Thelma and Louise: Ridley Scott - Movie Review Example

However, in the end, they chose to drive into the Grand Canyon instead of trying to shoot their way through a police blockade or be arrested. An important scene that shows the women’s growth occurs when the two women are pulled over in the New Mexico desert by a single police officer who asks Louise to get in his car. The scene begins with Louise firmly in charge as the driver of the car and the two women are driving along in relative silence. All that is heard is the sound of the car engine.

Then a police siren slowly starts to crescendo until Louise looks in the rearview mirror and notices they are being pulled over. Although both women panic a bit, Louise makes the reasoned decision to go ahead and pull over and follows the officer’s instructions on the chance that he is unaware that they are wanted criminals. Throughout the scene, Louise is seen to move from a strongly assertive role to one in which she is completely passive and finally to becoming a partner in Thelma’s plan.

In contrast, Thelma starts the scene is her common passive position as a passenger in Louise’s car. When they are pulled over, she is still in passive mode, attempting to flirt with the police officer as a means of perhaps buttering him up or getting out of the ticket. Thelma goes out of frame as Louise and the officer go back to his car, but then appears relatively quickly in his driver’s side window with a gun, taking a suddenly very active role in the action. From this point forward in the scene, she takes an aggressive role, first ordering Louise around and taking decisive steps to secure their escape.

When the two women jump back in the car at the end of the scene, it is Thelma who takes the driver’s seat while Louise reasserts herself by ensuring her gun is fully loaded. Although there does not seem to be much to discuss regarding filmographic elements in this scene, there are several hints provided in the acting and photography that suggest the women may have more legal sympathy than they assume. To begin with, the officer asks Louise to get in the front seat rather than placing her in cuffs immediately.

He is stern but not hostile and firm but not restrictive. The camera follows Louise and the officer almost exclusively, frequently cutting Thelma out altogether as if this were a matter just between Louise and the law and perhaps just involving the moment. When they get in his car, the lighting is subdued, but after the harsh light of the desert sun, this is more a relief than a sense of something ominous to come, although that also happens as Thelma arrives at the window. Thus, even though the elements, Thelma manages to reassert herself in the action and again reinforces a sense of her personal growth.