Hide Article Text (OCR)
. f.l* -s* • - *r F *V V'* “ ■•;*■.*V.-* I• V•• • ’.'.J’V ^.i 'j*. •...r'•Vi •7 -r -/-V'. '• • ;.By Jim Emerson .The Orange County Register* ‘ \~ ' s’*. ** ' 't . ' 1. • ■ \ ’ .».% i%: *' ’* ’v \* f. .. - v-% ; . =« .: • , : ‘he tragicomic feminist road movie “Thelma and Louise” should have ... been made in the 1970s as an unpolished, low-budget production by Robert Altman or Bob Rafelson or someone with a feel for the raw and messy — but sometimes extraordinary — possibilities of human life.But it’s too late for that now. It’s the ’90s, when everyone and everything is acommodity, : jAnd, as if we needed any more evidenceof that sad fact, British director Ridley Scott (“Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Black Rain ’ ’) has taken the lower-middle-classfeminist rage at the Keart of “Thelma andLouise” and packaged it as a feature-length perfume commercial.Scott’s prettified, sterile, meticulously composed images threaten to suffocate all the potency and danger out of the movie’s underlying ideas and emotions.Fortunately, however, luminous lead actresses Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are strong and vital enough that they resist being fashioned into mannequins in Scott’s fastidiously arranged wide-screen window display. :Scott should stick to directing movies about aliens and androids. He and cinematographer Adrian Biddle shoot their actors and the rough, awe-inspiring landscapes of the American Southwest as if they were making post cards or fashion layouts — a method that dilutes and sugarcoats themovie’s more radical passions.It starts out as a weekend fling away from home. Louise (Sarandon), a coffee-shop waitress, and her best friend, Thelma (Davis), a housewife bullied by her loutish husband, Darryl (Christopher McDonald), take off for a few days together at a friend’s cabin.Neither of them is particularly happy with their lot in life. As Louise says, “You get what you settle for.”But once they’re out on their own in the world, they encounter people and situations that put their settled-for lives at risk. One■ ■)V .V .' w -. ‘-\i i~ r: -vrr:'mmi W • ■ ’ . ■ •* » ■Geena Davis plays a bored housewife on the run with her friend in Thelma and Louise.’. * ; ' ' • •’ ' ■ ; . ■ .• ■ : ■ •;. '! • . ■ • . ~ ■ • ■ ’ - :: • ’ * * » : !'• 'L . - .? of course, is the feminist slant: Here, both parts of the couple are female, on the runin a man’s world full of sexist slobs and patronizing patriarchs.Scott undermines the movie's political points, however, by portraying two key male characters as editorial-cartoon idiots. Thelma’s husband, Darryl, is just too one-note awful to be believable, interrupting an urgent phone call from his wife to cheer a football play on television.And a truck driver who makes lewd remarks to Thelma and Louise is portrayedACTIVIST ACTRESS: SusanSarandon’s roles reflect.her politics/10t ' • r .• . . ’ .. *• ■ ’ r.thing leads to another, and they wind up irrevocably throwing off the shackles of their old existence, turning instead — out of necessity — to lives of crime.“Thelma and Louise” fits into the fugi-tive-couple-on-the-run order of movies such as “You Only Live Once,” “They Live by Night,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Thieves Like Us” and “Badlands.” The difference,• •'*.'f » • • .*.*. 4 • i , : . . : *■ • .•;/•. , ’ . V ' 1 % . •.' * V ... •.* it-'‘; ^1 • .A. '• -*.lt; W. t- B|\ Starririg: ?Susan Sarandon,i GdenaDavis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Stephen/: Tobblowsky, Christopher McDonald, Brad. Pitt.■ Behind the scenes: Directed by Ridley Scott. Screenplay by Callie Khouri. Cinematography by Adrian Biddle. Music by Hans Zimmer.■ Playing: Opens Friday in theaters throughout Orange County.■ Running time: 2 hours and 8 minutes.■ Rated: R, language, sexual content, violence.as such a ridiculous cretin that he fails to represent any serious threat. His fate is drained of meaning because he’s too freakish to represent the panting-male sexism that he’s supposed to embody.Both these guys are cardboard villains,knocked over with bludgeons rather than skewered with satirical daggers.In the depiction of four other crucial male characters, however, (Thelma and Louise are virtually the only women in the movie, except for a few waitresses) the movie is more successfully complex.J.D. (Brad Pitt), a sweet-talking, seductive young hitchhiker to whom Thelma takes a shine is the ideal blend of golden boy and con man. Harlan (Timothy Carhart), a good oP boy pick-up artist who comes on to Thelma at a truck-stop saloon, changes from charming to threatening with terrifying suddenness.Hal (Harvey Keitel) is a kind of guardian angel police officer who empathizes with and feels protective of Thelma and Louise, even as he helps track them down. And Jimmy (Michael Madsen), Louise’s noncommittal boyfriend, is a wandering musician who loves her but hasn’t the faintest idea how to express it.But the movie belongs to Davis and Sarandon, a couple of soul mates who take an emotional journey together that’s even more arduous and enlightening than their road trip through the Southwest.■i-
Newspaper Details
Santa Ana Orange County Register
Santa Ana, California, US
Thu, May 23, 1991
Page 119
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 21 Feb 2023
Other Publications Near Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana Pacific Weekly Blade
Santa Ana Excelsior
Santa Ana News
Santa Ana Evening Blade
Santa Ana Orange County Register Evening
