Fiction Meets Reality
Early on in Catching Sight of Thelma and Louise, Townsend reads aloud some quotes from people who felt that Daryll’s character was the least believable part of the film—he was a caricature, is the general consensus, too awful to be real. Those interviewed, however, go on to speak about men from their pasts who reminded them not only of abusive husband Daryll, but of the lewd truck driver, and of Harlan the rapist. Viewers should be prepared for blunt descriptions of real-life rape, harassment, and in one instance, suicide. For this writer—a white woman in her 20’s who did not live through that cultural transition or experience this film as a milestone in real time—their stories served as a powerful reminder of both how far we have come in the last 25 years, and how very far we still have to go.
The discussion of militarized masculinity and the role of the police in the film remains especially relevant. One of the interviewees points out that it’s Thelma and Louise’s position as white women which gives them the time to decide to take their own lives rather than be captured by police—a black man in their situation would have been shot on sight.
Ovid.tv presents a Celebration of a Classic Movie
Everyone interviewed clearly loves the film, so if you are looking for a critique of the 1991 classic rather than a celebration, this may not be the film for you. They mention some of the original backlash the film received, but all agree it was nothing more than men feeling threatened by powerful women. The closest thing we get to a complaint about the movie is disbelief at Louise’s insistence that she and Thelma should not go through Texas, even though they are running for their lives and it would save them a full day of driving.
The group of people interviewed is fairly homogeneous—mostly older women, who felt strongly enough about the film when it first came out to answer the original questionnaire.
