Thelma and Louise EC - Jenny Picot

In the opening scene, the camera slowly pans to show a landscape in the west. The image gradually fades from black and white to color. The shot is unchanging as the credits roll for a little while, but then the landscape starts to fade until it becomes full black. To me, this looks like a foreshadow of events to come. When the movie first introduces us to Louise, we see bustling in the restaurant so we are not really sure who we are looking for, but by the use of a tracking shot we follow Louise and figure out that she is the one we are supposed to be looking for. The mise-en-scene in the beginning helps you to think about what the west means and get an idea of how the movie is going to progress to the west. The American west is in contrast with Louise's current life s a waitress at an overcrowded diner. The shades of the landscape differ, and it is almost like the sun is setting on the American West. I think this shows the progression of Thelma and Louise’s journey. At first it is light and hopeful as if they are finally seeing color in their world, but then when they finally get cornered the sun sets on their dreams. They saw beautiful color on the way but in the end, the sun set on their dreams.

            Clearly in this scene the camera is moving along with the actresses so we can see their journey. It looks as though the camera is on the front of their car and also mounted on another car that is filming alongside them in order to obtain these shots. These shots could also be dolly shots although that would have probably cost the company more. The camera had to travel with them because otherwise we would not be able to follow along with their conversations. The viewer gets to see how happy they are around each other and see the beauty of the wind blowing through their hair. The shots of the car traveling help the viewer appreciate what they are doing. The fact that so much of this film is filmed while they are in the car shows how long the trip they were making really was.

            The song "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" is all about letting go and becoming what you want to be, and that fits in perfectly with this scene. They are heading to Mexico and neither or them is changing their mind now. Both of them are ready to leave their old lives behind because they feel nothing in their old lives made them happy. I could not actually watch the third clip because it kept bringing me to the last scene with Thelma and Louise, but I can still understand how the song relates to the movie in general. Just like Lucy Jordan, Thelma and Louise refuse to be unhappy anymore and they are ready to break out of the roles society puts them in.

            This scene starts off with no one talking. There is eerie music playing so the viewer knows something might be up. As viewers, we know that the police have been catching up to them. Thelma and Louise know they have to move fast, but they do not realize just how fast the detectives are moving. Thelma used to never smoke and here she is shown smoking in this scene. It shows she does not care anymore and she has decided to do what makes her happy. The shots of them talking are shots/reverse shots. They appear to be looking at each other because of this shooting technique. This was the filmmaker can capture their conversation with their facial expressions. The filmmaker uses zoom to zoom in on the helicopter, showing an impending sense of doom for Thelma and Louise. When they almost run off the cliff. The camera shoots to the front of the car to show just how close they were to falling off the cliff. From behind the car we see the helicopter appear from below the cliff, and it is shot at a high angle to represent the fact that they have finally been caught. The camera zooms in on the detective who has been chasing them for a long time.

            The outlaws in Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid are men. They are clearly the ones in control, and the women are just there unlike in Thelma and Louise. Thelma and Louise go as far as to make a cop cry and get locked in his own trunk. Having a cop cry was farther than a lot of directors would have gone in that time period. There is a lot of cutting because in trailers the filmmaker usually wants to show as much as possible in the short time they have. There is not room for mise-en-scene in this trailer. There are some tracking shots and some stationary shots. There are parallels in this movie such as the fact that there are two people who are like partners in crime. This movie also has to do with the American west and many of the landscape shots were similar to that in Thelma and Louise.

            Khouri wrote her screenplay based on her own thoughts. She realized it was an outlaw movie about women after it was written. She did not really write it based on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a lot of people suspected. I like that she tried to show how women do not always act how they want to, and she did it in a way that still makes Thelma and Louise likeable. It did not seem like they took it too far. They did not just start killing innocent people, they just asserted themselves as powerful women. They are cooped up and are oppressed. Her movie helps women to feel empowered, and empowering women was not very common when this movie was made.

            The famous jump scene in Butch Cassidy in the Sundance kid was not in the list of films and I could not find it online, but from the script I figured out that they jumped together when they were cornered. They hope that no one will follow them. I imagine that this scene was just a surprising and empowering as it was in Thelma and Louise. Making a huge decision like this as partners is not something to take lightly. They have to really trust the other person.

            At first, one of them admits they can’t swim and that is why he does not want to jump in. Much like Thelma and Louise, these tow are facing eminent death of they try and fight off the people chasing them. They are outnumbered and have no chance so they both take the option no one would think to take. They all jump. Trust is key in these scenes and they have grown so close in these movies that they are all willing to take leaps of faith with their partners.