Thelma and Louise (1991)

Elevator Pitch: Two friends, Louise, who works at a waitress in a diner, and Thelma, who is a downtrodden housewife, decide to go on a weekend trip together but during their first evening of fun Thelma is saved from being raped in a carpark by Louise who shoots the rapist dead. They go on the run, and thereafter Louise meets with her lover, Jimmy, who brings her money, and Thelma has sex with charming hitchhiker, who also tells her how to rob a liquor store. This skill is required later, because the hitchhiker steals their money. As they head for Mexico the police gradually close in requiring them in the end to take drastic decisions.

Content: There is the attempted rape and the consensual sex. On both occassions we see Thelma’s underpants. The girls drive about in a blue 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible, starting somewhere in Arkansas and gradually moving south into Utah. The police tap the phone belonging to Thelma’s husband, so that when she calls in they eventually find the girls’ location. Louise seems to form some sort of relationship by phone with the detective who is in charge of the case. They keep coming across an unpleasant truck driver and eventually stop and shoot up his tanker. But the police are closing in.

A View: This film rated 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated in multiple categories in the 1991 Oscars, mostly losing out to Silence of the Lambs. The American outback plays itself wonderfully, the difference being that those on the road trip are two women. You could not imagine it taking place in the Home Counties. So even though everybody in every road trip heads for Mexico this film is still worth watching at the minimal cost of a download ($3.99 from Amazon).

Additional Info: The 1966 Ford Thunderbird is not an attractive car since its origins are from an era when American cars were the size of aircraft carriers.