Review of Thelma & Louise (1991) by James H — 17 Mar 2010

One of the best road movies of all time. People make much of the fact that it's some sort of "feminist propaganda", which is bullshit. The fact of the matter is that there are so few road movies featuring women, or action movies featuring female protagonists, that a film centered on women is automatically read as some sort of "message.

" Maybe it is. It certainly is wonderful to see a representation of someone like myself on screen: a female PERSON, not the girlfriend of the protagonist, not an oversexed "strong" woman who is really just a slut in leather.

But this is not some sort of man-hating propaganda movie. This is a movie about PEOPLE, characters, who have enemies, and are responding to a life of repression and injustice. This is simply, a great story, and it works.

And the movie is just so damn good. It is so perfectly orchestrated, the way we move from bad to worse to worse to worse again and again and the merciless world is closing in a la 400 Blows. The dialogue is great, the action is thrilling, the plot is taught, the world is wonderfully real.

This is a great, great movie and if I hear one more person call it a fucking chick flick I'm gonna flip my shit and drive off a cliff.