Director: Ridley Scott
Released: 1991
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel
In this shot, Ridley Scott challenges stereotypes. We see Louise holding a gun to a man's head who has just tried to rape her best friend. The weapon represents her power over the man in this scenario. It also emphasises her authorative personality and shows how she strives to become omnipotent.
This shot proves key in displaying how these women, although authorative in personality, are the inferior sex. The car that they are driving is noticeably smaller than the larger vehicles on the outside of them. The vehicles in this shot are working as a personification and are symbolising both sexes, highlighting how in society, the male sex are considered dominant over the female sex. This shot is in the middle of a scene in which Thelma and Louise are attempting to escape, however, because they are portrayed as inferior within this mis-en-scene, we as an audience are lead to believe through the technique of foreboding, that the outcome will not be good for these women.
This mis-en-scene shows a wet street. This is considered as a classic thriller convention and is used in many films such as Jackie Brown and the technique has been around for over half a century, appearing in the film 'The Third Man' by Graham Greene in 1949. The sky must have been broken in some way in order for rain to occur. Ths wet street could therefore symbolise a broken/fractured society and highlight the corruption in this thriller film. Or, it could be symbolising some sort of disorientation - for example, in this film the stereotypical superiority of gender has been turned on its head because Thelma and Louise (females) tend to remain in control throughout. This shot also shows the shift in control by means of pathetic fallacy. The weather was previously very clear and hot and the scene was primarily based in a desert; whereas now the lighting is dark and the streets are wet.
Some useful analysis specifically the way trucks are a masculine signifier and dominate the highway when Thelma and Louise are making their getaway. This is a visual reference to the chauvinist world of the film. The wet streets and your reference to a broken sky! Rain doesn't come from a broken sky!!! The generic convention of wet streets provide reflection thus adding an aesthetic quality to the mise-en-scened whilst also adding a sense of illusion/unreality, and melancholy.
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