ON THE ROADMOVIE MOVIE
The main focus will be on the movie Thelma& Louise and its aspects of gender-mobility followed by the film’s controversial ending. It will show how the genre emerged and how its roots lie in the American past. Therefore, the paper will start with a short introduction to gender mobility as a concept, followed by a historical placement of the road narrative, from the Western movie to the tradition of the buddy narrative.
This paper aims to show and analyse the gender mobility in connection to the road narrative questioning how Thelma and Louise deconstruct contemporary gender patterns. This paper will highlight the struggles Thelma and Louise encounter, how they became outlaws, personal changes they make and how their journey is a metaphor for their lives. The movie explores the struggles for females in a society ruled by men and gives one of the most ambivalent endings Hollywood had seen up to date. The movie opened discussion about gender roles, patriarchy, the law, male-bashing, women bonding and even a possible lesbian subtext. The first American road movie with females as main protagonists has sparked much controversy and was claimed both a feminist and antifeminist movie. One of the most prominent and heavily discussed road movies is Ridley Scott’s Thelma& Louise (1991). Both literature and movies depicted the road theme and displayed the many different aspects of the road. In fiction particularly, the road became a figure for adventures, discovery and freedom. With automobiles available for most households, traveling by car not only became part of everyday life but gave men and women the chance to leave their lives behind and drive into the unknown. The road narrative has influenced American literature massively, especially in the 20th century. Toad speaking in The Wind in the Willows Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing! Here today, up and off somewhere else tomorrow! The open road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Surely, a romanticized version of it but nevertheless freedom. For many people this is the equivalent of freedom. No responsibilities, no boundaries and no worries. Imagine yourself getting into your car, rolling down the window and driving onto the highway and into the sunset.
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