User Reviews

Thelma and Louise is an incredible, if familiar, adventure that's funny, well paced and emotional. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis give incredible performances and have fantastic chemistry. Harvey Keitel, Brad Pitt and Michael Madsen all give really good supporting performances. Ridley Scott's direction is amazing and the music by Hans Zimmer is great as well as the soundtrack.

Boy oh boy, where to start with this one? This movie affected me so deeply when it first came out. I saw it many times in the theater and was blown away every single time. Deep and powerful, yet hilarious and fun in many parts. This one is flawless. My girlfriends and I still quote lines from this. This movie is NOT man bashing. It has some very powerful things to say about choices, friendship and the life that you make for yourself. Truly memorable and the kind of movie that really stays with you.

"Thelma and Louise" made a huge splash when it was released and has since become a part of the pop culture lexicon. In it, a mistreated housewife and harried waitress stumble into an out-of-control - but totally liberating - crime spree. As bold and relevant as ever, it remains a vastly entertaining must-see.

Callie Khouri's screenplay is a feeling, funny classic and director Ridley Scott lends this road movie epic scope, seeking out the beauty in open spaces.

Both leads - Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise - give fine performances. Thelma and Louise become fully realized human beings who share a powerful and authentic friendship. Their transformation into two outlaws is also made entirely believable by the actresses.

And what about the men? Harvey Keitel is charming as the sympathetic lawman, Hal, and Michael Madsen's turn as Louise's boyfriend Jimmy is wonderfully nuanced. Brad Pitt also leaves a strong impression as the winsome blonde thief J.D. It's easy to see why this film made Pitt a star.

"Thelma and Louise" is a film of rare cultural resonance, to be sure. Yet while undoubtedly provocative, this movie is also alot of fun.

I didn't expect to like Thelma & Louise as much as I did. Especially since I'm a man, and they don't seem to like men too much in this movie. Nevertheless, I thought the story was interesting, I thought both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis gave good performances, and even though I knew how it all ended, it still had an emotional impact. I'm glad I finally took a ride with Thelma & Louise.

I loved this movie from the first time I saw it, but it wasn't until I sat through it the third time that I figured out why. It is clever, exciting, and funny and is shot in the middle of the breathtaking scenery of the American Southwest. However, the thing that makes it special is its illustration of pure friendship. It may be difficult for some men to cross the gender boundary and connect with Thelma and Louise, yet doing so is critical to appreciating the film. If you can make the connection then you can get its message -- we all need a friendship like the one Thelma and Louise had. This movie will strike a deep emotional chord.....if you aren't afraid to let it. And if you happen to be too emotionally closed off to appreciate what I think the movie says about friendship I think that you will still enjoy the characters, acting, action, and humor. It is a ten out of ten.

The road movie is traditionally a male genre, relying on the sense of freedom and independence that having one's own transport provides and which has usually been the privilege of men… What is innovatory about "Thelma & Louise" is the way it reequips the genre for women…

Thelma (Geena Davis) is a housewife trapped in a meaningless marriage, Louise (Susan Sarandon) is a waitress in a not very significant relationship… They decide to give themselves a little space by taking off for a weekend… But when Louise shoots a man who is trying to rape Thelma, they are precipitated into a far more radical break with their past lives…

The setting of action in the American southwest and the acts of outlawry the women are obliged to commit in order to keep on the run give the film some of the feel of a Western… What makes it nevertheless a women's film is that the relationship between the two principals is at the center of the story… The various men they encounter, both the ones they leave behind and those they meet on the road have less importance for Thelma and Louise than the two women do for each other…

Predictably, the film met with hostility from some male viewers, on the grounds that the men were caricatured and that the film encouraged violence

This is an important commercial film aimed at blue collar women who feel victimized by both society and the men in their lives. Directed by Ridley Scott, who directed the science fiction classics, Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982), Thelma and Louise is an on-the-lam chick flick (with chase scenes), a kind of femme Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), somewhat akin to Wild at Heart (1990) and Natural Born Killers (1994) but without the gratuitous violence of those films. Ridley Scott walks the razor edge between femme-exploitation and serious social commentary. Incidentally, the script is by Callie Khouri who wrote Something to Talk About (1995) and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) which should give you an idea of how men are depicted here.

Susan Sarandon is Louise, a thirty-something Arkansas waitress with an attitude and some emotional baggage, and Geena Davis is Thelma, a cloistered ingenue housewife with a yearning to breath free. Both do an outstanding job and carry the film from beginning to end. The characters they play are well-rounded and fully developed and sympathetic, in contrast to the men in the film who are for the most part merely clichés, or in the case of Darryl (Christopher McDonald), Thelma's boorish husband, or the troll-like truck driver, burlesques.

I have never seen Geena Davis better. Her unique style is melded very well into a naive woman who never had a chance to express herself, but goes hog wild and seems a natural at it when the time comes. Sarandon is also at the top of her game and plays the crusty, worldly wise, vulnerable Louise with tenderness and understanding. Note, by the way, her pinned up in back hair-style, directly lifted from TV's Polly Holliday ("Kiss my grits!") who appeared as a waitress in the seventies sitcoms "Alice" and "Flo."

Harvey Keitel plays the almost sympathetic cop, Hal Slocumb, and Brad Pitt appears as J. D., a sweet-talking twenty-something who gives Thelma the script for robbing 7-11s as he steals more than her libido.

This movie works because it is funny and sad by turns and expresses the yearning we all have to be free of the restraints of society and its institutions (symbolized in the wide-open spaces of the American Southwest) while representing the on again, off again incompatibility of the male and female heart. The male-bashing is done with a touch of humor and the targets are richly deserving of what they get. The ending is perhaps too theatrical and frankly unrealistic, but opinions may differ.

Best and most telling quick scene is when Thelma phones Darryl to see if he has found out about their escapades. Weasel-like, he is trying to help the cops locate them, but he is so transparent to her that all she has to do is hear his voice. "He knows," she says to Louise and hangs up.

Best visual is when the black police helicopter appears suddenly, menacingly like a giant fly beneath the horizon of the Grand Canyon. Also excellent were the all those squad cars lined up like armored battalions aimed at the girls on the run.

I also liked the scenes at the motel with J.D. and Louise's boyfriend. They were beautifully directed and cut, and very well conveyed by Sarandon and Davis, depicting two contrasting stages in male-female relationships.

See this for Geena Davis because she was brilliant, vividly alive and never looked better.

I finally watched this film in 2022, and have mixed feelings about it.

The acting is generally excellent, and conveys the feelings of these two women trapped in empty unfulfilling lives, in a society that marginalises them.

But my empathy was marred by how unredeemingly stupid Thelma is. Without her poor judgement, the plot simply would not happen.

Having said that, the world portrayed here is of a barren, sparsely populated America. There are no big cities and crowds, just mostly empty highways and big expanses of countryside, with motels, diners and trucker bars. This cleverly adds to the sense of isolation.

The only true ray of light in the women's lives is Harvey Keitel, who is fighting from inside a system designed not to provide justice. Every other male character is pretty much human garbage.

The message here is about taking control of your lives, personal freedom and fulfilment. I fully endorse that message, but I cannot endorse a film that suggests you need a gun and to commit crimes to achieve this.

Thelma and Louise is a rarity. It is a buddy movie about two women, and it is one of the best road movies to ever grace the screen.

Louise (Susan Sarandon) and Thelma (Gina Davis) are two friends who plan a road trip into the mountains for the weekend. Neither one of their lives seems exciting at the moment. Louise waits tables at the local diner and is also waiting on boyfriend Jimmy (Michael Madsen)who is always traveling and seems destined to never settle down. Thelma is a sexually repressed housewife who lives at home with a self-important husband (Christopher McDonald) who doesn't seem to care much for her at all except when she is not fulfilling her house-wife duties like having diner made and the house cleaned.

It is no wonder these two decide to take a trip for the weekend to the mountains to get away for awhile and have fun. Of course there is an event that happens not long after they have started their journey, and right after said event, things quickly spiral out of control as the two girls find themselves racing for Mexico with the law quickly on their heels.

This movie could've been just another boring road picture, but both Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon along with a fine script and clever pacing by director Ridley Scott, make it much better. Davis and Sarandon have great chemistry together, and the script is loaded with offbeat humor to go along with its clever story. The movie is never boring because Ridley Scott makes it so by slowing the pace down at the right moments, and then picking it back up when necessary. I enjoyed all the characters, including the minor ones which included a cameo by Brad Pitt as the young hitchhiker JD who Thelma quickly falls in lust with.

Some people may see this as the ultimate female picture, but I think it is more than that. Harvey Keitel is the inspector on the case who believes that these girls really aren't as bad as some may think, and his character is interesting as well because he seems to understand why everything involving the girls has lead up to this series of unfortunate events. Michael Madsen, as Louise's boyfriend Jimmy, also adds depth to his role as a man who though upset with what Louise is going to do understands and loves her still. These two characters add something more to the story which makes it less of a feminist picture without once taking away from the two leads. If that was even possible.

My only gripe with the movie would be the ending. Not the way it ended but how quickly it rushed to the end credits. I for one, like Roger Ebert who stated the same thing in his review of the movie, believe that the ending should of lasted a little longer before fading out. That's my only problem, and it's the only reason why the movie doesn't get a perfect score from me.

Through his career, Ridley Scott was an eclectic film-maker because he broached (with success) several cinema styles: science-fiction with "Alien", historical film with "1492: Christopher Colombus". Here, he succeeded very well his way to the road-movie and this one is listed among the best road-movies ever made. At first look, the story looks simple and without too many claims: two young women, Thelma and Louise are going out for the week-end with the firm intention of having a ball. But what they don't know is that this drive will soon become a descent into hell... The movie is worth seeing for its two main actresses: Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, both outstanding and what interests Ridley Scott, is their temperament and their evolution during the movie. At the beginning, a sensitive and fragile Thelma is next to a energetic and realistic Louise but in the second part of the movie, more precisely, after Thelma burglarized a shop (probably the best sequence in the whole movie) in order to grab money, roles are reversed. This is an occasion to make out Louise's wounds and weaknesses. So, don't rely too much on appearances... "Thelma and Louise" is also a movie where Scott takes a lucid look on the hidden side of the American society and especially on men. Scott introduces them to us with their worst faults: either they're macho (Darryl), obscene (the truck driver), perverse (the rapist) or coward (the cop). The only one saved is Harvey Keitel who never falls into the caricature of the American cop usually described to us as merciless or obsequious. Here, he shows understanding and even compassion towards the two runaways, notably Louise because he knows that she hides a terrible secret. A dynamic and panting movie where laugh and sorrow are skillfully married.

This is one of the rare times that I went to see this movie more than once. When I first saw it "I had no idea what to expect" and neither did the audience. Everybody thought we were "Seeing a Comedy". So the events in this film shook me (and the rest of the audience) to my core. What I saw was a film that did not follow the predictableness of a Hollywood film. What I got was an eye opener. I loved the film regardless of the events that happen in the film.

I do not want to give this entire film plot away but to me "Everyone Should See This Film". It is a statement on relationships and how things happen when you "Never Saw It Coming" WOW!!

Back in the 30s and 40s, there was a kind of movie known as the women's picture. These were typically romantic dramas told from a female perspective, and while they often featured headstrong intelligent women (at least by the standards of typical portrayals), they would often have some kind of moral at the end about being a loyal and obedient wife as a kind of final goal in a woman's life. It was a long time, even years after the era of women's lib that patriarchy in the movies began to be completely deconstructed. The subject of women driven to murder by the actions of men was not a new one when Thelma & Louise was made in 1991. But if you look at a picture like Play Misty for Me from two decades earlier, where a used woman becomes the antagonist in a Psycho-type thriller, or I Spit on your Grave (1978) in which a woman's revenge for being raped could only be shown in a lurid exploitation movie, we can see how far the perspective has had to shift.

Thelma & Louise, brilliantly scripted by Callie Kouri, gives an explanation for violence by women towards men, and it does so with amazing simplicity. There are no explicit arguments made. No character makes an overt feminist statement – the closest it comes to that is a by-the-way reminder by Geena Davis to the abducted policeman to be nice to his wife. The message, as it were, is up there in the screen as the story takes place. And although the basic outline of Thelma & Louise is very much out-of-the-ordinary for most women, if you break it down moment by moment, the men they encounter and the exchanges they have are very much on the near side of normal.

A lot of Thelma & Louise's power is in its magnificent cast. Both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis have a remarkable realism that demonstrates a great rapport between the two characters. When they laugh together, it's the laughter of two friends. Sarandon is brilliant at keeping that mystery to her character – the secret in Louise's past is bubbling under the surface of her performance long before it is revealed to the audience. Davis does an excellent job of showing character development, growing from the sheltered housewife into an independent woman comfortable with her newfound criminality. And it's neat how her sense of playfulness remains somehow consistent even as she changes. There are plenty of decent supporting performances as well. Brad Pitt was obviously chosen primarily for his youthful good looks, but he can act with it. Michael Madsen is very good too, intimidating in his controlled anger, but radiating a presence that makes his attractiveness to Louise understandable.

The movie is directed by that meticulous craftsman Ridley Scott. He manages the movement in the frame with expert control for the right effect. In the opening scenes, the camera follows Sarandon around the chaos of the café. As she moves into a backroom during her phone call to Davis, the movement in the background tails off but is kept going by the chef juggling a can, and then as she moves across further the backdrop becomes the tranquil fish tank. These natural-looking set-ups are carefully controlling the mood of the image. As this road movie progresses, the backgrounds become increasingly wide open and breathtakingly beautiful, in line with the spirits of its protagonists. Scott culminates all this with some wonderful stylisation in the final action sequence. The movie would be in danger of becoming overly technical if it wasn't for his almost constant focus on Davis and Sarandon's faces, such as their quiet smiles as they cross Monument Valley by night.

For all its feminist modernity, as a type of movie, Thelma & Louise treads familiar ground. The story of sympathetic criminals running free across the country as fate closes in can be seen in such classics as High Sierra (1941), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Really, the only major difference here is that the criminals are both women, not a couple of male hoods or a gangster and his moll. And yet, all it takes is this simple gender substitution to speak volumes about the experience of women in this society. That it does so without resorting to sermonising, and keeping up a healthy feeling of fun, makes Thelma & Louise an outstanding motion picture.

Two accidental female fugitives elude the police while attempting to drive across the Southwest to Mexico. Filmmaker Ridley Scott shows a terrific talent for directing women here, and the performances by Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are almost uncanny. One can hardly believe that these two haven't been friends for years, their give and take seems so lived in. Salty waitress Sarandon, initially the savvier of the two, is loose and girlie with Arkansas housewife Davis in the beginning; however, their character shadings soon change, with both ladies eventually taking turns playing 'the brains' (I didn't really believe it when, having been pulled over by a cop in the desert, Sarandon's Louise becomes kind of a dingbat, but you accept it for the moment and the movie quickly rolls on). The men in the cast obviously don't get much of a chance to shine, but Harvey Keitel does the understanding detective bit very well (it's almost the same man he portrayed in "Mortal Thoughts"); Brad Pitt has a scene-stealing, star-making role as a cowboy hustler, yet this film took a long time to gain a fully appreciative audience. It did modest business and garnered Oscar nominations for the ladies, but only afterward did it take on some resonance (it's now viewed as a feminist statement and has a loyal following among lesbian audiences). It creaks a little, and the twangy main theme gives way to a ridiculously melodramatic score, but the narrative is so tight and the women are so good that it keeps you watching--and returning. *** from ****

THELMA & LOUISE has to be regarded as a pure 90s classic that brought up a considerable amount of risk in creating a first-person feminist formula into a mainstream movie, which is often missing. It pulls off fantastically true in form, with the exceptional Southern character talents of the two lady fugitives on the run, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, who may stand out as memorable on the silver screen. Let's not forget that silly truck driver they pass quite often, and of course, cowboy Brad Pitt as a young student. While not needed to be fully reliant on action substances like gunshooting, there is good chemistry within its grasp. Every single minute should not be wasteful, as plenty of refreshing outbursts of enjoyment outweighs the familiar old plot of evading the police. The ending is a definite eye catcher, and also the riskiest ever filmed! Beware of this rip-off called GOOD GIRLS DON'T, another poor B-movie with no redeeming quality. Satisfyingly original, and highly recommended!

Bought the movie from a pile of discount DVDs as the name carried some good reputation. I was expecting a crime flick in the style of Bonnie and Clyde, but the film proved a great disappointment.

First of all, Thelma and Louise might have been striking if it had been filmed in 1960's. However, for the modern times, with all expressed consent legislation and no means no laws, the premise that law enforcement would not believe a woman's claim of having been raped is simply not at all believable. The burden of proving innocence lies solely on the man. Nevertheless, this supposed female oppression forms the basic premise of the film. Unfortunately it does not simply work anymore in a legal system dominated by feminism.

Rather than from the point of victimhood, the movie should be in my opinion seen as a feminist fantasy of violence and sexuality. From the point of the shooting onwards the movie tears away from realism. The two deepest wishes of the women are fulfilled: Louise is asked the question and offered the ring by her long time boyfriend, and Thelma befriends a young and exciting bad boy hitchhiker, having great sex with him. With their emancipation from the conventional bounds of morality the women actualize their deepest dreams and desires. This part of the movie ends at the hotel breakfast, where Louise, after having said goodbyes to her boyfriend, is described by the waiter as almost as hot as to set the room on fire, receives Thelma who glows with satisfaction having been "properly f**ked" for the first time in her life.

However, after a peak experience like this, normal life with a passive aggressive beta husband seems such a bleak choice that for Thelma there is no longer turning back. The decision to continue the life of violence is made at this point, when Thelma decides to emulate the exciting bad boy criminal and rob a store. There is no longer any convenient explanation or justification for the deeds of the women. Their circle of violence and depravity escalates with drunk driving, speeding, an attack against a police officer, and finally blowing up a truck the driver of which made unpleasant sexual gestures towards them. The inevitability of their choice and rejection of ordinary life culminates in the final drive to the canyon.

If one wishes to see Thelma and Louise as a feminist flick, however, it does not give a very good picture of the qualities of women. Thelma and Louise suffer from a total lack of control in their life decisions. Every problem they face in the film is caused by their own mistakes: Too early and unconsidered marriage, excessive drinking and flirting, lack of emotional control in the shooting, inability to assess the situation and report the rape charge to the police, when all the signs of violence and blood are still visible, leaving a considerable amount of money unguarded in a room with a confessed robber, resorting to criminal activities to get money, phoning the police while knowing that the call is being traced etc. So, rather than looking at the movie as a depiction of female victimhood in the hands of an oppressive society, one might look at the movie as a comprehensive critique of modern womanhood which refuses to accept accountability and responsibility and escapes in a dreamworld, finally rejecting all reality even up to the point of driving to a canyon. However, the problem with this outlook is that the main characters are not very pleasant to follow. Their stupid and irresponsible decisions one after another mainly raise furor in the viewer. The best redeeming quality of the film is the scenery, which is absolutely fantastic, but is is not enough to raise the film to the position of a classic which has been attributed to it. Therefore I'm giving it an IMDb score of 6 out of 10.

You have to give it up for a movie that casts Michael Madsen as pretty much the only sane guy in existence. Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) go off from their banal existences to a trip that heads up poop creek really REALLY fast. After shooting dead a would-be rapist, they both head for the hills where the law, personal freedom and, yes, Brad Pitt await! I hadn't seen this in quite a number of years, and it was great to come back to. I remembered a lot of it, but I noticed particularly this time the strong performances of not only of Davis and Sarandon, but of Harvey Keitel, Madsen (who is actually amazing), Pitt, and quite underplayingly, Christopher Mcdonald. Ridley Scott puts these elements all together in one explosive package.

I have very mixed feelings about this movie.

On one hand, the plot is interesting and it kept my attention almost the whole time. Also, it didn't hurt that story felt raw and realistic - no crazy fighting scenes or miracle solutions. On the other hand, and I'm well aware that this is no argument, the whole movie was, in a way, off - as if the glue that was supposed to keep all these great parts together wasn't there (if that makes any sense). And it certainly didn't help that I couldn't stand Thelma - and while I can't really blame her for the thing that happened to her at the very beginning of the movie, which also put the plot in motion, try and convince me that she wasn't making things harder for Louise throughout the movie.

With respect to everything I just wrote, there is a reason this movie is considered a classic and I wholeheartedly believe that you should not skip the next opportunity to see/stream it.

Simply the best movie made in the 90s! Love the acting and especially the chemistry between Geena Davis and Susan Surandon! I feel ashamed that I haven't seen this movie before! Man or woman you will enjoy this film! It is not a stupid revenge fantasy as some critise but a rather unique movie about friendship and the untold struggles of women in society! 10/10 Love it!

The trailers led me to believe that this would be another of those feel-good road trip movies I'd seen a dozen times before, but boy was I way off the mark! Albeit It didn't affect my experience in any shape or form, it did catch me off guard for a moment.

Inspite of the fact that the layout here was quite similar, the kind of subjects it sought to deal with (as compared to similar movies in this realm) are conspicuously different and are more profound in nature. The journey does begin on a familiar note, but with every passing juncture, the tones, the treatment got more and more raw & rough.

Amidst a slew of flaws and a dated feel, the film leaves a strong impression mainly because of two reasons, first, the lead pair; the electrifying chemistry they share, and their laudable acting talents (Susan Sarandon in particular), and for the second, it's the music; the entire soundtrack had a distinctive late 80s' vibe to it, and I adored that.

The stars in this movies have given us many hours of enjoyment. I just can't believe very many people like this movie , though. The women are kind of dumb, though good looking. I realize that I am in the minority about this movie.