Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States of America
AwardsBest Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen 1992 - Callie Khouri
Additional InformationFed up with her boyfriend (Michael Madsen), live-wire Arkansas waitress Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon) persuades her friend Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis), a naive housewife burdened with a negligent, sexist husband (Christopher McDonald), to hit the road with her for a weekend of freedom. One of their first stops is a bar where the women relax, dance, and flirt with some of the locals. But the situation turns ugly when one man (Timothy Carhart) follows Thelma to the parking lot and attempts to rape her, causing Louise to shoot and accidentally kill him. Convinced that the police will never believe their version of the incident, the women take off, now fugitives from the law. Emboldened by recent events, Thelma picks up studly young cowboy J.D. (Brad Pitt) in Oklahoma and enjoys a one-night stand that leads to even more trouble. Director Ridley Scott's infamous feminist road movie ranks among the best films of the 1990s. Along with BLADE RUNNER and ALIEN, the film is one of Scott's finest works, largely because of Callie Khourie's vivid, brilliantly idiosyncratic script, wonderful performances from the two leads, and Adrian's Biddle's crisp photography of the American Southwest.
ReviewsSight and Sound - ...Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon get good mileage out of their roles..., The New York Times - It reimagines the buddy film with such freshness and vigor that the genre seems positively new., Austin Chronicle - This is a movie to love, that touches you in places you never suspected, that shows you that the road less traveled is the road to your dreams., Rolling Stone - ...Movie dynamite, detonated by award-caliber performances from Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon....This wincingly funny, pertinent and heartbreaking road movie means to get under your skin, and it does..., USA Today - "...THELMA & LOUISE is a funny, provocative, on-the-road buddy pic about some existential choices..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars