving and Davis starts giggling about the guy Sarandon shot. She can barely get out the words. She says something like the look on Harlan's face when you shot him (laughs uncontrollably.) He just wasn't expecting that! It's such a funny scene.

[quote]R6 I hated it when I first saw it. Moral of the story: ladies, when confronted with a bad situation, drive into the Grand Canyon!

Because life imprisonment is so appealing.

What do they have to stick around for??

They wouldn't have got life imprisonment. She shot a rapist.

The suicide was very controversial at the time. Sarandon was afraid it would be cut due to test audience results and wanted a conformation that it wouldn't so she could play the part as contemplating suicide.

It was beautifully shot and captures a lot of the wide open beauty, desolation, and dustiness of the American West. Plus a great soundtrack.

I can do without floppy titted Susie Sarandon and her overacting, though.

I wish Cher had taken the part of Louise. She and Davis would have been more believable as friends and Cher would have brought some levity to the part in the beginning.

Cher could never convincingly play a suicide: she will live forever.

[quote]R24 They wouldn't have got life imprisonment. She shot a rapist.

You trust the court system that much? Wow.

Louise says several times she’s not going back to Texas. There’s the implication she might be wanted for something there already. And Thelma has said she has changed and can’t go back to who she was before.

They uncompromisingly choose freedom. Great ending.

Jason Beghe was hot in that tight cop uniform. Too bad he's a Scientology weirdo.

I would like to see someone mash this movie up with [italic]Chitty Chitty Bang Bang[/italic].

Superb movie. There's a reason that despite missing out on a Best Picture nomination it won screenplay and was nominated for direction. Very good argument for a joint Oscar win.

The scene when they drive at night and Marianne Faithful plays on the radio is very moving.

It captured something then, but doesn't hold up for me.

he quit them r29

I love the ending too, and am still surprised that it made the final cut without cheesy modifications:

"Other endings were discussed—including one in which Louise would push Thelma out of the car just in time, saving her friend’s life before sailing over the cliff herself. But in the end, Khouri convinced Scott to keep the ending she’d originally written. In a delightfully dishy commentary track featuring Sarandon, Davis, and Khouri—by far the best extra on this edition, and well worth listening to all the way through—Sarandon talks about how the final scene was the very last one to be filmed, so that the highly charged goodbye between Thelma and Louise also served as a goodbye for the two actresses, who’d grown close over the shoot. “It was perfect,” says Davis, remembering how the sun set over the canyon just after their second take, marking the end of the production. And there is something perfect about the frozen midair arc of that Thunderbird convertible. It’s an ending that’s perfect in its very irresolution, the vehicle of the heroines’ deliverance and doom caught at the very moment it goes from flying to falling.

Ridley Scott shot an alternate, longer ending, which is also included as an extra in this edition. In it, we witness the continued trajectory of Louise’s airborne car. A second shot from above tracks the car as it begins its descent, wobbling sickeningly as it hurtles into the void. As the state troopers gathered at the canyon’s edge realize what’s happened, the Harvey Keitel character approaches the lip of the canyon and looks over the edge, presumably at the mangled wreckage of the Thunderbird. He picks up the Polaroid photograph that blew out of the car—the one Thelma and Louise took of themselves as they set out, lipsticked and denim-jacketed, for their weekend jaunt—and gazes at it while a helicopter descends into the canyon.

This alternate ending adds perhaps 25 seconds to the movie’s running time, but it changes it profoundly. Ending with the horrified Keitel at cliff’s edge would have made Thelma & Louise into a head-shaking reflection on the terrible fate society visits on women. (In a ham-fisted line just before the final shot, the Keitel character laments to Stephen Tobolowsky’s FBI agent, “How many times are these women going to be fucked over?”) Choosing to end instead with the heroines’ shining-eyed farewell, followed by the freeze-frame of that eternally buoyant car, allows Thelma & Louise to dwell forever at that odd moment in movie history when women won the right to be just as crazy as men."

Davis' progression from gawky to confident is wonderful. I love how as she holds the gun on some people she says to Louise...I think I have a flair for this.

Sarandon is really too old for her role. She was 41 to Davis' 31.

Sorry, I meant 45 and 35.

"Daryl doesn't have a cute butt. You could park a car in the shadow of his ass!"

Loving all the T&L love on here. I agree with all of it. It's a beautifully done film, and a hell of a lot of fun. Love that Hans Zimmer guitar score.

Loved the movie then. Still love it. When I first saw it I thought Sarandon was terrific and wasn't that impressed by Davis, but when I watched it again a few years ago Davis was the one who really stood out.

Someone wrote upthread that Louise refused to drive into Texas because she was probably wanted for some crime she might have committed there. I thought it was something to do with her trauma of having been raped in Texas once.

A conversation about this movie with a SJW-type acquaintance revealed to me how slavishly and unquestioningly those people follow the trends and talking points on social media. Ten years ago she was raving about the film and its uncompromisingly feminist standpoint and even claimed that the film is often overlooked in conversations about great American cinema.

Last year the same woman was calling T&L overrated and claiming that it went out of its way to exclude women of color from its narrative. The film has, in her estimation, gone from being 'unfairly overlooked by white male critics' to 'over praised and overrated because even the white male critics who are feminists are only interested in stories about white women'.

There's no satisfying these whiners. I think T&L has held up really well and wish I could watch it on the big screen at least once.

[quote]Someone wrote upthread that Louise refused to drive into Texas because she was probably wanted for some crime she might have committed there. I thought it was something to do with her trauma of having been raped in Texas once.

Louise didn't want to drive through Texas because there are Zionists in Texas.

I thought Susan Sarandon was very good. I have a friend who is just like the character with the same mannerisms. Sweaty Bette.

Wrong, R41:

I’ve always been drawn back to this film. It just works as a road trip, a journey, and they’re both great in it. Was Ridley even nominated for this? It’s one of his best. And I love the cinematography. Possibly Sarandon’s best role; I love her scenes with Michael Madsen.

The ending works for me, I accept it. Because they were facing such a stark future. It’s a choice. But the similar ending of Promising Young Woman, I didn’t go for at all - probably because that character had so much to live for, it didn’t make any sense no matter how self-dramatising the woke victim culture tries to be.

But yes, Thelma & Louise is a classic. I can’t believe what a controversy it was at the time.

[quote]Was Ridley even nominated for this? It’s one of his best

He was, alongside Barry Levinson for Bugsy, John Singleton for Boyz N The Hood and Oliver Stone for JFK - Jonathan Demme rightly won. I wonder who took Barbra's spot?

R4 You saw it on VHS? Who tha fuck has VHS players anymore. LOL.

R45, Barbra didn't deserve to be nominated. PoT is a Lifetime movie at best and she should have been immediately barred from directing any more movies when she rewrote the script to include the soft focus love scenes. The bitch even tried to recapture the goodbye scene from TWWW in the scene where Tom ends his affair with Lowenstein.

Bugsy was another lousy movie. Singleton, Demme and Scott deserved their nominations and any of them would have been a deserving winner.

Were there any alternate versions of Glenn Frey's song Part of You, Part of Me? I loved the soundtrack, especially The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.

[quote]R37 Sarandon is really too old for her role. She was 41 to Davis' 31.

[quote]r38 Sorry, , I meant 45 and 35.

Why would they have to be the same age? They’re not playing twins.

[quote]Jason Beghe was hot in that tight cop uniform. Too bad he's a Scientology weirdo.

Maybe check on that last part before stating it? People leave the clams all the time.

The first part is just indisputable fact tho.

[quote]Sorry, , I meant 45 and 35.

If they made it now with a similar age gap they could have Angelina Jolie and Anna Kendrick, or Kate Winslet and Keira Knightley, or Reese Witherspoon and Amber Heard or Jessica Chastain and Blake Lively.

Cher would have won a second Oscar for it.

[quote]Cher would have won a second Oscar for it.

No one was going to stop Jodie that year.

The pairing of Davis and Sarandon was so great because they both could fully assert their personalities through the characters they played - one was not relegated to being the ugly one or the short one, etc. They both had every component of their womanhood to utilise. They weren't limited by caricature or stereotype.

I can’t imagine Cher in T and L. She would look so out of place with the freewheeling, grittiness of it. Great film with so many quotable lines. I saw it a summer weekend when it opened in 91 in a crowded theater and the audience and I were left stunned by the ending. Davis and Sarandon should team up for another film. I’m guessing Sarandon came in second at the Oscars with Geena third.

Saw this in my teens with a friend who paid for my ticket. Went in blind not knowing anything about the film except for the movie poster going in.

I was blown away. Great acting, awesome cinematography and Brad Pitt of course.

For some reason it's not a movie that I would want to watch over and over.

[quote]I can’t imagine Cher in T and L. She would look so out of place with the freewheeling, grittiness of it.

She fit in with the grittiness of Silkwood.

SUCH an average movie.

yes, I love it too!

I love the ending.

this site is always a bit suspect but....

Jodie Foster and Michelle Pfeiffer were set to star? Michelle would have really brought out Jodie's lesbian side.

And Tina Turner? Really?

Michelle Pfeiffer was the one who told Ridley Scott he should direct the film, when he was shopping around for (female?) directors as producer and came to Michelle asking what she thought.

Jodie and Michelle would have been a bit humorless. I think it works so well because Sarandon is so tortured and Davis is laugh out loud funny at times.

Watched this again tonight and it hasn't aged a bit. It's still as good as I remember. It's excellent in every aspect - acting, writing, directing, editing, cinematography, score.

I also love the scene with Jason Beghe. It's a brilliant scene, well-acted by all three. I love how Davis takes control, and I love Beghe's response when she tells him to get into the trunk. Also love the follow-up scene with the cyclist.

The deleted scenes are interesting. One scene features Catherine Keener playing Harvey Keitel's wife. It's a good scene but I can see why they cut it.

I always found it funny how polite Thelma was when she threatened the cop and had him bound and gagged.

"The police radio, Louise" is one of my favorite moments from the film.

R55, Cher was great in Silkwood. I think the problem would have been the opposite--she'd have been too realistic for the film, which was pretty cartoony, like most Hollywood stuff.

I occasionally use the phrase from Thelma: "The law is some tricky shit".

I don’t think Cher had the acting chops for a film like that. She’s not natural enough.

She was quite natural in Silkwood and Mask.

Cher would have overshadowed her co-star with her larger than life, drag queen presence. For me one of the reasons T&L works as a script is that neither Davis nor Sarandon completely overshadowed the other.

Cher did not overshadow co-stars in any of her 80s films. Her drag queen presence? That didn't appear until Burlesque in movies.

[quote] Me and my 3 friends wanted to go to the movies but we all wanted to see different ones. So I went to T & L, one went to Backdraft and the other Hudson Hawk

Oh, dear. Did you drop out of school after first grade? Apparently, you can neither count to four nor construct a simple sentence.

People always go on about Brad Pitt, but to me, Christopher McDonald and Timothy Carhart - both sweaty, sleazy villains who are the catalysts behind T&L’s eventual on-the-lam adventure, were the hottest men in this. (Honorable mention to Michael Madsen.)

I agree R73. I hope Thelma's husband was getting lots of dick after she left him.

Always loved Toni Childs’s House of Hope and the way it was used in the film.

[quote] I agree [R73]. I hope Thelma's husband was getting lots of dick after she left him.

You picked up on that too? And Chris McDonald did have the perfect ass to be fucked!

Cher could’ve been a good Louise. Who would her Thelma have been?

Christopher McDonald was very handsome when he cleaned up. Timothy Carhart was well-cast as Harlan - he is both charming and sinister.

Michael Madsen gives a great performance. Very sensitive and understated.

They should’ve had Thelma’s husband hook up with one of the cops standing watch at the house. That would’ve worked.

Louise was clearly raped in Texas, which is why she never wanted to talk about it and didn’t want to drive through it. Harlan triggered her when he told her to suck his cock, which is why she blew him away.

Here’s the powerful, tear-jerker alternate ending with the girls’ descent into the canyon. People debate whether the very ending is representative of Thelma and Louise still riding on in the afterlife.

To me, that version has a more mythological tone to it - you don’t actually see the car blow up, there’s no wreckage confirmed. However unlikely, it makes me think, could they have survived? It also deflates the man-powered authorities, which is interesting.

The theatrical ending actually seems more pronounced by ending their journey in mid-air. It’s more definitive that their story ends. And it’s spiritual.

I like both endings.

My only issue with the theatrical one is the screen goes white quickly and then bam, credits. I wish there was just a little more reflection or pause?

Apparently there was a whole book written about the film.

This is one of my favourite movies. I love the ambience of the blue skies and the music as they pass through the dusty landscape.

The spine-tingling score by Hans Zimmer was a big part of it. Probably the best in the history of movies. And he didn't win the Oscar.

Yes, it's excellent R86. Very melancholic.

r86 He didn't win -- he wasn't even nominated! Madness. One of his best scores.

I listened to the soundtrack today and it's so good. Wild Night by Martha Reeves is fantastic.

R82, that also leaves open the possibility of a sequel, as Davis jokes in this scripted bit from the Oscars.

As much as I love Cher, I can't see her in this film. I can't see anybody else but Davis and Sarandon. They were absolutely perfect. I love the lived-in feel of their performances. I never see Davis or Sarandon - just Thelma and Louise. As much as I dislike Sarandon, watching this again this past weekend, I really liked Louise and never once thought "Ugh, that Sarandon". Sarandon was really at her peak here after giving terrific performances in The Witches of Eastwick, Bull Durham and White Palace. Same with Davis.

Cher doesn't over-power her co-stars at all. With Witches of Eastwick and Moonstruck she was very much just part of the ensemble. She didn't have to over-act or overwhelm. Though I always hated Nic Cage in Moonstruck, he was already playing the weirdo. Both Witches and Moonstruck, the other stars were given lots to do.

R79, in my fantasy version the cop played by Jason Beghe would have hooked up with Christopher McDonald.

I love Jodie Foster and thought she deserved to win for SOTL but Davis or Sarandon would have been deserving winners too. Dern and Midler were the weak nominees in the group that year.

Lesbians love this movie because they hate men.

Do Americans still make a dash for the Mexican border if they're wanted by the police?

I don't want to watch this, Steel Magnolias, or Heathers again. Everyone I went to see them with died shortly thereafter, and that's all I think about.

Well, maybe Heathers. Maybe I could re-watch Heathers.

r96 loves his dead gay everyone!T

Awesome. Love seeing them commemorate this classic.

The alternate ending sucks. Too much testosterone with all those guys with guns walking out like they give a fuck about two women fugitives. I agree that the freeze on their take off gives a more mythic, spiritual cast to the whole journey. That said, the whole film is a downer for women, imo.

Sarandon's reaction to Davis' saying let's not get caught always feels strange to me. She's happy to kill herself? I think there should have been more thought to it. Like think about it for a while before smiling right away.

Never fails to make me chuckle.

I saw this on a plane recently for the first time. I knew it was a “classic” but had just never gotten around to it. Loved, loved, LOVED it. What a movie. And of course I knew the iconic ending but it really doesn’t stick until you actually watch it. I can imagine what a shock it was if you don’t know what’s coming.

Geena Davis had such a unique presence and way of delivering a line - even as Karen on Family Ties. I miss seeing her in things. I haven’t seen this movie on TV in a while but it seems to have held up — though it is one of those films where something is lost when not on the big screen.

R100 What's hard to understand you moronic bird brain. It was the last day of shooting so they were both genuinely emotional anyway. They both know they'll get the chair for their crimes all because of a rape. So, why not go out in a blaze of glory.

WHET Harvey Keitel and Michael Madsen? They used to be in multiple movies a year back when this was released.

[quote]R104 They both know they'll get the chair for their crimes all because of a rape.

They’ve also done armed robbery. And blown up that fuel tanker.

Weed scene

“Excuse me for not knowing how to act when you blow somebody away!”

Outlaws ‘til the end.

R12 Now that Amazon has purchased the MGM/UA library there is talk that they will be re-making Thelma and Louise. Bad idea.

^ Diabolical! They need to be stopped.

Louise will be a black tranny who recently got the chop, worldly and wise. She will have been raped in all 48 contiguous states so she'll have a serious chip on her shoulder when she shoots Puerto Rican tranny mess Thelma's rapist at a tranny bar in Hollywood. Instead of the Grand Canyon they'll kill themselves in the La Brea tarpits.

They already tried it with 'Set it Off'.

No, R112. T & L won't die in the new version. The final scene will show them ending up in NYC, getting out of the car and blending into the crowd at a huge BLM rally. The rapist will be a privileged white male and our woke heroines will also kill some Karens on the road during their crime spree.

R114 Fuck that. It will follow the original story's structure. No reason to include failed city/shithole NYC in any movie these days.

R112, it won't be anything like the chip on your shoulder, though.

It will star Gal Gadot and Zoe Kravitz.

Watching it now. Geena Davis's best role, and she does an incredible job of transforming in this film. I love how her voice gets stronger and deeper, and she even looks leaner in later scenes.

There’s no need for a remake.

Does anyone in the film industry have any original thoughts?

I’d be perfect for one of the leads in a remake.

The controversy over this movie at the time of its release was unbelievable. How many countless movies have featured men as outlaw vigilantes? But ONE movie featuring women in those roles was just TOO MUCH. It was ridiculous.

That scene where the chopper is flying over that burning tanker truck and that slimeball trucker is standing there all like "WTF just happened?" makes me laugh every time.

I forgot how much I enjoyed this movie. Davis's transformation was subtle but powerful.

After reading this thread, I just watched Thelma & Louise on Youtube. I haven't seen it in years and it's still a great movie. I loved it back in '91, when it first came out. It's a great road movie, with gorgeous scenery...and fun. Davis and Sarandon are excellent in this...having a good friendship chemistry. I can see Cher in the role of Louise...but, I also thought of Goldie Hawn, too. If you've ever seen her in the movie, The Sugarland Express, which is similar to this one....a fugitive from the law, she was great in that. However, Davis and Sarandon were fun to watch.

Haven’t seen it in decades, and won’t watch it again because my hatred of Susan Sarandon (since 2016) is perhaps … a tad irrational. Whatever. But I loved it when it was brand new and I was 12 or 13.

One thing I loathe about it, however, is that instrumental electric guitar song with the big reverb on it. What a pile of sappy shit that composition is. Gross. And I’ve heard it a bunch over the years out of context.

Why the hate for Susan Sarandon? She's pretty benign as far as annoying celebrities go.

R23 No life imprisonment for Thelma; she didn't kill anyone!

Susan Sarandon has been dead to us since 2016, but between 1987 with Witches of Eastwick until about 1995 with Dead Man Walking, she gave a series of great performances. Bull Durham and this film are probably two of the best, and I personally love her in White Palace.

But Geena's transformation is great.

Watching it again, it still holds up. Ridley Scott did a fantastic job directing. He brought his typical stylish Scott look, but he kept the focus on both Thelma and Louise and let Davis and Sarandon do their thing.

I used to love it but I just can't stand to watch Susan Sarandon films anymore.

R124 Yes, no doubt you sound like the biggest cunt around but you're perfect for DL. Keep on cunting, ladyfriend.

[quote]Susan Sarandon has been dead to us since 2016,

Well she's been dead to you, not us. Because she supported Bernie Sanders? You're an imbecile.

That's not the reason r130 and you're the imbecile.

Because it was AFTER Bernie was not going to be the Democratic nominee, she did everything to dissuade people from voting for Hillary, making it easier for Trump to swoop in.

She's a treacherous vile bitch. And just go to her daughter's Instagram to see how what her mothering brought to the world.

Hillary was a bad candidate, and nobody expected Trump was going to win. She probably figured Hillary was going to win anyway, like everybody else. To still be holding a grudge like that over some actress is ridiculous.

Four years of Trump warrants a lifetime of grudges.

[quote] [R124] Yes, no doubt you sound like the biggest cunt around but you're perfect for DL. Keep on cunting, ladyfriend.

^^ Big Hans Zimmer and Bernie fan, I take it

R127 I agree. White Palace is a under seen gem.

Ahem...

^Whoops, wrong thread.

I watched it to see what the fuss was about. I was not impressed. Here are these two not very bright women, unhappy with their relationships with men, who go off on a holiday together. They go to a redneck bar; after getting a little drunk, one of them starts dancing with a drunken redneck. He gets her outside and attempts to rape her; the other woman shows up with a gun and the guy backs off. But she kills him anyway. Like I said, these women are none too bright. Anyway, they go off on the run and "empower" themselves by behaving like idiots; one of them has great sex with a stranger (he ends up stealing all their getaway money), they commit armed robbery, they lock o police officer in a car trunk, they blow up a truck. It's supposed to be a kind of "feminism", all these crazy, stupid things they do to "rebel" against the tyrannical control of men. But all I could think was "What a pair of stupid twats!" I didn't shed any tears when they drove off the cliff.

"They wouldn't have got life imprisonment. She shot a rapist."

Doesn't matter. She shot an unarmed man. She would have gone to jail for quite a while, which is why she and her dumbass friend ran away. Of course they went on to commit several more felonies. Those women were too stupid to live.

r138 and r139 = Harlan

'I didn't shed any tears when they drove off the cliff'

I did R138 for the classic aqua marine Thunderbird convertible they destroyed

If had my choice of either role but Barbra Streisand & Steven Spielberg conspired against me and turned Ridley Scott against me and I was replaced.

[quote] “Daryl doesn't have a cute butt. You could park a car in the shadow of his ass!"

I prefer a fatty to a flatly, personally.

R143, I know what you mean. I may be in the minority but Brad Pitt never did anything for me. Christopher Mcdonald, on the other hand was sexy as hell to me.

Cher’s recently renovated face wouldn’t work for Louise.

[quote] I know what you mean. I may be in the minority but Brad Pitt never did anything for me. Christopher Mcdonald, on the other hand was sexy as hell to me.

You’re not. See my response at R73.

[quote]Susan Sarandon

CUNT

Timothy Carhart was really hot in this. He must have worked out a lot before the film because he wasn't as sexy when he appeared in Ghostbusters or Working Girl.

I also find Christopher MacDonald really hot. Wild Orchid 2 is a terrible film but he was fucking sexy as a corrupt, sleazy senator.

Christopher MacDonald is vaguely appealing as a mature man in Hacks on HBO Max with the sublime Jean Smart.

R148 Rapists turn you on, you sick cunt. Are you named Meryl? Carhart said he took the role knowing he might never get laid again because he'd always be the rapist.

[quote]I also find Christopher MacDonald really hot

Me too. And that ass...

Lord r150. It's a MOVIE. Timothy Carhart is an ACTOR.

It's a great movie, but the ending is just too sad.

R152 I'd usually agree, but when casting agents and producers and the public only know you as the revolting rapist from TaL, your career and prospects will be nothing.

Susan Sarandon usually seemed pretty cool but I have wondered how she had such a talentless, loser daughter. The bitch has been in some classics.

I've been going through a weird spell where I started building up a modest DVD collection from scratch (WTF? I have no idea why) of my favourite films (I am living in a different Region than when I built up my first collection, which is mostly gone). I got this last week. The film really does hold up. The writing, the acting, the landscape, the soundtrack. It's just beautifully assembled and realised by Ridley Scott. I think he made three bonafide classics (with Alien and Blade Runner), and this was his last one. I loved that he got a director nod for this, even if he (or Singleton, probably Singleton) bumped Babs out. Davis' transformation was something to behold, and her goofiness played wonderfully against Sarandon's more serious Louise.

Cher could have played Louise convincingly no doubt, but it wouldn't have been the same opposite Davis. They both have a natural "goofball" side and I don't think it would have worked as well. Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep were shopping around for a project to do together and were once attached or considered. I *think* they could have worked as Thelma & Louise, respectfully, but it is hard to imagine them in roles that have been immortalised by David and Sarandon. As far as Pfeiffer and Foster, I forget which roles each of them were considered for, but I can't imagine either as Thelma (at least, I can't imagine Pfeiffer nailing her arc). They both could have played Louise, except I can't see them as much as I could imagine Cher or Streep. But, both actresses were Oscar winners (in lead), and the movie and roles made a nice fit for actresses who were on the ascent.

Davis won an Oscar in supporting, but she wasn't a "leading lady" yet. This movie put her on the map as far as that was concerned and probably gave her the taste to be an action star which she pursued with her then husband Renny Harlin. Unfortunately, both projects (Cutthroat Island, Long Kiss Goodnight) not only finished her pursuits as an action star, but derailed her film career. Her Thelma was revelatory, though, and she managed to parlay that success into another hit with A League of Their Own, thanks to Debra Winger dropping out (I could imagine Winger as Louise for sure, but not sure who I would pair her with).

This is also my favourite Sarandon performance. It's unfortunate that some people here are allowing politics to cloud their appreciation for her acting/movies. The role distills everything I enjoy about Sarandon: a tough-as-nails exterior which masks vulnerability coupled with wide off-kilter eyes that reveal a down-to-earth side whilst also being sexy and confident. I thought her Oscar nods were often for overly virtuous roles with no bite. I do love Dead Man Walking, but always had trouble with her performance, because it was nothing like the real Sister Prejean when she was on Oprah with Sarandon and Robbins, which I had trouble reconciling for some reason. Over time, I have grown to appreciate it. She was fun and sexy in Bull Durham and Witches of Eastwood, and fun, but appropriately one-dimensional in Rocky Horror. But, this is the role that I would love to give her the Oscar for. Unfortunately, I also want to give it to Davis. And Foster in Silence of the Lambs. [And, it should be said that Annette Bening was stunning in the lackluster Bugsy (and lead)]

Not the greatest year for film, 1991 did give us three iconic cinematic characters who will never be forgotten in films which match their performances. I wish we got more movies like this. But I'm thankful we have this.

Louise refused to drive through Texas and rather circumvent it on their way to Mexico. It sounded ridiculous, practically speaking. As well, it's not like Louise would be tried in Texas, as Harlan was killed in Arkansas (or Oklahoma?). But, metaphorically, it worked. Given the hostility Texas showed towards women in general, coupled with the trauma Louise had from getting raped in that state, it was easy to get on board and believe that she would just rather take her chances travelling through Oklahoma and New Mexico.

With Texas's recent regressive step in dialling back the reproductive rights of females/FTM trans, it feels particularly poignant. Getting caught for murdering a rapist is not the same thing, but it does tie back to women's rights and justice.

Ironically, Texas is the only Top 5 populated U.S. state to vote in a female governor in a general election (not one woman, but two). Go figure.

The movie pretty much plays like 2 sorority sisters on a wild weekend.

One of the most overrated movies ever. Brad Pitt shirtless is the only reason to watch it.

Don't think even one black person crosses the lens during the entire road trip....

^Ahem...

Has Christopher MacDonald ever gotten those sweet cheeks out on screen? I, too, find him very sexy.

The movie is brilliant and Davis and Sarandon are so perfect in their roles that I can't imagine anyone else in them. Davis gets more of an arc with her character and she sells it. Just saw an interview with her recently about all the work that she's done to get more roles for women on screen and how, in spite of all that, she doesn't get offered much that's interesting. That's a shame.

[quote] Has Christopher MacDonald ever gotten those sweet cheeks out on screen? I, too, find him very sexy.

Several times

Brad Pitt was totally overrated in this. I found Chris McDonald, Timothy Carhart and Michael Madsen to be far hotter.

I never saw what the big deal was about "Thelma and Louise." It's just a movie about two REALLY stupid women.

Thank you R163. Nice ass.

I thought the ending was just right. Good riddance.

[quote]The pairing of Davis and Sarandon was so great because they both could fully assert their personalities through the characters they played - one was not relegated to being the ugly one or the short one, etc. They both had every component of their womanhood to utilise. They weren't limited by caricature or stereotype.

Superb movie. The best case I've ever seen for a dual Oscar or special participation trophy.

Susan Sarandon did something I'm not sure someone else in the role could do. She was sincerely Thelma's friend and yet had a private, interior life that was separate from anyone else. Even in her scenes with Jimmy, she could convey real intimacy with him, and how he could get only so far. It's hard to do that without the intimacy feeling false. Susan pulls it off with Geena and Madsen. I think she's a loony asshole in real life who named her kid after a killer, so even before the recent politics I didn't love hearing from her outside of roles. But in a movie? She can do it. I'm fine with letting people do what they're great at.

Being turned into a musical.

Skipping, unless it's Glenn Close and Patti LuPone.

I love that shirt!