On what artistic grounds did Ridley Scott reject his original ending to Thelma & Louise? Do you agree with his decision?

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Alex Searle 10X

On what artistic grounds did Ridley Scott reject his original ending to Thelma & Louise? Do you agree with his decision?

        Thelma and Louise was made in 1991 and stars two women’s road journey across America. This is slightly unusual because road movies are normally centred around men setting out into the “wild beyond”. The film has a strong feminist agenda and tries to portray American life from a woman’s viewpoint. The journey was originally planned to be a short weekend break together at a friend’s cabin, but becomes an escape from the law, this chase enables the relationship between the girls to change as the trip goes on.

        There are multiple scenes in the film involving sexist males; at the start of the film Thelma is trapped inside her own home by her husband Darryl. It is clear that she is merely his “domestic slave”, meaning that males are certainly more dominant in American marriages and see women almost as objects. When Darryl leaves to go to work several people are outside his house manicuring his garden. He shouts at them as he drives out in his spotless sports car. This shows that he is obviously very self-conscious of his image and vein for he ignores his wife whilst he styles his hair.

        Another male character in the film is the pick-up artist Harlan, who starts off sweet but changes to become both physically and verbally abusive to Thelma. Later on the woman at the drive in already knows him to be a predatory womaniser and sympathises with the girls when giving evidence to the police.

        After escaping from shooting Harlan the male truckers almost run over Thelma & Louise, hooting their horns, they obviously think they have authority over “women drivers”. When Thelma first phones her husband he is watching a football match on TV, he appears not to be concerned for her, but annoyed and orders her to return back home. When she tries to explain the situation he cheers a football play, illustrating that the football game is more interesting than his wife. The world appears to be dominated by male pre-occupation, Darryl blames Louise for being feminist as she is on the other side, an enemy. However, when J.D. comically says, “I like your wife”, Darryl is offended and takes the comment personally even though he doesn’t care for her. This is more evidence that he thinks that Thelma is just an object, his property and jealous that someone else has taken away his right of ownership.

        Another instance of male vanity occurs when the arrogant police officer pulls Thelma and Louise over for speeding. Before he leaves his squad car he checks his hair in the overhead mirror, which is unnecessarily vein. When he starts to speak to them he uses an authorial tone and smiles, this means that he enjoys having power and controls over the two helpless girls. “You wanna let me see your licence?”

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        The truck driver that appears a couple of times in the film although he is too dim-witted to be believable, is obviously a misogynist, with shiny silhouettes of naked women attached to the mud flaps. When hoots his horn and flicks his tongues the girls, they are completely disgusted and ask, “Why do they have to do that?”

        Thelma is forced to rob a store due to money problems; during this scene the camera shows a close-up shot of two elderly women looking disapprovingly through a window. The next shot is of Louise in the car with her hair ...

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