Thelma & Louise

Thelma & Louise is a feminist manifesto writ large on the big screen, a smart and funny gender reversal of the standard Hollywood buddy formula, a road movie extraordinaire, with characters who became instant cultural icons. No matter how you define it, Ridley Scott's 1991 box-office hit pinched a nerve and made the cover of national news magazines for tweaking gender politics like no movie before or since. Callie Khouri's screenplay overhauls the buddy formula with its story about two best friends (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) who embark on a liberating adventure that turns into an interstate police chase after a traumatic incident makes both women into fugitives; they are en route to a destiny they could never have imagined. The perfect casting of Sarandon and Davis makes Thelma & Louise a movie for the ages and Brad Pitt became an overnight star after his appearance as the con-artist cowboy who gives Davis a memorable (but costly) night in a roadside motel. --Jeff Shannon

Recorded for the original 1997 DVD of Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott's intelligent commentary track summarizes the director's career before addressing all aspects of this blessed (and, for Scott, enjoyable) production. Of particular interest is Scott's comparison of British and American notions of beauty, as expressed in the film's archetypal use of California and Utah locations. Exclusive to this 2003 DVD, a commentary track by costars Sarandon and Davis and screenwriter Khouri is more casual (and partially redundant with the excellent retrospective documentary), but their observations about the film are both heartfelt and insightful (and Khouri's right--the sexist trucker is an unfortunate caricature). The documentary highlights the film's metamorphosis from script to screen, while deleted scenes reveal a richer development of male characters that's less evident in the finished film. The multiangle "final chase" analysis indicates how closely Scott follows his storyboards. In addition to the (fortunately) unused "happy" ending, these features allow a thorough understanding of Thelma & Louise as a social phenomenon; only Glenn Frey's music video seems dated and extraneous. --Jeff Shannon

Thelma & Louise is a feminist manifesto writ large on the big screen, a smart and funny gender reversal of the standard Hollywood buddy formula, a road movie extraordinaire, with characters who became instant cultural icons. No matter how you define it, Ridley Scott's 1991 box-office hit pinched a nerve and made the cover of national news magazines for tweaking gender politics like no movie before or since. Callie Khouri's screenplay overhauls the buddy formula with its story about two best friends (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) who embark on a liberating adventure that turns into an interstate police chase after a traumatic incident makes both women into fugitives; they are en route to a destiny they could never have imagined. The perfect casting of Sarandon and Davis makes Thelma & Louise a movie for the ages, and Brad Pitt became an overnight star after his appearance as the con-artist cowboy who gives Davis a memorable (but costly) night in a roadside motel. --Jeff Shannon