'Thelma & Louise'

Categorizing Thelma & Louise as a woman's lib flick showing free women being downtrodden by men, but also debunking their hold on their lives, I think, is underselling.

Not that I think it's particularly good. I'd never seen it and probably will never see it again.

However, it's not a film that should be considered for women, but for all people. Thelma & Louise is essentially one of the most existential films of the past 25 years.

Thelma and Louise are two poor, uneducated women living (I think) in Arkansas. Louise is working a dingy job at a greasy spoon living a life with a pretty low ceiling. Thelma is married to a true piece of shit, who verbally and emotionally abuses her. She is, we assume, unemployed with little to no prospects for the next 50 years of her life.

A weekend trip fishing spirals quickly when Thelma is almost raped and Louise murders the perpetrator. They run, undertaking a series of misadventures in avoiding the police and looking for a way out.

This "way out" isn't about avoiding the police or prison. It's about never really going back to their previous lives. They don't state it and it's not expressed in any real way, but both knew that they weren't coming back.

Why would Thelma pack so much? Why was Louise so meticulous in cleaning her house? Why did Thelma take the gun, despite the fact that she'd never touched it before?

Both knew they weren't coming back. Maybe it was dead at the bottom of a canyon or maybe it was them living in the mountains, working together in some diner.

Thelma and Louise made a series of life choices -- for better or for worse -- that benefited the individual. They thought and lived for themselves, for that moment. They didn't really think of each other. Thelma robs the country store on her own. She sexes up Brad Pitt for herself. Louise kills the potential rapist on her volition. What the man said to get Louise to make that decision isn't anything that isn't said a million times a day by a million different assholes. But Louise made that individual decision almost regardless of the repercussions and societal norms.

Thelma & Louise would make Kirkegaard proud.